I have seen Goldeneye in theaters and we used to have the special edition first printing anamorphic region 1 disc and the aspect ratio is supposed to be wider than it is on the UE. Lowry either cropped the picture accidentally or they were sent a cropped print either way the lowry release is an abomination least of which they changed the coloring from the theatrical release.
When the director of photography and cameramen are dead, or the directors are no longer around they cannot make sure lowry does not screw their movies up.
The only director approved versions of dr no, from russia with love, are the criterion versions. Or those derived from the original films masters without color changes. The special editions are far closer to their theatrical releases than the ultimate editions. Although on some ultimates the aspect ratio was correct for the first time as well as having the original theatrical mono or stereo tracks. Between the releases it is a mixed bag not at all really any different than the gout vs the 2004 star wars trilogy im affraid.
The 2004 star wars set and the lowry bonds were produced for modern consumption in mind, they were not produced to be authentic to their original theatrical releases. In fact these people had the nerve to say these were improved over the originals.
Until Goldeneye gets a fixed release on dvd i won't be buying the UE. Most likely will skip dvd and go straight to Blu Ray. This is probably why Goldeneye the most requested and wanted Bond film for Blu has not been released. They probalbly have to do a new scan and cleanup, from a print that is the correct 2:35:1 aspect ratio. Not what looks like a cropped widescreen tv print. Even the Letterbox laserdisc has a wider aspect ratio than the UE.
I would just as soon see a 4k scan done of a theatrical release print or IP with the correct grain structure and colors the film is supposed to have. Not be scrubbed to look like HDvideo by Lowry algorithm and dvnr process.
I blame the ruining of films on people with their LCD HTDV displays set up for playing video games and the movies that are all shot now on HD Video and have no grain unless added artificially.
You should see what these modern film restorations have done to sleeping beauty and pinochio. They destroyed the original colors and removed the top layer of detail to smooth away the grain.
Most of Lucas films have been destroyed on dvd by grain removal which removes the way these movies should look based on the film stocks and lenses used. THX 1138 and American Graffiti look far too clean, star wars is almost completely ruined. The Indiana Jones films were scrubbed free of grain and speilberg was unhappy with the process so lowry added the grain back, from what i remember anyway.