Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale might eschew gadgets in lieu of a hard punch to the nose, but it’s hard to argue that the best Bond gadget in recent years isn’t the invention of the Blu-ray DVD. Now the classic Bond films have started appearing in the format with upgraded images, sound, and a slew of special features. Casino Royale was previously released on DVD as one of Sony’s first “must have” discs to show off your Blu-ray player (which was probably a Sony PlayStation3), but now they’re visiting a smattering of different Bonds in this first release.

As I’ve learned in my adult life, there are sometimes those moments that you realize you’re probably unhealthily obsessed with something. For me, that moment came when I was seriously considering purchasing a $2,999 framed collage featuring signatures of all the actors who had played James Bond in the “official” movies, along with various playing cards, casino chips, photos and what not. I ultimately had to pass on it, and my wallet was grateful after the fact.

Thankfully there are much more affordable ways to feed this obsession, some of which can be documented in the series of Bondcasts that I used to host with Athena Stamos at Cinematical. One of those ways has been collecting the James Bond movies on DVD. There have been not one, nor two, but now three different collections of Bond issued on DVD, and while I really miss the menu screens from the first set, (”Please activate your remote control to activate the Goldfinger Special Edition DVD” — complete with an extremely Bondian gadgetlike interface), you can’t argue that Blu-ray is definitely giving the previous James Bond films a shot in the arm.

These versions of the Blu-ray dicsc are basically upgraded ports of The Ultimate James Bond Collections that came out in 2006 to capitalize on the introduction of Daniel Craig’s Bond. I skipped on these versions, since I’d already purchased the James Bond Collection DVDs a few years prior to that. They’ve included all of the same extras (many of which didn’t appear in the versions I have), and upgraded some of the standard definition features to HD. Basically, Bond has never looked or sounded as good in your home or even in the theaters. Which is especially impressive considering that Dr. No is 46 years old.

Dr. No

While I wish Goldfinger would have been included as the first Connery film in this initial release, it only makes sense to start at the beginning with the first Bond film. The first Bond DVD sets didn’t include Dr. No, so you had to wait a few months to get your full contingent of Connery’s Bond. Still, you can’t beat that scene of Ursula Andress coming out of the water in her bikini, and it looks even better in high-def. Some of the highlights include:

• Audio commentary with director Terence Young: this is fun to listen to, but would have loved to see Connery participate! Throw him some cash or something, people.
• Archival TV spots and trailers: We’ve come a long way, and I really miss these old-school trailers.
• The Guns of James Bond featurette: This is like porno for Bond fans. Seriously.

From Russia With Love

You can’t beat Robert Shaw as one of the best James Bond baddies, and he looks imposing and scary as the blond and muscular Russian agent Red Grant who actually “kills” Sean Connery’s Bond in the opening sequence. Plus you get the archetype for Austin Powers’ Frau Farbissina in Rosa Klebb, who trains and oversees Grant. This is Connery’s favorite Bond film, and while I’d argue with him that Goldfinger trumps it, it’s still a great movie. Highlights on this disc are:

• Another commentary from Terence Young and friends: sadly it doesn’t shed new light on the famous jump cut in the film.
• A featurette about Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler: Who knew Chandler was such a big Bond fan?

Thunderball

While this movie was famously (or infamously) remade as Never Say Never Again, complete with Connery playing James Bond all over again in what’s considered an “unofficial” Bond movie, the original is much, much better. Probably my fourth favorite Bond film (behind Goldfinger, From Russian With Love, and You Only Live Twice, if you’re keeping track), this is the one that includes Connery in the famous jetpack scene. That sure looks like it would have been a clunky gadget to carry around and travel with. Highlights:

• Commentary from editor Peter Hunt and co-writer John Hopkins: director Terence Young probably needed a break from doing commentaries, and Hunt is fun to listen to.
• Selling Bonds original 1965 TV commercials:
• A Child’s Guide To Blowing Up A Motor Car 1965 Ford promotional film: One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. A father takes his son to watch a car getting blown up as a birthday present. Wacky! “Oh, you see those photos of ladies? Those are James Bond’s, er… chums.” Truly bizarre stuff.
• The Incredible World of James Bond, the original 1965 NBC special: Wow. This thing is worth the cost of the disc alone. It’s a primer to the film world of Bond, and covers all the films up to Thunderball and includes a lot of behind the scenes footage.

Live and Let Die

This movie was a bit of mixed bag for Bond fans because it introduced Roger Moore as James Bond, since Connery decided to retire himself for the role. Moore brought his own brand of comedy to the role with his “wink, wink” line delivery and didn’t want to imitate Connery… which I would argue brought a fair amount of cheese to the role. According to the special features, screenwriter Tom Mankiewicz thought it would be daring to include black villains in the film since the Black Panther movement was fairly active when the movie was made in 1973! The movie also doesn’t feature Q, since actor Desmond Llewelyn was away filming a tv series called Follyfoot, much to his dismay. Notable highlights:

• Commentary from Roger Moore: Finally they nab a Bond actor for a commentary, and it’s worth listening to. As much as I’m not a huge fan of Moore as Bond, this was fun.
• Bond 1973: The Lost Documentary: This was made while the movie was being filmed, and hasn’t been seen since. It’s a bit too slick, but has some interesting behind the scenes footage in it.

For Your Eyes Only

Moore’s fifth movie as James Bond is probably my favorite, despite the cheesy way in which he disposes of Bond ultra-villain Blofeld in the opening pre-credit sequence. You’ve got Melina Havelock as a terrific Bond girl, an underwater sequence that was shot in a dry soundstage that was made to look like it was in the ocean, and followed up the godawful Moonraker. Initially Moore wasn’t slated to return for this role, and screen tests were performed with several different actors, including Ian Ogilvy who had replaced Roger Moore as Simon Templar in the tv series The Return of The Saint. Highlights:

• Commentary from Roger Moore: Moore returns in another commentary track that entertains while making me wish Connery would do one of these. Even if he only did it for one movie it would be worth the price of the disc, and please let it be for Goldfinger.
• Bond in Greece featurette: Yep, there’s James Bond. And he’s in Greece. Beautiful footage and some behind the scenes stuff. Greece should incoporate this into some sort of “Visit Greece!” promotional video.

Die Another Day

This movie was the 20th in the series, and Brosnan’s last, and it was also meant to mark the 40th anniversay of James Bond. As a result, the movie is laden with a ton of homages to Bond films past, from previous gadgets he’d used to a recreation of the final fight scene with Bond and Goldfinger from Goldfinger. It just falls flat in my opinion, and it may have helped underscore the need for a new Bond and a new direction. Even Roger Moore doesn’t like this one. In an article he wrote for the Times he said, “When asked later what I thought of the film, I merely said “interesting”. In truth I thought it just went too far – and that’s from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!” The only real highlight is:

• Commentary from Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike: This is actually a decent listen, and almost makes the film more enjoyable. Although why they didn’t include Halle Berry (her Jinx character was almost spun off into a film series) is beyond me.

Oddly enough, this movie was released on DVD in 2002 as a double-disc special edition, and the second disc included a ton of features that didn’t make it into this release. The most notable extra that didn’t make it in was the excellent feature-length documentary Inside Die Another Day, produced by Charles de Lauzirika, who has worked on documentaries about films ranging from Blade Runner to Top Gun. It’s a real oversight not to include this in the Blu-ray release.

If you’re a James Bond aficiando, you’ll definitely want to pick this set up. The movies are in two slipcases of three films each, and you can get both sets for about a hundred bucks at Amazon. While I miss the slightly dorky screens and voiceover narration from the menus of the initial Bond DVD releases, these movies have really never looked better.