Collecting Movie Reviews

It is great that we are finally able to see some of the classic comedy moments from the two greatest sketch comedies of television's golden age, "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Both of these 1950s shows starred Sid Caesar and his great ensemble cast of the late, great Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and many others. This second volume in "The Sid Caesar Collection" makes a point of focusing on the talented writing staff Caesar put together, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Woody Allen and Mel Brooks. Sketches on this DVD include "The German General," "Boy at First Dance," "The Sleep Sketch," "Aggravation Boulevard," "Chita Rivera and Jack Cole in 'What Is Jazz?" and "The Hickenloopers." These sketches, selected by Caesar personally, are digitally remastered from the original kinescopes. To add to the fun, interviews with the cast members are writers serve as the introductions. The main thing is that these sketches are as hilarious as you always heard they were.

When my son asked what I wanted for Father's Day, I told him that I had just learned about a collection of videos featuring selections from Sid Ceasar's TV programs from the 1950s. He could buy any of the videos and dad would be thrilled. Well, "Inside The Writer's Room" is one of the videos he bought for me. It includes fascinating comments and reminiscing by the incredibly talented writers who worked on Caesar's TV programs. The writers include Mel Brooks, Neil & Danny Simon, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen among others. Listening to these gifted people discuss the job of writing for live TV and working with Ceasar, Coca, & the rest of the remarkable casts is enlightening and entertaining. Just the comments of the writers would have made the video a must have. In addition there are a number of skits and numbers from the classic "Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" that will leave you awed and laughing. I remember seeing the "German General" sketch in the 1950s when I was a kid in the midwest. It was hilarious then, and it was hilarious nearly 50 years later. Most of Caesar's comedy is timeless. It will always be funny. For young people who have never seen Sid do one of his foreign language sketches, this would be a great introduction. Sid is a master of foreign "doubletalk", and so was his aide in the sketch, Howard Morris, who was priceless. Also priceless is the "punchline" visual last scene of this sketch. This video also contains one of Sid's movie parodies, "Aggravation Boulevard", a tribute to Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard." but a very funny tribute. For those of us that remember "Your Show of Shows," the 1 1/2 hour program wasn't all comedy. There were also excellent performances by singers, musicians and dancers. This video gives one a taste of that with a segment featuring a dance by Chita Rivera and another segment featuring Sid playing the saxaphone in Benny Goodman's band. Note to younger viewers, Sid was an accomplished reed player. "Inside The Writer's Room" is the next best thing to actually being a writer for live TV in the 1950s.

Watching this collection is a revelation. This is "live" television from nearly fifty years ago and it is still falling-down funny. The word "genius" is overused but it certainly applies to the men and women who created these classics of sketch comedy: Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Neal and Danny Simon, Woody Allen, Imogene Coca, Nanette Fabray, Howard Morris, and, especially, Sid Caesar. The great thing about this collection is that, unlike other compilations which feature only excerpts, all of the sketches here are presented in their entirety. All of the classics are here: "The Clock," "This is Your Story," the "From Here to Eternity" spoof and many others. If you really feel like having a good time, this is the place to be!

Sid Caesar was the most talented comic performer of the live television era with his classic "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour." Caesar also had the greatest ensemble cast of all time with the late Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris, and others. Add to that a writing staff that included, at various times, Reiner, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. The volumes in this DVD collection include some of the best comedy sketches from both shows, digitally remastered from the original kinescopes. Caesar picked the sketches personally and interviews with the cast members and writers are used as introductions. Sketches included on this first volume, "The Magic of Live TV," includes "The Commuters in '7 Dwarfs Bet,'" "The Professor in 'Board Rooms of hollywood,'" "The Five Dollar Date," "Sid Plays Sax with Benny Goodman," "The Clock," "A Fella Needs a Girl," "The Haircuts--'So Rare' and 'Flippin','" and my favorite, "This Is Your Story." Thank goodness these priceless shows have been preserved. They deserve to be as well known as episodes of "I Love Lucy" and "The Honeymooners."

I had written reviews on each of the movies, which are posted. My review of this 4- disc package examines the production quality of the DVDs themselves and does not deal with movie critiques.

First of all, the EASTER EGGS! I have yet to find a DVD that had Easter Eggs (those little tidbits that are hidden to treat people who either made a mistake with their remote or dragged the cursor over something to click on), and Blue Underground has at least seven or maybe more eggs inside the DVDs. I can't list them all here, and have made attempts to list the particular egss at the bottom of each movie review I posted on 5/Sept/03. If I recall correctly, If You Live Shoot! has 3; Run Man Run has 2; Mannaja and Django each have one that I discovered. Each DVD's Easter Egg has hidden trailers of other movies on DVD. Shoot! has two interviews in addition, and Run has an interview (each of the four reviews have detail on extracting each egg, and I hope amazon.com posts them all).

The most INCREDIBLE interview came from Shoot! where lead actor Tomas Milian makes some rather startling charges (he even suggests that he may be sued by his revelations of an accusation that he verified he was making during the interview). I will not spoil the interview, but it is worth searching the contents of the DVD to discover.

The lover of European Westerns will relish this find, even though some of the contents of the films aren't up to the caliber of a Leone epic. I knew before buying this set that the movies themselves would be a letdown if I were to expect anything near the filmmaking style of Leone and the musical genious of composer Ennio Morricone. The reason I made the purchase was to discover filmmaking OTHER than Leone's because at almost every turn, a macaroni feature airing on television will be one of the Eastwood trilogies or the epic, Once Upon a Time in the West (which is planned for DVD release in fall 2003).

TSWC is not recommended for the die- hard Eastwood or Leone fan, unless the viewer can be open- minded so as not to wind up comparing apples and oranges. One cannot and should not compare Leone's style with any other spaghetti western. He is in a class by himself.

The DVDs all were from transfers of original prints. The quality of the video material was definitely from the origibal stock. Interestingly enough, Shoot! must have used some cheaper film grade, because the saturation seemed flat, which is no fault of Blue Underground because many of the movie productions of the time were cutting corners to save as much money as possible.

The work that was put into the box set really shows by the amount of information that each DVD box provides. Blue Underground deserves credit for renewing a fan's belief that a company is releasing such obscure titles not for high profit but for a love of the genre. I wouldn't expect MGM to release the 162- minute Good/Bad/Ugly in its original 176 minute fully- restored glory. They did release 14 minutes of footage as extras, but I feel they should have followed Blue's decision to release films completely unedited and uncensored, even if it means having to replace Italian language scenes into an English language release or allowing the runtime to jump towards 3 hours in length.

Blue put forth an excellent effort to give the lover of Eurowestern cinema more detailed information about films that we really appreciate.

Super collection of westerns--Italian style. There not as good as Sergio Leone's classics but then again few films are.

It's great to finally see the rare "Django Kill." This is truly a cult oddity if ever there was one. As much a horror film as it is a western it's full of bizarre, religious imagery as well as references to everything from Luis Bunuel to Edgar Allan Poe. This extremely violent, unforgettable film is presented uncut and, as with all the films in this set, the transfer is immaculate.

"Run, Man, Run" successfully tosses liberal doses of comedy and politics into the mix. Like "Django Kill" it also stars the wonderful Tomas Milian as Cuchillo, a knife-throwing thief.

"Mannaja: A Man Called Blade" is the most conventional and latest film (1977) of the set. Still, it's extremely entertaining and stylishly directed by Sergio Martino (Torso). Maurizio Merli is great in the title, hatchet-wielding role.

The classic "Django" is exclusive to this set. Though Anchor Bay also released this title some time ago, this new transfer came from the original negative and is far more colorful and less grainy. As for the film, it's a must. From the great opening of Franco Nero dragging a coffin behind him to the insanely catchy theme song, "Django" holds you in its grasp.

All four films look exceptional, come with English language and Italian tracks with optional English subtitles and boast a nice selection of extras--interviews, trailers, poster/still galleries, etc.

Thank you Blue Underground for releasing such a cool set.

They are neither movies or videotapes; they are cleaned up, digitally remastered, original kinescopes (the archival film made from the flickering image on the monitor) to show you what type of free, no-holes-barred theatre you could watch in the infancy of television. Because these were live productions done a few years before videotape (roughly between 1953 and 1957) these films are the only record of the performances- dramatic exhibitions with Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, and Ralph Bellamy; character studies from James Dean and William Shatner; and intoductions to future stars like Warren Beatty, Edward Asner, and Steve (called 'Steven') McQueen. Especially poignant is an annoyingly short documentary on the 10-year show hosted by some of its guest actors: Charlton Heston, Jack Klugman, and Cloris Leachman (who makes an especially heartbreaking commentary that many of the actors never got to watch their performances because the kinescopes were burned in their vaults years ago). There is also a marvelous sound byte from the late great John Frankenheimer (who reveals he would've continued to direct television theatre but *had* to turn to movies when the network's president decided to unilaterally cease doing the live play and concentrate on the filmed sitcom). The CBS "f-stop eye" logo is shown, along with original show bumpers (including a 1956 presidential election preview) and the legendary Betty Furness Westinghouse commercials (one of which demonstrates the new, UHF-channel plug-in adapter!!).

For a decade (1948-58)in early television, Studio One was one of the stalwarts of live drama, producing some truly classic television, along with a few monumental duds. This set (available separately as well) brings together some very interesting examples. Nostalgia buffs will get a kick out of seeing actors like James Dean, James Coburn, Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, and William Shatner, to name a few, in VERY early roles (look for Ed Asner as "background"). But there is much more than nostalgia at work here. "The Defenders", "Laughmaker", and "The Night America Trembled" hold up as good, even, "Defenders", great, drama. "Sentence of Death" has some fascinating things to say, even if it says them less than perfectly. And "The Square Peg" shows why live comedy was often so hard to do. The picture quality is, at best, watchable (these are kinescopes, after all) and some of the goofs live TV was prone to are "preserved". An added bonus is the inclusion of all the old Westinghouse commercials which are hilarious! (Imagine! A dishwasher that can do a whole days worth of dishes...at once! A guaranteed good time for those who know what they are watching.

Odds are you're reading this and wondering about Superbit and not about the movies themselves. If you just wanted the movie you'd just get the normal movie and save a few bucks, so I'll address the Superbit stuff here. Can you tell a difference? Yes. Is it dramatic? Sometimes. Sound quality is remarkable but only if your home theatre can render sound extremely well. On normal TV speakers you won't hear a difference. Picture quality is notably better *sometimes*. For example, in the Fifth Element during the taxi scenes or when LeeLoo is being reconstructed, or in Crouching Tiger in many of the outdoor scenes. Since Superbit by definition uses the entire disk for enhanced picture and sound, there are NO DVD extras included. For Fifth Element this is no different than from the regular DVD because it has no extras. Crouching Tiger is a different story. You may want to own both as the standard DVD is chock full of extras. If your DVD player is a computer, you'll need PLENTY of speed and memory to play these at full quality.

Two of the movies included are fabulous, one is reasonably entertaining. But, you can read a review of these movies anywhere. I am giving my recommendation for this particular DVD set and the format. The picture and sound quality literally blew me off my chair. Above and beyond the quality of even the best DVD's I have seen, including Criterion collection discs of other movies. You won't get a lot of "extras" (scenes, bios, etc.) on these discs, but you do get the best experience watching the movie bar none, period, with these discs. If you spent the money on a surround sound receiver and large, flat screen TV, spend the money on these discs to justify the other, larger investments in your Home theatre you have made.

It seems like these classics (although I wouldnt consider vegas a "classic") have all been around the dvd world for quite some time, but in FULL SCREEN with zero extras! Finally someone got smart and decided to make em widescreen (the way it should be), and give us extras, although not much, like commentary, is still better then what we had!! I give...

Vacation 1- 5 stars easily
European 2- 4 stars
Christmas 3- 5 stars!!!
Vegas 4- 3 stars..pretty funny, but not as good as the originals!

These are the best movies for Families who have ever had a absolutely terrible vacation, or just want to see the worst case scenario of the perfect vacation. The original Vacation with Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo have great chemistry and always have laughs. I am personnally glad Warner Brothers got smart and put all four in a box set in WIDESCREEN format(the best format because full screen takes 50% of the picture away;why do you think WIDESCREEN televisions are so popular?!?!?)

I hope these movies are digitally remastered, and in jewel keep case boxes this time.

A definite buy for anyone who has ever had a vacation to an amusement park across the country, European countries where your ancestors once lived, a Christmas vacation with all the grandparents, or to the wonderful city of Las Vegas. It doesn't matter, all through and through these movies are and remain funny because of their comedy, and all comedy is funny because it has a little truth, like having Grandparents over for Christmas.

I have many videos on England but this one is a real gem, I think the first day I watched the whole DVD twice, well done.

This is an excellent value for those looking for a visual overview of England. The scope is amazingly broad, covering almost every region From Cornwall to Hadrian's Wall. Unlike many travel videos, there is very little "filler" material here (no chintzy theatricals or human interest fluff), leaving much more room for real content. The narration is clear and informative, although somewhat sparse - the emphasis is obviously on the visual presentation, which I thought was very well done.

The Main Feature (82 minutes) covers not only standard tourist highlights such as London, Bath, York, the Cotswolds etc. but also includes lesser known spots such as Boston, Ely, and Lincoln. The only obvious omission is the Industrial Midlands (Liverpool, Coventry, Ironbridge, etc - perhaps not a great loss), which as I recall was not mentioned.

The breadth of the Main Feature is well complimented by the three "DVD Extra" segments (approx 35 minutes), which provide more detailed looks at several castles and stately homes, including Castle Howard, Warwick, Chatsworth and several others.

If you're hoping to see a specific locale, you may be disappointed, but if you just want to enjoy well-presented scenery and architecture, "Discovering England" is quite rewarding.

Congratulations to Warner Brothers Studio for not only digitally restoring their classic movies but releasing them under the "Two-Disc Special Edition" Series. Now in addition to the two-disc sets they now box (for the first time) their 3 very best films into the "Warner Legends Collection".

All 3 movies are outstanding and are timeless classics. The American Film Institute (AFI) voted all 3 films into the greatest films including top 100 film circa 1998 for "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" & "Yankee Doody Dandy" (James Cagney received Best Actor Oscar).

"The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) with legend star Errol Flynn remains the best film even today depicting this fictional hero. "Yankee Doodle Dandy" Hollywood legend James Cagney in his Oscar winning song & dance man (as George M, Cohan) performance. "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1947) starring film legend Humphrey Bogart (many say this was his best role) is a western about gold treasure and what it does to man.

What makes this "Two-Disc Special Edition" Set so great? Each film has an all-new digital transfer from restored picture & audio elements. Disc 1 in this series includes; Each film has a unique "Night at the Movies" introduction by Leonard Maltin. Warner Brothers has provided the viewer with a complete specialized movie program circa the year each movie feature was made. First off, coming attractions, newsreel, Bugs Bunny Cartoon, Short Subject Film and finally the Main Feature presentation. This is an awesome treat!!!! Thank You, Warner Brothers Studio. Also you have up to 12 legendary star film trailers. Finally a full feature commentary. That's only Disc 1.
Disc 2 - has over 3 hours of extra features to include; documentaries, radio shows presentations, galleries of art/photo/publicity, cartoons, cast & crew, & vintage shorts.

With this "Warners Legend Collection" box set you get a bonus 7 disc, "Here's Looking At You, Warner Bros." - the history of Warner Bros. Studios. (108 min documentary) excellent bonus!!

All Movies & Extras are Standard Format (4:3 ratio / tv size) Pre- WideScreen 1953. Robin Hood is beautiful TECHNICOLOR. (even today it is still regarded as the best color) Pictures & sound are outstanding. This is a must have collectible box set. I especially love the "Night at the Movies" program. Enjoy.

What a collection! Three of the best movies Warner Bros. ever made (and they made a lot) are given the lavish treatment on DVD usually reserved for only special new movies, and I am grateful they did it up right.

Each film is given the 2-disc treatment, with plenty of extras, plus excellent commentaries. I love when they give the classics this much attention.

Oh, there is one drawback...Hollywood, please, no more Leonard Maltin as host of classic DVDs! I know you probably think the public has a recognition of him as a famous movie reviewer, and thus his hosting must be a plus because will buy it, but you would be surprised to see how many of those people are truly, truly sick of him and shun his ever appearance. I know I got fed up with seeing him a long time ago. So has everybody I know. I almost hesitate picking up a DVD if he is anywhere on it. Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne is a much better choice for host. Osborne has style, sophistication, and an intelligence that is delivered on a friendly, low-key level. Maltin is too much in your face.

I have been an avid baseball fan since 4 yrs. old. (1951) I am a collector of baseball sports memorabilia going back to late 20's. The series, "When it was a game" was an absolute delight. It finally placed faces to names I have collected for over 50 yrs. The 8 and 16 mm made the viewing even more spellbounding. It made me feel like I actually took the photos. It is refreshing to see my hero's in everyday circumstances; snapshots of the best of the best as ordinary people. The movies were well-done, I was not able to stop viewing until I have watched all three DVD's. This is the best collection of home movies of hall of famers I have ever seen. I would recommend this collection to any baseball fan who truly wants to reward himself with the very best footage of his favorite leaguer. I will cherish the entire set.

The when it was a game series is one of the best baseball documenturies that I have ever seen. The extreamly rare footage of baseball's greats with commentation is a very good mix. You'll love to relive the history and remember those great days "when it was a game."

The worst witch is the best tv show ive seen in years. That great acting of kate duchene's constance hardbroom brings her tall body of 5'10 and of her scary looking face & black tight dress that of a nice purple night gown. Kate looks like a baby when her hair is down she looks less scary then when it's up . It's a good show for kids & teenagers I've seen.

My kids and I were lucky enough to get a advance promotional copy of this great DVD/VHS set. We have been fans of this show since it's been airing on HBO. If you are a Harry Potter fan than these videos and DVD's you will surely love. My girls just love all the capers and buggelings of Mildred (the female Harry Potter)and these programs are perfect for anyone who wants their kids to watch wholesome great family entertaiment.