Rating: 
Summary: "greatest" title for a greatest band
Review: This video is one hour and forty five minutes of pure pleasure for all Duran Duran's fans. Me and the band were born the same year, I am a huge french fan(what is not really developped in my country...) and thanks to Amazon to have allowed me to see some videos of the band I never had the chance to see before! Nevertheless, interactivity misses a lot, interactivity or perhaps two or three words from the band miss a lot! But every fan of the band have to own this video, and that's why I give you this advice!
Rating: 
Summary: Does not seems to match the song
Review: YukS!!!!!! Horrible and boring music video, espacially 'ORDINARY WORLD' doesn't suit the location and lyrics it should be inspirational.
Rating:
Summary: greatest close but not quite
Review: I really enjoyed getting to see all the old classics from the band. But it seems Capitol forgot some of their other greatest. What about Perfect Day or Lonely in Your Nightmare? Although it was a nice treat to see New Moon on Monday.
Rating:
Summary: GREATEST? WHERE ARE THEY?
Review: As always, I guess, the Band's former label doesn't know the best videos from the so-so. Where are such classic (if not the greatest) mind tripping videos like "TOO MUCH INFORMATION", "WHITE LINES" or merely just others like "VIOLENCE OF SUMMER"? I hope Hollywood Records sees this. Remember, we duranies want everything the band does on video (or whatever), even if it takes two or three tapes to do it with. If you don't someone else will... Just like the recent 1999 8 hr Compilation tape set I recently acquired. Over 75 title hits from 1979- 1999. Sound quality- very good. The songs themselves are fantastic- all remixed and re-edited. I wish the new label would release something similiar...yeah right. I'm glad I came across it.(bootleg,but what the hell-it kicks A)
Rating:
Summary: Good entertainment value...surprisingly satisfying.
Review: Featuring twenty-one songs, and clocking in just short of an hour and forty-five minutes, this compilation of Duran Duran's "greatest" videos is a much more generous and comprehensive overview of the group's wildly inconsistent 17-year career than anything currently available on CD. Well, let's face it, with Duran Duran the videos were always an essential part of the package that completed the (new) romantic promise of their already (fairly) good music. "Planet Earth" (from 1981) looks amusingly quaint now: the Edwardian frill shirts and Kabuki makeup - along with the stiff-spastic-marionette dancing and Futurist sets - mark this early clip as a quintessential Blitz Kid time-capsule. The uncensored "Girls on Film" still arouses us as an ever-dubious attempt to merge sub-Roxy Music decadence with a barrage of mid-Eighties Playboy-channel cliches (and I DO continue to relish the sweet sight of that LUSCIOUS boudoir tart straddling a feather-covered phallic pole in her sheer black scanties!). Still, "Girls" never transcends the surface titillation offered by its self-consciously chic litany of soft-core S&M-lite posturings, nor does it really have the guts to explore or confront its own darker implications. The next video, "The Chauffeur," is the collection's darkly gleaming gem. Shot in intimate, otherworldly black-and-white, this insinuatingly erotic mini-epic about a femme-lesbian rendezvous at a desolate London underground parkade in the dead of night is, I believe, this group's musicodramatic masterpiece. Fluid, rhythmic crosscutting blends together the stark, luminous chiaroscuro imagery to devastating effect. And the ghostly sight of those three sculptured beauties swaying and undulating in their fetishistic undress...ahhh, you won't find anything as deeply or blissfully kinky as THAT on late-night cable these days! The next three clips, "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Save A Prayer," and "Rio," are all well-known and still entertaining to watch. "Wolf" is the best of the three - as yet another tale of lustful pursuit and orgasmic conquest/submission, it combines cinematic allusions ("Gunga Din," "Bridge Over the River Kwai," and "Apocalypse Now") as camp signposts on a journey into the jungle heart of feral eroticism. "Save A Prayer" has some nice romantic images of Buddhist monuments and native youths stilt-fishing in the Indian Ocean, as well as a few panoramic aerial shots of a sacred plateau and a final procession of saffron-robed monks illuminated by torchlight. "Rio" is exuberantly naive and amateurish - this is the one with them posing on a yacht in the Caribbean, a neat trick which (unfortunately) convinced many that the group really did inhabit a continuous episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." "Is There Something I Should Know?" is a rather vague and arbitrary bit of classic New Wave kitsch-cryptic surrealism featuring men in Magritte bowler hats and forbiddingly spare Cubist décor, while "Union of the Snake" is merely a flaccid and indigestible boondoggle of Oriental menace and crude forced sexuality. While a dandy little song by itself, the video for "New Moon on Monday" badly flubs its potentially intriguing premise - revolutionaries organizing an underground resistance movement in some unidentified Eastern European police state. In what has to be one of the most painful moments in all of music video history, our lads end up feebly pantomiming their exultant chorus like earnest teenage wannabes at a talent(less) competition...while several megatons of pyrotechnics detonate everywhere around them! "The Reflex" is a colorful and well-made attempt at a fake "live" video - but the teenybopper quotient renders it just a little cringe-worthy. The legendary "Wild Boys" now looks like an hysterically overblown slab of "Thriller"-era excess - complete with absurd post-apocalyptic jungle-gym-cum-torture-rack sets; dizzyingly baroque camera angles and vertiginous cutting; snarling, shaven-headed zombies in alabaster body paint, tribal-dancing and somersaulting with atavistic abandon; our hero suspended from a tattered old windmill and...oh, I could go on, but why bother? On the other hand, "A View to a Kill" - the famed James Bond theme - compensates with a simple self-deprecating wit that makes it stand out as one of Duran X 2's most cleverly inventive and enjoyable videos. "Bon...Simon Le Bon," indeed! After that we get "the new Duran Duran" - a bit less flashy, a bit more "mature." "Notorious" has some nice footage of lean, wiry female models jiving and strutting but the video is ruined by way too many herky-jery camera movements and worsened by frenzied, dissonant cutting. "Skin Trade" has a more controlled rhythm and makes an appealing use of vivid bright colors and matted backdrops. "I Don't Want Your Love" is still surprisingly fresh and fun...perhaps more so than it was the first time around. "All She Wants Is" is a vaguely DEVOesque domestic statement with a lot of blinding, distorted, hypnotic strobe-neon effects and a pretty, pouting girl that I can either love or leave. The mid-tempo yawner "Serious" (the only semi-bearable moment from their gawdawful "Liberty" album) is the most negligible of the bunch here, as is the rather pointless retrospective sampling, "Burning the Ground." "Ordinary World" is a triumphant return to form - gorgeous, melancholy romanticism beautifully realized with classical guitar and the lyrical image of a bride wandering amidst golden-toned boughs of weeping willow trees. "Come Undone" is another great song, although I'm not quite so sure about the video. Hmmm...an aquarium full of exotic sea creatures, a ginger-haired young siren chained underwater, a middle-aged dowdy inserting disparate household objects into a blender, a tortured transvestite confronting himself in the vanity mirror...are these folks all meant to represent displaced personalities who have "come undone"? The recent (and mildly scandalous) "Electric Barbarella" is a catchy electronic dance ditty that brings Double D full circle (cf. Roxy Music's "In Every Dream-home a Heartache"). This last video - about a battery-operated, remote-controlled, life-sized Barbie-doll that suddenly animates to dizzy, ditzy life - is light-hearted and witty, it's also perversely, artificially sexy like a Pedro Almodovar film. Zap me, Barbie!
Rating:
Summary: Greatest
Review: Ok, I reviewed this already, but here's a more factual one. This is the most complete collection of Duran Duran's videos that I know of ranging from Planet Earth in 1981 to Electric Barbarella in 1997. It also includes the banned ones Girls on Film and The Chauffeur. The edited Girls on Film and the one with the alternative-ending can be found in the hidden extras. First of all, you can find out how to view the hidden extras by going to duranduran.com under Fan Forums in the Ask Katy section.
Also, to access the sub menus with the videos you have to click on every other letter of Greatest which is the starting menu.
There are two discs, the first disc including the videos done by the original five (LeBon, Rhodes and the three Taylors) and the second disc includes the videos that were made during the weird period where the band was continuously losing and adding members.
All the songs from the Greatest album are included, along with The Chauffeur and Burning the Ground, the latter being a montage of all their songs and videos. First Disc---- Planet Earth: This is a cool video with water and fire and very tacky clothing. However, I believe Simon must have been getting used to performing the songs. He's still a real ham, though, and I mean that in a good way. Girls on Film: Supposedly about exploitation of models (from what Simon says in the hidden audio interview) and that's what the lyrics suggest (they sound very sarcastic) but Simon does admit that the uncensored video definitely "overshadowed" this message. Sexist, tasteless---you name it. The Chauffeur: Kind of artsy and I read somewhere that it's based on a movie. Unnecessarily (...) the band members are not shown in the video. Hungry Like the Wolf: DD finally gives porn a rest. A video in the vein of Indiana Jones where Simon is hunting down a woman in tiger paint while the other band members are hunting him down. Takes place in Sri Lanka with shots of snakes and such and images that conjure up the idea of literal hunger. Rio: Rio teases the boys and has them running all over the place, trying to catch her. John throws Andy off the boat while the others snap their fingers and sing "Oh Rio, Rio". Save a Prayer: The boys roam the beaches of Sri Lanka in expensive suits (and I don't mean the kind you swim in, although they had no problem throwing each other in the water in Rio and getting their fashion model clothes all wet). Lots of kids, shots of sand and the water, a temple that they all stand before in the end. Is There Something I Should Know?: Takes place mostly in some kind of shadowy room with the band singing to a light shining through the ceiling. Great video. Clips from their other videos at the end. Simon dancing with someone in Save a Prayer, Nick peeking through a door in Nightboat, John having make-up applied in Girls on Film, Roger in the beginning of Planet Earth where he's trapped in some kind of embryo-state (hard to describe) and that shot of Simon (?) with the water pouring through his hands and onto his face in Planet Earth. Union of the Snake: Takes place in the desert. Simon is led into an underground place where he meets up with all kinds of shady characters and spends the rest of the video trying to escape with this kid whom you never find out what happens to. And in the end, the rest of the band drives off with out him while he collapses on the sand with flames in the background. But a man on a donkey or something comes by and gives him a ride after he wakes up in the daytime. New Moon on Monday: Mostly has band members plotting something, running around a city in France with lighted torches and waving flags, while those in authority ride around on horses. The Reflex: Live concert. Water flows from screen (don't think that's real. Maybe illusion?) and shots of people on chain leashes (?). Wild Boys: Band battling it out with the "wild boys" who try to drag them down. Simon is tied to a windmill that churns water. John is chained to a car. The others fly through the air. I don't know what is going on with Nick. But they escape in an old-fashioned, roofless car in the end, victorious as snow falls down. A View to a Kill: Clips from Bond but the band also takes part in a sort of spy plot. The second disc includes Notorious (mostly them dancing), Skin Trade (Kinda stylish. Simon is wearing a Freddy Krueger like shirt and gloves), I Don't Want Your Love, All She Wants Is, Serious, Burning the Ground, Ordinary World, Come Undone (which takes place in an aquarium room with a woman singing underwater, trying to free herself from these chains wrapped around her) and Electric Barbarella (affair with a robot. Sexist but so ridiculous. Seems tongue-in-cheek). Overall, good collection. Gets one less star because of the porn and because of the annoying extras. But the extras are pretty good when you find them. Includes chopped up video of Violence of the Summer.
Rating:
Summary: Finding the Hidden Extras
Review: [...]
"The word "GREATEST" in the main menu is the key to all the secret stuff. The R, A ,T, S, and T letters are the ones you click on by hitting enter. On DISC ONE - go "inside" the letters. Inside the letter "A" is where the gallery to the LPs are on the white walls. Select an LP to view the video from that Album. There are secret interviews if you click on the next button and then hit the 'up' key on your remote. If it shows an arrow on the title then you can hit enter and you can check out an interview or information about the LP.
DISC 2 Has the same options: "GREATEST" is the secret word to enter into the LP gallery and the selected videos inside the letters. Same letters as in DISC 1 are chosen by hitting the arrow keys on your remote control. Letter "R" takes you to 'Notorious', 'Skin Trade' and 'I Don't Want you Love.' Letter A again takes you to the LP gallery where you can watch the videos that way as well. If you click on 'The Wedding Album" go to the title and it shows you an advert for the LP. Go to the 'Liberty' LP and click on the title and year where you will get to see a great interview and also see the video for 'Violence of Summer'. The Letter T at the end of word "GREATEST" will just tell you that you can pop this CD into you pc for more features."
Rating: 
Summary: "Greatest" is good ...but could have been better....
Review: I love Duran Duran. They were the background music/soundtrack to my childhood, growing up in the 80's. Even during their "not so grand" 90's era, they always had a few good songs on every album; even Liberty (gasp!) =)~
Having *all the videos together on one compilation would have been great, and thats my bone to pick with EMI. that's why I rate this 2.5 to 3 stars. I cant believe they left off the videos for "Too Much Information" from the Wedding Album and "Out of my Mind" from Medazzaland/The Saint Soundtrack, which in my opinion was and still is a far superior song/video to Electric Barbarella! argh! Along with that, there are a few other videos missing from their 80's years "Lonely in your Nightmare", "Nightboat", etc that really should have been included, even if in the "easter egg" form that some of the interviews and other special features were in.
Overall, this DVD is a MUST for any and all Duran Duran fans. Even with some disappointments, its worth having.
Rating: 
Summary: Greatest, lives up to its name
Review: Amazing collection of videos and songs. Uncut versions of diffrent videos, uncensored long versions of girls on film, come undone, and a Q & A interview with simon and nick. PLus lyrics to all the songs! Overall good DVD. Every Duran Duran fan should buy this. Also check out the new CD astronaut. Excellent. 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly A Disappointment, But With Some Delights
Review: To an unknowledgable Duran Duran non-fan, the band which originated in Birmingham in 1978 meant one thing -- classic videos. Heck, even the most diehard of fans will (grudgingly or otherwise) admit that this band did some of its finest work on film. So the thought of having a complete Duran Duran video collection should be electrifyingly exciting, a real EVENT to celebrate over.
The fact that it isn't is a bit disturbing.
This DVD collection could've been the perfect opportunity to introduce rarer videos to the masses, who would've only been able to recall the scenes from "Hungry Like the Wolf", "Rio", "The Reflex", and "Save a Prayer" (and "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone" if they were awake in the '90s), and indeed it is a bit encouraging to see some priceless rarities offered as "Easter eggs" (including a truly outstanding ten-minute interview session from the Liberty era on the second disc). That the default video for "New Moon on Monday" on the first disc is the extended filmic version that was shelved for two decades before its inclusion on this collection is also a delight.
But EMI could've offered so much more in this package.
Your average non-fan, or even casual "fan" who purchased Rio and Seven & The Ragged Tiger, went to any one of the concerts during the 1984 tour, and then dropped the band like a bad habit when it temporarily morphed into Arcadia and Power Station, might not have a clue about what certain videos look like, or that there were such videos in existence at all. "Careless Memories", "Lonely in Your Nightmare", "My Own Way", "Meet El Presidente", "Do You Believe in Shame?", "Femme Fatale", "Too Much Information", "Breath After Breath" -- all of these Duran songs had accompanying videos, videos that should've been on this collection, but weren't included in the package, not even as "Easter eggs".
And that is one heck of a shame.
Because of this, this video collection gives off an aura of being Yet Another EMI Cash Cow, another way the band's former record company are trying to milk the band's legacy for all it's worth. Because of this, and because this DVD release could only ever attract the die-hard completist and the casual semi-fan mentioned above, the compilation could not, nor could it ever fairly get, a five-star rating, or even a four-star rating. The inclusion of the filmic version of "New Moon on Monday" and the Liberty-era "Easter egg", as well as the inclusion of the underrated video "The Chauffeur" and the video for the underrated "Electric Barbarella", earn the release its three stars, but if it didn't include the aforementioned, it would seriously run the risk of being Yet Another Excuse for the semi-fan to giggle over the scenes of Simon emerging from that god-forsaken river, or John running on the beach and dropping yet again in front of the swimsuit-clad model, and pretend that they're '80s teenagers all over again.
|
