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Summary: Greatest Director finally gets great treatment
Review: I worship the films of Stanley Kubrick. I view them as the greatest canon of work by any artist of the twentieth century. Kubrick had an eye like nobody else, he knew where to put the camera, how to move it and his films even the slower ones are a masterful example of film structure and pacing. Everything in his films adds up to an even equation - because of this + that = the outcome (Bill being called gay as he walks through the streets, leads him to the prostitue's house). I hope by now it is clear that I am passionate about his body of work. It is thus no suprise that I bought the Stanley Kubrick Collection two years ago. I was however disappointed with the transfers of several films (especially The Shining and 2001). I was aggrivated when I learned of the new box having already owned the previous one and having purchased Eyes Wide Shut and the Special Edition Dr. Strangelove. However, being the fan that I am, I hawked them and purchased the new set. I immediately watched the 140 minute documentary about Kubrick which flew by. My admiration for him and his films grew, here are my second, third and fourth favorite directors (Allen, Scorsese & Spielberg) talking about my favorite director. The film is incredible, it moves quickly like a Kubrick film, but isn't afraid to slow down. It gives insight into areas I had never known before. In short I woke up the next morning with a montage of Kubrick image in my mind. I then looked at some specific scenes from various films to see how they looked and sounded. The Stargate scene from 2001 is stunning. The steadicam work through the halls in The Shining are ferocius and Slim Pikins ridin' that bomb has never looked cleaner. I think Kubrick would want his films to be seen as clearly as possible and finally there is a collection that does him justice.
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Summary: THE NEW KUBRICK DVD SET IS SPECTACULAR
Review: me being a kubrick obsessed geek, i won't wax poetic on how great of a filmmaker he is, or how great his films are. i have seen all of his films including "the flying padre", "day of the fight", "the seafarers", and "killer's kiss". and have read his napoleon script and a.i. treatment.i received my dvd set in the mail today (thank you pamela godfrey). and i must say that it is incredible. "a clockwork orange", "barry lyndon", "full metal jacket", "the shining", and "2001" all have new dolby 5.1 mixing. plus, there a few other nice tidbits strewn on each dvd. but most impressive of all is the amazing documentary by jan harlan entitled "stanley kubrick: a life in pictures". i had the pleasure of hosting mr. harlan and viewing the documentary at the roger ebert film festival in champaign, illinois. and now i have done so again with the dvd. it goes into detail about his cancelled napoleon biopic and his adaptation of "wartime lies". and also focuses on "a.i". and his friendship with steven spielberg. it's everything you ever wanted to know about the man. focusing on his childhood, to prominence with "paths of glory" and "spartacus", to mysterious film legend. the man of mystery is unveiled.
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Summary: The New Collection Shows Vast Improvement in Image
Review: One reviewer has argued that "Kubrick personally supervised and we assume therefore was perfectly happy with the original set." In fact, Kubrick approved the original transfers but only for the video and laserdisc editions of his films. He never intended these transfers to be the basis for a DVD collection. Warner Brothers rushed the first collection into stores to coincide with the 1999 release of Eyes Wide Shut. Please refer to the various interviews with Leon Vatali on the web for the comprehensive account.
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Summary: Wait for them to be dead, then defile their memory
Review: Stanley Kubrick never intended for some of these films to be presented in Dolby 5.1 digital surround sound. Kubrick would definitely have to be dead for anyone to purposely defile his intention as an artist. Next they will re-mix a color version of City Lights, with dialogue (for the first time ever in color, sound and digital 5.1 discreet matrixing.) How dissapointed I was when I heard that Citizen Kane would not be re-mixed in 5.1, and would remain in it's boring original version; not a restored post mortem pre-release editing room rough cut version. When filmmaking is as important to someone as it was for Stanley Kubrick, there is nothing lower or more offensive than to change their work as soon as they are unable to defend themselves; to take advantage of them when they are at their most vulnerable, ie.dead....
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Summary: THE LEGENDARY
Review: ALL 8 OF THIS MASTERMINDS MOVIES IN ONE COLLECTION....HOW AWESOME....AND HOW PERFECT....REMASTERED AS WELL......CANT GO WRONG WITH THIS COLLECTION!!
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Summary: Terrific films, but an upsetting collection
Review: The New Stanley Kubrick Collection is definitely a treasure for fans of the individual films as well as filmmaking in general. It's obvious that this boxed set is more worthwhile than the individual DVDs, but why is Spartacus still excluded? By the same token, Eyes Wide Shut, while a great film overall, remains censored for American audiences! Despite my disappointment, I still recommend this.
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Summary: GET THIS ONE NOT THE OLD ONE WORTH WAITING FOR!!!!!
Review: I just read about all the new features on another site and they are more than I want to take the time to list but if you are thinking about buying the old one don't!!! You get "Eyes Wide Shut" in this one along with all the other ones. Sure it is the American version and that is a shame but it is a whole other movie that wasn't included before. Plus these are all new digitial transfers unlike the older box set. You also get the NEW documentery on Kubricks career. Most of the discs have many new features as well and Dr. Strangelove has the most. Like I said I am not going to list them all but I found that this cost 20 dollars more than the cheapest pleace I could find the old box set at and it is WELL WORTH IT. I already ordered mine and can't wait. I am locking myself in the house and watching all of them twice. ALSO I CAN'T WAIT FOR THAT DOCUMENTERY DISC. Yeh sure they are trying to make money but I also read this was all done with his families approval and his wife appears in the special features along with Woody Allen, Steven Speilburg and many other famous people.
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Summary: A response to those who are angry...
Review: .... Warner Bros. were the people in charge of the first set. Although it was approved by Kubrick, he knew they could be done better. This new set has been transfered and supervised by Leon Vitali, a long time friend and associate of Kubrick. These transfers and remasters were done under his strict supervision. The 5.1 tranfers are not going to be as active as, say, The Matrix. They have simply been cleaned up and spread out to make the movies seem more open. Absolutely nothing was altered from Kubricks intent. Kubrick liked stereo, but he hated the way most ...theaters presented it. To prevent a bad presentation of one of his films, he chose to record them in mono. I for one am extremely excited about this new set and am glad I had the patience and foresight enough to NOT buy the first set....
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Summary: Remastering is necessary, though risky.
Review: I've seen what was originally called the "Stanley Kubrick" collection, and though he approved of the cuts that were released, he couldn't have wanted such weak video transfers to represent his films. Much could be done, and hopefully will, to make these as vibrant as they were intended to be. The sound remastering is a stickier issue. We will never know if, when given an example of what it would sound like, Kubrick would really want his Mono movies remixed and remastered to a surround format. If it is done in a subtle and art conscious manner, then it could be a great addition, though with the way that most current movies are mixed there is a real potential for disaster. Regardless, remastering could do wonders for allowing the character of the dialogue, music, and all other planned sound to be clearer than ever before. We'll just have to hope for the best, as far as mixing goes, and hope that it deserves the 5 stars that I gave it. I'll cross my toes. By the way, it is absurd that the "International" version of Eyes Wide Shut will not be in the set. It would be a simple task putting the R version on one side of the disk and the Unrated (by American standards) on the other. In all fairness I've seen posted clips of the digital masking used to lighten the rating, and it didn't really hide that much. You can tell what is going on in the U.S. version, and Kubrick did approve of it. However, it would be wonderful to have the option of seeing it in either form, especially since Kubrick was known to make drastic last minute decisions, sometimes editing a film a few weeks after release, though, unfortunately, he didn't have the chance with his last film.
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Summary: movies for people who like movies
Review: Well, to be honest, i've only seen "the shining" & "full metal jacket". So spending $150 may seem like a bad move, but there's a reason these movies have been brought together. Stanley Kubrick was a _god_ (not THE god, but a god, mind you). His movies have been scrutinized so much, parodied to no end, and it's time for me to see what i might have been missing. It's the same reason i've read Stoker's "dracula" & Orwell's "1984". I'm no fool, I know this set is worth every penny. (@ it's current price, you're paying $16 & change for each disc, which is incredible since some are unavailable otherwise, and separately they cost about $20, or more. I'm not sure how to end, but i'll say that passing on these movies, and this great deal, would be a bad decision to make.
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