No Time to Die 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 4/5

Plot Synopsis: James Bond is enjoying a tranquil life in Jamaica after leaving active service. However, his peace is short-lived as his old CIA friend, Felix Leiter, shows up and asks for help. The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond on the trail of a mysterious villain who’s armed with a dangerous new technology.

Note: This portion of the review does contain SPOILERS, so please aware.

Review: No Time to Die marks the end of the Daniel Craig era as Commander James Bond and although his tenure of five films had its ups and downs, as a whole this series never had a terrible movie, underwhelming at times perhaps (like Quantum of Solace which had the unfortunate luck following the amazing Casino Royale and Spectre which followed the great Skyfall), but never really bad.

This entry takes up where Spectre left off and any advice out there, you might want to watch Spectre as a refresher as I forgot some elements, most notably the relationship between Bond and Madeleine Swann, played by the lovely Léa Seydoux, as these two are at the core of the story and ultimately Bond’s character development. The pair together again share some nice chemistry even though their time is oft involved car chases and rapid gunfire.

The film sees a brief, single scene, return of Christoph Waltz as the classic Bond villain, Blofeld now housed in an MI6 high-security prison though still apparently running Spectre despite under constant supervision. However the heavy this go around is Lyutsifer Safin played by Academy Award winner Rami Malek. He pretty much gives a similar performance as seen in many of his other roles: quiet, introspective. I’d say he’s one of the better foils in Craig’s run but a far cry from Javier Bardem.

The rest of the supporting cast were fine, but no real standouts. Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw returns as “M” and “Q” respectively and per the latter get some new gadgets for Bond, something I felt was neglected in the Craig-era (i“Q” was absent in Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace); Naomie Harris is back as secretary Monypenny after finding field work not her thing. Jeffrey Wright is back as CIA agent Felix Leiter for a third time in an all-too small role.

The one significant newcomer is Lashana Lynch as the new 007 (for a time), replacing Bond after the character dropped off the face of the earth, living the quiet life in Jamaica. She’s alright for the part, not exactly scene-stealing but has a few moments. In addition, Ana de Armas has a small role as a rookie agent sent by the CIA to help Bond.

Directing duties, following the departure of Danny Boyle due to creative differences, went to Cary Joji Fukunaga stepping in and co-scripted with longtime Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. While the film is fairly lengthy clocking in at 162 minutes (though that includes several minutes of end credits) but never felt it with some well directed action set pieces, nicely placed to keep the pacing alongside some of the more tense-filled quieter moments.

Normally I don’t make mention of this, but the score was composed by Hans Zimmer, a maestro in my opinion and he does fine work although I did tend to notice some notes that reminded me of his work on The Dark Knight, little beats that were hard to ignore. Otherwise, Zimmer incorporated the classic Bond themes. And as a nice nod, we get the original rendition of “All the Time in the World” which was the theme to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

All in all, this is another solid outing in the long-running James Bond franchise. While not perfect and at times it looked in the film as if Daniel Craig wanted to get it over with, No Time to Die does feature some great action sequences with the requisite car chases that every Bond film has to have.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4/5

This two-disc release comes housed in a title-embossed slip cover and inside a redemption code for the Digital HD copy, redeemable only on Apple TV. All of the bonus material is only on the 4K disc (the Blu-ray release comes with a bonus disc containing the features).

Anatomy of a Scene: Matera (11:32) — This featurette breaks down the opening chase sequence and includes behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Daniel Craig, Cary Joji Fukunaga and others.

Keeping it Real: The Action of No Time to Die (6:15) — Short featurette looking at the action sequences with more interviews with members of the cast and crew.

A Global Journey (7:50) looks at the variety of exotic locations where the production shot, a staple of the Bond series.

Designing Bond (11:04) is on the production and costume designs with tours of the sets and sound bites from the production designer, art director, costume designer and more.

Being James Bond (46:39) is a farewell documentary for Daniel Craig in the role that from what I can tell streamed online via Apple. Nicely done and well worth watching. All participants were done via voice over set against behind-the-scenes footage.

4K VIDEO – 5/5, BLU-RAY VIDEO – 4¾/5

No Time to Die comes to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray presented with a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and 2160p and 1080p high-definition transfers, respectively. Not really surprised but this picture on both formats looks great with sharp detail throughout. Colors are well balanced, ranging from the bright vibrancy of certain locales to darker elements for the nighttime scenes. Not that I expected anything wrong for a modern, big budget feature, there were no signs of artifacting and the original noise is still present giving it that theatrical-like look.

AUDIO – 5/5

Both formats come with a Dolby Atmos track which was incredible. First, dialogue comes across with good clarity showcasing the quality sound design while the action sequences shows off the bulk of the depth making use of the front and rear channels, not to mention Hans Zimmer’s oft bombastic score which generally I loved.

OVERALL — 4¼/5

No Time to Die is a fitting finale to the Daniel Craig era as James Bond and while I personally still love Pierce Brosnan mainly because I grew up during his reign, Craig brought his own style to the longtime character and for the most part delivered a high-quality selection of movies.