Rating: 
Summary: Parts excellent; song selection cynical; extras flakey
Review: Most people will have seen and loved much of what's on it: Queen's video output through the 1980s was of course hilarious (though some cuts - such as Invisible Man and especially the Hot Space material - have dated horribly). With the exception of anything from the Innuendo material, pretty much everything Queen released on video in the period is here. Since you'll mostly know what you're getting I have focussed on some more questionable aspects of the package:EMI, bless them, seem to have divided Queen's oeuvre up into three periods: the seventies, the eighties and the nineties (in Queen's case, all one year of it!). Actually there are really only two periods: The "early" era (1972's "Queen I" to 1980's "Hot Space") and "late" era (1984's "The Works" through to 1991's swansong "Innuendo"). Between the simply awful Hot Space and the far superior The Works, the band, which had fallen apart during the making of Hot Space (check out the fun they were having together in "Las Palabras De Amor" if you don't believe me), thought very hard about splitting and, I think, returned only upon the realisation that solo careers weren't going to reap the creative or financial rewards that toughing it together out might. This turned out to be a very good call. Also, Roger Taylor's drums sounded a million times better in the early era than in the late era, but perhaps that's just me. So this collection ought to cover the "late" era entirely, rather like the Greatest Hits 2 Compact Disc does. It doesn't. It includes three videos from the Hot Space album, (especially curious given how execrably bad two of them are, and the fact that the other (Under Pressure) isn't a Queen video at all, but some file footage of buildings exploding and cars crashing hastily tacked together with extracts from FW Murnau's 1922 vampire movie Nosferatu. Yes, quite ... go figure! Nor is there any material from Innuendo. But, hey, look at it from EMI's perspective: Something watchable has to go in the Greatest Video Hits 3 package, after all - they won't shift too many units if the best it has to offer is material from the post-mortem stinker "Made In Heaven", will they? There shouldn't even be a Greatest Video Hits 3, of course, just like there shouldn't have been a Greatest Hits 3. That's not how The Man sees it, though. The last odd thing is that the "extras" DVD is pretty much full of rubbish. Uninteresting interviews and footage of Queen's several "performances" at the Montreux Pop Festival during the 1980s, which were actually (and painfully obviously) mimed to a backing track. Totally inessential viewing. It's not like there isn't great live footage from the period, unavailable elsewhere, which could have been included (the Live Aid set leaps to mind - perhaps EMI wasn't interested in a slice of its profits going to charity?). And I've seen plenty of better interviews than the ones included on the disc. Fundamentally, the second disc exists only to inflate the price of the package. So the upshot is, the good is very good, but the package suffers a lot from decisions made from a purely commercial perspective. Bad, BAD EMI! Olly Buxton
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimate DVD from the ultimate rock band
Review: Queen has released another great DVD for Queen fans around the world. The sound is great, as well as the picture. Disc One offers tracks from the greatest flix II (except for tracks from the Innuendo album) but includes tracks that never made it to the flix II. Disc two offers bonus unseen tracks and footages for the first time on DVD. The live performance of "Staying Power" is so spectacular that I've played it again & again. I hope they also release it on audio CD. Yes Queen lip synched on the Montreux festivals, but that might be what they're supposed to do on the show, because we all know that they will might as well play it live. At least Freddie did his 'vocal exercises' again. You will also love the interviews, most of them for the first time on DVD. You will also see Freddie saying that if he's not fit to run around the stage he will continue to write songs. If he only had lived on...then we'll have more hits to listen to. You can also sing along to the minus one versions of Under Pressure, I Want to Break Free, Friends Will Be Friends, and The Miracle, one on each section of disc 2. With the Innuendo tracks being left off, i'm assuming that Queen will be doing Greatest Video Hits III. I could only hope that they will include unseen concerts, especially the Milton Keynes performances and also the complete Queen set of Live Aid.
With it's superior picture and sound quality and over 3 hours of bonus materials, I definitely recommend this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Video Hits...and misses
Review: Queen once again dip into their video vault and release "Greatest Video Hits 2", a 2 DVD set that has as many downs as there are highs. Let's deal with the downs. Queen has once again decided to reformat their videos for a widescreen presentation, in other words the videos are *not* in their original aspect ratio (with the exception of 1 or 2 clips.) This utter disregard for the director's original intent is something that everyone should criticize. If something was filmed for a full screen presentation, then it should be shown that way. Queen have still refused to explain this ridiculous decision. "A Kind of Magic" and "Hammer to Fall" look the worst because of this mindless matting with the former causing everyone to look "fat" and the latter making everyone looked stretched "thin." Color saturation also continues to be a problem as well as contrast. Director David Mallet was in charge of the "remastering" and he's done an awful job of it (and that includes 'Video Hits 1'.) Yes, these videos look a bit better than volume 1 but that's because they're more recent, not because of somebody "cleaning up" the videos. If this is "remastered" then my name is George W. Bush. On the other hand the DTS surround mixes are exceptional (as always.) However the 5.1 label is rather misleading as the center speaker is rarely used (and I stress "rarely") so DTS 4.1 might be a better description. Anyway, the sound is rich, crisp and clean, especially the mixes of "The Miracle" tracks. The audio commentary by Brian May and Roger Taylor is very frank and honest - when they hate a video like "It's a Hard Life", they come right out and say it. Roger is usually pretty funny. Thankfully they decided not to edit in old audio clips of Freddie Mercury and John Deacon into the mix as they did with 'Video Hits 1.' They just didn't fit in. The bonus material on disc 2 is something of a mixed bag. The "Hot Space" section offers the best of the lot with rare video clips like "Back Chat" being included WITH DTS and audio commentary (unlike GVH1 which were just thrown on there.) The live clip of "Staying Power" was awesome and I hope it's a teaser for a forthcoming "Milton Keynes" DVD. All of the interview segments were generally boring, I would've prefered new interview footage so that Brian and Roger could put the albums/videos into perspective after all these years.
The Montreux "performances" where Queen mimed to songs was just painful to watch. (Speaking of painful, there's an easter egg on disc 2 featuring a version of "Who Wants To Live Forever" by 1 of Brian May's kids and it will certainly make you cringe.) The making of segments for "The Miracle" videos were interesting though but there just wasn't enough of it. More behind-the-sceens material please! The DVDs menus continue to improve however the packaging such as the cover art barely fit in the case, it seems it's too small and comes up short because you can see the holes in the DVDs case. A minor complaint I know. Anyway, Queen's DVDs could be the best on the market but their continuing disregard for OAR (Original Aspect Ratio) is alarming, cutting off vital pieces of the picture frame and the resulting distortion of the image really brings the overall quality down a great deal. However I suppose you can always turn your TV off and listen to the surround mixes (which is a shame, this is DVD we're talking about, an audio AND visual format. Sadly Queen seem to put more effort into how it sounds rather than how it looks.)
Rating: 
Summary: great flix
Review: Some ups and downs, but overall a nice feeling about this release. The 5.1 mix is a blessing for the songs on disc 1, then you wonder why they dont give the same treatment to their music catalogue, they need a proper new remaster. Unlike the vhs edition, there are no Innuendo videos, filling space with hot space material, the candid commentaries from Brian and Roger from all the videos are a welcomed bonus, very interesting and funny.
The bonus in disc 2 is rewarding, but there is one thing I dont understand: in many interviews (one of them included in this disc) the band is quoted saying that they hate lip-sync cos they think is no genuine and so on...which is true, nevertheless in the same disc they give us too many tracks from a Montreaux pop festival poorly mimed by Freddie, this is just filler and a big contradiction.
The staying power live performance is a great rendering of a just regular song. The interviews are interesting enough but they dont tell you anything you havent heard before. The one vision documentary is a nice treat too, let you look inside the band making a great song like one vision.
All in all, buy it you wont regret it, it got flaws but the band clearly made a nice effort to please their fans, and they did.
Rating:
Summary: The DVD Collection: GVH 2
Review: The latest edition in the already huge Queen collection, Greatest Video Hits 2, is simply astonishing! First of all, the bonus clips and extras are marvelous, like the rare 'Back Chat' clip, or the Montreux Golden Rose festival performances in '84 and '86, secondly the way audio and video were restored are superb. The video is simply perfect, far better than the Flix II video/DVD (Brazil) release. The PCM sound is very good, and I won't even mention the DTS 5.1 Surround! This is a must for any true music lover!
Rating:
Summary: Not Fully Conclusive
Review: This collection of Queen Videos covers the bands later years and does a good job of it even though the Live version of Staying Power is now redundant since the Dvd is out which its found on. This is also incomplete. Queen overlooked some top notch Music Videos for Innuendo and the Videos for Made In Heaven which featured a bearded Freddie Mercury in his last days.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This set is a great continuation from the first(Queen Greatist Video Hits 1); the surround sound mixing is exceptional; like hearing all the songs again for the first time the way they were meant to be heard, and there's tons of fun special features as listed in the first review to keep you busy for a while. Five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Video Compilation Ever
Review: What can I say? Queen's latest installment of The DVD Collection - Greatest Video Hits 2 - is spectacular. Not only does feature hits but it features misses as well. Many of the videos presented here were previously available on Greatest Flix II and some were never available in the US, particularly It's A Hard Life, Friends Will Be Friends, Breakthru, The Invisible Man, and Scandal. Also, the bonus videos on disc 2 were never released in any format whatsoever. This is truely a real treat for Queen fans everywhere. Everything about this release is just right. You can't expect anything better than this. Although, there is one big disappointment. Queen's Montreux Golden Pop Festivals of 1984 and 1986 could have been much better if they were not lip-synched by the band. It's so relevant that Freddie is seen lip-synching his own music considering he was one of the greatest showmen in pop history. Overall, this is one DVD worth buying. It's absolutely great and I can't wait for Video Hits 3 to be released. I'm sure it will be even greater than the previous two.
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