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Stanley Kubrick Collection

Stanley Kubrick Collection

List Price: $149.92
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is a very good collection!
Review: I don't understand what people are thinking when they give this collection 1 star. Kubrick didn't want the adio in dolby 5.1 (except for 2001: a space odyssey) and he didn't want the shining and full metall jacket in widescreen. WB has already told that(If you didn't read that then it's your problem)and I don't (and I hope more people won't) care what you people think about the transfer, when I know that Kubrick wanted the movies that way.

The picture is also much better than VHS and the only thing that I think is bad is that there isn't many extras but i still think it's well worth 5 stars because, when you gott some of the greatest movies ever made, the bonuses is not the important part. It's that you can see the movies!

I can say to all the people who think that the transfer is bad that GODZILLA on DVD has dolby 5.1, widescreen and plenty of bonuses. Even if it is a crappy movie I recommend it to you.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Kubrick's Death Exploited!
Review: I almost cried when I put in Clockwork Orange only to find it recorded mono and with Pan and Scan TV editing. I kept franticly going back to the DVD menu thinking that I must have missed something. Many of the movies suffer this same fault, as well as being recorded down to 1 channel (mono) audio. The truth is you get better performance out of a VHS tape with many of these transfers. Furthermore I was shocked to see actual film scratches in the transfer of The Shining. Someone rushed these titles to DVD to capitalize on our loss of one of the geniuses of modern cinema. Don't buy this - wait for a more respectable edition to be released.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What's in the box? Not silly wrapping paper!
Review: Why are so many of you complaining about superficial details that are not pertinent to this collection? These films were made prior to the advent of many modern technological devices for high fidelity sound and picture. What of it? In twenty years people will think that today's technically great films are ridiculous in their two-dimensionality and very unreal sound, but they'll still appreciate the artistic quality of Stanley Kubrick's films. They never were and never will be about audio or video quality, but about story, character portrayal, scenario, etc. If you consider WB's job "disrespectful" of Mr. Kubrick's artistic efforts, consider your own comments. He did not make these films to satisfy his audience's cravings for a realistic experience. I wouldn't be surprised if any of you thought Eyes Wide Shut was too "dreamy" or "imaginary." These comments are meant to be about content, not packaging, except perhaps in the case of vacuous movies ("films" is not an appropiate word to use here) like Star Wars.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!!
Review: All of the people giving negative reviews to this collection need to know something. FULL METAL JACKET and THE SHINING were filmed in full screen, and they cannot be shown in widescreen, the way KUBRICK intended it. ALL video versions of these movies are in the 1.37:1 ratio. get over it, as much of a fan of widescreen that i am, this does not bother me since kubrick liked it this way. and ALL of his movies were filmed in mono, i read a biography on Stanley saying that he does not trust stereo sound, therefore all of his films are in mono. this should clear most of the confusion

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kubrick has no peer in Contemporary Film
Review: Stanley Kubrick is one fo the few contemporary directors that understands movies are an art form and not an appeal to the larger aestetics of mass media. Kubrick's movies are truly an artistic expression and a medium the he shows the world from his perspective. Kubrick does not try to hide his feelings, disquise or dance for executives. His work has been made popular because it is like the work of geniuses from the past. It is recongized as deep, influential, provocative, but more importantly it touches the viewer in ways the viewer can not predict. There is thought and so much can be derived and seen through Kubrick's movies. He utilizes all points of good film-making. His use of framing, the music score, characters, every aspect that can communicate ideas is used. Kubrick's work though limited in volume is by no means limited in thought. The cinema is Kubrick's forum and he uses it without apologies. Those that criticize Kubrick's work as being too sexual, or too intense are lost in the point. Kubrick uses nudity the same as a painter would. It is beautiful and should be celebrated. To condemn art because it is not in sync with current moral values is too silence much good artwork. Stanley Kubrick should be hailed as one of the great film-makers. On par I feel with Alfred Hitchcock and D.W. Grifith, and better than any contemporary director.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: My favorite movies are being maimed!
Review: I got this DVD collection being a fan of what stanley kubrick has done for movies. I still am now but it is appalling what WB did to these movies. Putting FMJ in wide-screen is disgusting. Be advised! DO NOT BUY these DVD's unless you don't care about sound, or the way the screen is formated.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Simply put, "Exploitation of auteur's death"
Review: The moment I loaded up the Barry Lyndon, one of the disc from the package, I could not believe my ear. Handel's Sarabande was being played in mono. If you have seen Barry Lyndon, you would understand how unacceptable this is. I am not fanatic about wall banging sound effects. I would have been happy with stereo as I was with Taxi Driver. But YOU DO NOT release a film about 18th century with full of music from Handel, Bach, Schubert and more with mono track. Are you kidding? The bad story doesn't end here. The color is washed out so badly, Kubrick's ingenious candle light scenes don't look ingenious any more.(Sorry, Zeiss) Transfer is so bad, I could actually saw film damage showing up toward the end of the movie. I read about how badly Holywood studios could be. But this is beyond what I have imagined. I cannot believe major studio like Warner Bros release this right after death of one of their most respected director. Only respectable piece here is Space Odyssey 2001, just because it was released way before Kubrick's death and simply included in the packaging. Believe me, you don't miss any by not buying this. If you want to see them again, rent VHS. At least they are in stereo and costs a lot less. I am kicking myself for breaking my own rule of not buying packaged movies because usually they are scams and falling in this trap. This just proved that my own rule is right. I am extremely enraged.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The problem is, most people don't have REAL home theatres
Review: Sure, Full Metal Jacket and Shining are okay on a SMALL, 1x44 television, but if you own a widescreen HDTV, which enhances the aspects that DVD has to offer, the movies fall FAR SHORT of what DVD has to offer. If you are not a movie connieseur, go ahead and buy this collection, but if you bought your dvd player for higher quality, DEMAND that higher quality. Otherwise, keep buying VHS movies. When you get your first 35" or larger tv, then post how wonderful the movies are visually, and when you have a DTS decoder with 5.1 surround speakers, then say how wonderful the audio is, but the simple fact is, on smaller tv's using the audio directly from the tv or using simple stereo, you really won't notice how BAD these transfers are (except for the Shining which is HIDEOUS. Burn marks in the film, jumping, jitter...ugh...enough to send me to an early grave). IF I could return my set, I would. They are that bad. Buy them individually (2001 is in a Keep case individually, and in a snapper in the set).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: movies great, DVD quality okay, non-purists will like set
Review: I'm glad I bought this set. The DVD quality isn't that bad. It could be better, yes, but these discs are the best picture available for these films and I enjoyed watching The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. I especially thought The Shining wasn't as bad as the nay-sayers would have it.

On the flip side, I definitely think Warners short-changed the audience on these discs. So Stanley Kubrick personally approved of these discs? Well, perhaps Warners should have taken it upon *themselves* to do a full restoration and enhancement on their own. I mean, Kubrick WAS busy working on Eyes Wide Shut. He probably gave the whole project a cursory glance and said, "Looks good, go for it" without being shown what a good DVD production could look like. If he'd known, I'm sure he wouldn't have let these discs go out the way they did.

Bottom line: Kubrick fans should buy these discs, they're great movies and they're on DVD. Kubrick purists should save their money and rent them from Blockbuster, until Warners or Criterion come out with special edition sets.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Someone Needs To Get Tolchocked For This!
Review: Greate movies, bad DVDs. Actually the DVDs are passable overall, but some of them individually are quite flawed. Take "The Shining", which looks grainy and is shown "unmatted" to completely fit a TV screen. Though technically you get more picture, this actually lessens the film. For example, in the opening aerial shot you can see the camera helicopter's shadow on the mountainside in the lower right corner of the frame.

Other problems include a dearth of goodies, cheap cover cart on the discs (I've seen bootleg CDs that look better), indifferent sound, and shoddily designed menus. When "Dr. Strangelove" loads up, for example, it first goes into a 3 minute Time Warner commercial before bringing up a menu system that somehow manages to look both garish and barren at the same time (perhaps it's the awful pastel color scheme that was chosen for it).

This is of course not the first time Time Warner has mucked up a title. Though DVDs can hold more than 4 hours of video per side (8 if dual layers are used) they made both "Amadeus" and "Goodfellas" "flippers", meaning you have to flip the disc in order to see the second half of the movie. And while we're at it I might as well say that I hate the "clamshell" packaging only they seem to favor, which does not stack or resist damage as well as the "keep case".

Anyway, do not buy this poor job from Time Warner unless you absolutely have to have Kubrick's films in your collection. If you want to see the real potential of the DVD format get "Taxi Driver", "Sweet Hereafter", or "Ghostbusters" instead.


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