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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) poster
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Best English-Friendly Release

Best Video Release

Best Audio Release

Original 4-Track Mix: MGM 1990 LaserDisc

General release mono mix: CBS Fox VHS Hi-Fi but time compressed
5.1 remix of 4-track mix: MGM Blu-ray (a lossless version of the remix from the Ultimate Edition DVD)

The 5.1 track on the earlier THX LD/DVD and SE DVDs is not the same as the later remix, and appears to be more faithful the original mix (likely a simple upmix). The UE DVD remix has a lot more surround activity.

Format

1080p Blu-ray

Featured Lists

External Links

Length

125 mins

Type

Movie

Alternative Titles

James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me

Last Updated

a month ago
Best English-Friendly Release
Best Video Release
Best Audio Release

Original 4-Track Mix: MGM 1990 LaserDisc

General release mono mix: CBS Fox VHS Hi-Fi but time compressed
5.1 remix of 4-track mix: MGM Blu-ray (a lossless version of the remix from the Ultimate Edition DVD)

The 5.1 track on the earlier THX LD/DVD and SE DVDs is not the same as the later remix, and appears to be more faithful the original mix (likely a simple upmix). The UE DVD remix has a lot more surround activity.

Format
1080p Blu-ray
Featured Lists
Length
125 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
James Bond - The Spy Who Loved Me
Last Updated
a month ago
Contributors

Part of James Bond 007

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Dr. No poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray, despite prevalent frozen grain

Best Audio:

1991 Criterion LaserDisc with end credits from 1992 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Dr. No poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray, despite prevalent frozen grain

Best Audio:

1991 Criterion LaserDisc with end credits from 1992 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

You Only Live Twice poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

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WB 4K Blu-ray

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WB 4K Blu-ray

Goldfinger poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1988 MGM VHS Hi-Fi, 1988 LaserDisc analog

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Goldfinger poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

1988 MGM VHS Hi-Fi, 1988 LaserDisc analog

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Thunderball poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain

Best Audio:

UK mix: 1984 CBS Fox VHS Hifi but missing one scene
International mix: WB 4K Blu-ray though source origin is unknown

1995 MGM stereo remix: 1998 LaserDisc and 2000 DVD fix gunbarrel dropout

Thunderball poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite frozen grain

Best Audio:

UK mix: 1984 CBS Fox VHS Hifi but missing one scene
International mix: WB 4K Blu-ray though source origin is unknown

1995 MGM stereo remix: 1998 LaserDisc and 2000 DVD fix gunbarrel dropout

From Russia with Love poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite some frozen grain

Best Audio:

1992/1993 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray despite some frozen grain

Best Audio:

1992/1993 MGM LaserDisc

Additional Info:

Criterion LaserDisc includes an exclusive commentary, which was later banned by EON and caused the release to be recalled.

Diamonds Are Forever poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

MGM 1990/1993 LaserDisc

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

MGM 1990/1993 LaserDisc

Casino Royale poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

MGM 4K Blu-ray

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MGM 4K Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

MGM 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

MGM 4K Blu-ray

Skyfall poster
UHD Blu-ray
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MGM 4K Blu-ray

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MGM 4K Blu-ray

Skyfall poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

MGM 4K Blu-ray

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MGM 4K Blu-ray

No Time to Die poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

US Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

US Universal 4K Blu-ray (for original forced subtitles font)

Additional Info:

IMAX sequences have not been released on home video to date

Best English-Friendly:

US Universal 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

US Universal 4K Blu-ray (for original forced subtitles font)

Additional Info:

IMAX sequences have not been released on home video to date

Casino Royale poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray despite dated master

Best Audio:

Sony Columbia 1994 LaserDisc Mono

Best English-Friendly:

MGM Blu-ray 

Best Video:

MGM Blu-ray despite dated master

Best Audio:

Sony Columbia 1994 LaserDisc Mono

More from Lewis Gilbert

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Moonraker poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

4K Streaming

Best Video:

4K Streaming SDR master seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray

MGM Blu-ray is the best physical media release

Screencaps of the 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: Moonraker (1979)

Best Audio:

Dolby Stereo: 1990 MGM LaserDisc

Moonraker poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

4K Streaming

Best Video:

4K Streaming SDR master seems to be from the same scan and looks like it has less tinkering than the Blu-ray

MGM Blu-ray is the best physical media release

Screencaps of the 4K SDR master: 007 on Home Media: Moonraker (1979)

Best Audio:

Dolby Stereo: 1990 MGM LaserDisc

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Anastasia poster
4K Streaming
Best English-Friendly:

Streaming

Best Video:

Streaming: Kaleidescape > Movies Anywhere > Disney+

Best Audio:

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Anastasia poster
4K Streaming
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Little Miss Sunshine poster
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Best English-Friendly:

Movies Anywhere Streaming

Best Video:

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Movies Anywhere Streaming

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Movies Anywhere Streaming

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Point Break poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

UK ICON 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)

UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.

Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.

Best English-Friendly:

UK ICON 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

UK ICON 4K Blu-ray (caps)

UK 4K Blu-ray has a slightly better encode than US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray and Germany StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray

Best Audio:

5.1 mix is flawed on Shout! Factory/ICON, a phasey upmix instead of the proper discrete surround. The UHD 2.0 tracks are downmixes of that track.
2008 Fox Blu-ray sounds great, very close to the original 70mm mix, only with split surround.
2001 DVD has the original mix as 4.1 and matrixed 2.0.

Imprint 4K has a 4.0 track. The StudioCanal 4K Blu-ray has a different 5.1, unclear if it's the same as Fox BD.

Poor Things poster
4K Streaming
Best English-Friendly:

Streaming

Best Video:

Streaming: Kaleidescape > Movies Anywhere > Disney+

Best Audio:

Streaming has the original theatrical Dolby Atmos mix
Disney/Fox Blu-ray only has a 5.1 downmix

Kaleidescape is lossless (TrueHD 7.1), others are all lossy (E-AC-3 5.1 JOC) at varying bitrates.

Best English-Friendly:

Streaming

Best Video:

Streaming: Kaleidescape > Movies Anywhere > Disney+

Best Audio:

Streaming has the original theatrical Dolby Atmos mix
Disney/Fox Blu-ray only has a 5.1 downmix

Kaleidescape is lossless (TrueHD 7.1), others are all lossy (E-AC-3 5.1 JOC) at varying bitrates.

Once Upon a Time in America poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

Best Video:

Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps

The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.


Nic's review:

Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.

Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.

I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.

Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.

Best Audio:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)

Additional Info:

Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.

Best English-Friendly:

251 min cut (Extended): Fox Blu-ray. Eagle Pictures has forced Italian subs in some parts

229 min cut (Theatrical): WB Blu-ray

139 min cut (US theatrical): VHS

Best Video:

Eagle Pictures 4K Blu-ray, caps

The 4K includes both theatrical and extended cuts. It's overall a solid upgrade over previous discs, but some will strongly dislike the color grading.
There are some issues with encoding and grain management.


Nic's review:

Some definitely messed with it as there’s grain management going on that resulted in magnetic, squishy grain movement. Both cuts (4K discs) are affected and it doesn’t look like an encoding issue to me as the bitrates don’t drop down to single digits á la Paramount or StudioCanal. During opticals, the lowest I’ve noted on the Extended 4K was around 30 MB/s vs. ~5 MB/s more for the theatrical cut.

Darker scenes are mostly (but not always) better but when it gets brighter, particularly in exteriors or scenes like the Jennifer Connelly dance scene at minute 38, I can’t unsee the digital tinkering as it does some damage texturally.

I compared it with the Eagle Pictures and Warner Bros Fox Blu-ray of the extended cut and they all look fine without grain management like that. Eagle Pictures’s Blu-ray is an older one if anyone’s curious and credited to another authoring house than 64Biz, which did the 4K.

Other than that, except for some encoding-related chroma noise that peeks through in the DV layer, Eagle Pictures did everything right. They corrected the framing to 1.85, kept the original English titles, the English restoration note, subtitles, HDR/DV is gentle and respectful of the source black levels are better than on the Warner Bros/Fox Blu-ray. Without that grain management, this would’ve been the all-timer release we all longed for.

Best Audio:

251 min cut: Fox Blu-ray (24-bit, Eagle Pictures is 16-bit, not audible)
229 min cut: Warner Bros LaserDisc (missing 2 minutes, but original mono mix was never released on DVD/Blu-ray)

Additional Info:

Extended edition adds scenes cut from the theatrical, but from a much lower quality source. It's intended to approximate the original cut, but to what extent that is true is debatable.
US theatrical cut is infamously bad, was panned at release and never re-released on home video.

Tigerland poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Fox Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox Blu-ray

Tigerland poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Fox Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox Blu-ray

Phone Booth poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Fox Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The non US DVDs have the Making of for the film.

Phone Booth poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Fox Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox Blu-ray

Additional Info:

The non US DVDs have the Making of for the film.

Unlawful Entry poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray?

Best Audio:

Fox 2002 NTSC DVD includes the original mix as discrete LCRS 4.0, later reelases only include a matrixed version an an inferior 5.1 upmix.

The matrixed stereo version on Shout! Factory's 4K Blu-ray sounds good.

Best English-Friendly:

US Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray or Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray?

Best Audio:

Fox 2002 NTSC DVD includes the original mix as discrete LCRS 4.0, later reelases only include a matrixed version an an inferior 5.1 upmix.

The matrixed stereo version on Shout! Factory's 4K Blu-ray sounds good.

Titanic poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount/Fox Blu-ray
3D Blu-ray for the IMAX/Open Matte version

35mm scan for original theatrical cut

Best Video:

Paramount/Fox Blu-ray
3D Blu-ray for the IMAX/Open Matte version

35mm scan for original theatrical cut

4K Blu-ray is AI upscaled

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

Additional Info:

The 4K Blu-ray bonus disc, the 2012 Blu-ray bonus disc, and the 2005 3 disc DVD have exclusive extras.

Titanic poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Paramount/Fox Blu-ray
3D Blu-ray for the IMAX/Open Matte version

35mm scan for original theatrical cut

Best Video:

Paramount/Fox Blu-ray
3D Blu-ray for the IMAX/Open Matte version

35mm scan for original theatrical cut

4K Blu-ray is AI upscaled

Best Audio:

Cinema DTS

Additional Info:

The 4K Blu-ray bonus disc, the 2012 Blu-ray bonus disc, and the 2005 3 disc DVD have exclusive extras.

Nine 1/2 Weeks poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

International Fox Blu-ray has the best encoding and the OAR of 1.85.1.

Best Video:

France LCJ Editions 4K Blu-ray is worse than Blu-ray - caps. Upscale from the BD with fake grain and horrendously encoded. AI enhancement is also present.

International Fox Blu-ray has the best encoding and the OAR of 1.85.1.

Nine 1/2 Weeks poster
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

International Fox Blu-ray has the best encoding and the OAR of 1.85.1.

Best Video:

France LCJ Editions 4K Blu-ray is worse than Blu-ray - caps. Upscale from the BD with fake grain and horrendously encoded. AI enhancement is also present.

International Fox Blu-ray has the best encoding and the OAR of 1.85.1.

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The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) backdrop