Bond Week Day Four - Casino Royale: Deluxe Edition

To celebrate the UK cinema release of Quantum of Solace this Friday, the HCC team will be taking a look at a new 007 Blu-ray release every day. Today it's time to welcome Daniel Craig to the fold as we take a look at the recent two-disc Deluxe Edition of Casino Royale.

There’s a long history of the Bond films being continually re-mastered and re-tooled on both VHS and DVD. So, with Quantum of Solace just around the corner, it came a little surprise to see Daniel Craig's fantastic first outing as 007 being given an overhaul only 18 months after the title received its first Blu-ray release.

Of course, anybody familar with the original Blu-ray release of Casino Royale will be aware of the fact that there was nothing really wrong with the presentation of the film itself. As such, very little has been changed for this Deluxe Edition. It's still the same cut of the movie and, without having a copy of the previous disc to hand, it appears to be exactly the same 1080p AVC encode that was used previously. Which is fine by me. It's not quite a reference quality image, but it's still very, very impressive. The opening black and white sequence looks suitably gritty, while the entire movie retains a fine patina of natural film grain throughout. The only real quibble is a slight oversaturation in the colour palette, that leads to some very odd looking skin tones. Now, this could be down to the post-production of the film itself, rather than the Blu-ray encode, but it's impossible to confirm.

The one obvious change is the move away from the original uncompressed PCM 5.1 soundtrack to a Dolby TrueHD mix. Now, I say obvious change, but without having the original disc to do a scene by scene comparison, it's impossible to actually say if the new mix offers any kind of improvement over the original. However, even if it doesn't, the original uncompressed PCM track was a mix of stunning dynamics and real power, all of which can also be said about this new TrueHD mix.

Where this Deluxe Edition really hits its stride is with the supplementary material. Considering how much work had gone into producing copious extras for the Ultimate Edition DVDs of the earlier Bond films, it's safe to say that we were extremely disappointed when Casino Royale subsequently made its DVD and Blu-ray debut accompanied by very little in the way of extra features. All the discs had to show for themselves were a couple of 25min behind-the-scenes featurettes, a music video and a documentary about Bond girls.

All of the above have been carried across to this new Deluxe Edition. But they've been joined by the kind of content we originally hoped for. Accompanying the film on the first disc are an audio commentary (featuring producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, composer David Arnold, production designer Peter Lamont, effects supervisor Chris Corbol, costume designer Lindy Hemming and director of photography Phil Mayhew) and a Profile 1.1 video commentary by director Martin Campbell and producer Michael G Wilson. Surprisingly the latter is more of a sit down chat between the two, rather than the usual audio track accompanied by behind-the-scenes footage, but it's still a great watch/listen.

Also new is a collection of five featurettes, all presented in hi-def. The Road to Casino Royale looks back at the lengthy journey Casino Royale has taken coming to the big screen. Ian Fleming's Incredible Creation looks at the story itself and the changes made bringing it to the screen. Bond in the Bahamas turns its attention to filming on location. Ian Fleming: The Secret Road to Paradise provides puts Fleming's original story into some kind of sociological context. Finally, Death in Venice takes us behind-the-scenes of the film's stunt-filled climax.

Rounding out the package are a collection of four deleted scenes (also presented in HD), trailers, a Java-powered Know Your Double-O: The Ultimate James Bond Trivia Quiz and BD-live link to the Sony download centre. All told, it's an impressive collection of material that does this wonderful Bond film proud. Sure, it would have been nice to get all of this content first time around, but you can pick this Deluxe Edition up for a bargain online, so replacing the existing Blu-ray won't cost an arm and a leg.

Sony Pictures, All-region Blu-ray, £25, On sale now
HCC VERDICT: 5/5