filmlover

Corey, check Amazon, they now have a special on 50 Fox and MGM boxsets, including Tyrone Power for $22.49. And the Fox Horror Classics set (Lodger, Hangover Square, Undying Monster) for only $13.49 (that is a great bargain!). http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_6712402_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000219831&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-2&pf_rd_r=1RDMBSCJGN3YZ9F2XC3E&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=384328701&pf_rd_i=130 A few sets can be had at Costco for $15.99 (Sinatra, Joan Collins, Moto, etc.) but there are some good titles here. Unfortunately, I have most of them.

The Amazon Gold Box Deal of the Day for today (the 15th) only is *The Cary Grant Box Set Collection* (containing Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Talk of the Town, Holiday, and The Awful Truth). *The price for today only is $19.99*, 60% off the $49.95 street price. Amazon's normal price is $39.99.

Costco has all five volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection for about $23.99 each. The regular street price is $64.98 each. Amazon sells them at about $46.99 each, so Costco's price is a bargain.

Hi, Corey, I'm Peter.

Edgecliff, don't forget Forbidden Hollywood vol. 2 also just came out. And the special Bonnie and Clyde Set. Upcoming from WB is Popeye vol. 2.and later in the year a horror collection with Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, etc. Though we tend to count a box set as one item, if we look at the individual films, WB has released over 30 classic titles so far this year, and it is only the beginning of April. chinaseas, I suspect what you are anxious about is if WB will release a Harlow set in 2008?

Personally, I don't care for the film, but the title isn't "Paris Always Sizzles." It's called "Paris When It Sizzles," but I have always thought of it as "Paris When It Fizzles."

Here's something you might want to check out and from the last place you would think to look for classic DVD bargains...Albertson's, the grocery store chain. Two times now I have found items in their clearance bin that were surprise bargains. A few weeks back, I got the WB two-disc release of a triple feature: Objective Burma (Flynn), Never So Few (Sinatra), and Go for Broke (Van Johnson) for either $4.99 or $5.99, I can't recall which. Sells on Amazon for $12.99. Today, I found the Sony two-DVD release package set of Twist Around the Clock and Don't Knock the Twist. Again for $5.99. Sells for $17.99 on Amazon. Both were new and factory sealed.

shearer, I checked today and no Classic Musicals v.3 at Costco. However, I did see they had one box each left of the two Moto volumes. Costco may not have the Classic Musicals form the Dream Factory but I got my set from DVDplanet.com today, and it looks good. LOL, eight of the films have a "Powell" in nit, either Elanor or Jane. The ninth film is Kismet. (Why the set didn't have 10 films, instread of 9, I don't know?)

Peter Falk in "Pocketful of Miracles"

cc, that was very well done! Congrats! You got me thinking about what would Star Wars have been like had it been made in the early Sixties. LOL, I suspect we would have Cesar Romero as rascally rogue Han Solo.

Ollie, When you get finished watching it, please post a review of it here (picture quality, etc.). I have been thinking about buying that set. Thanks. Filmlover

Hi, Kim, There is one other Moto film in vol. 2, which is The Return of Mr.Moto starring Henry Silva as Moto. This was included as an extra bonus (though bonus may not be a good word because it isn't very good). Silva adds commentary to it. filmlover

Thanks, ff, for posting that. Also, I am not sure if everyone knows it yet, but Netflix also went Blu exclusive (no HD DVD anymore). One classic title I hope Warner Bros. releases soon on Blu high def is "The Music Man". I saw it on Cinemax HD a few days ago and the high def clarity was incredible. I compared the picture quality of the standard DVD and the high def is far richer in color and in sharpness. I would buy it right away if it came out.

shearer, I will be going in the next day or two so I will let you know. They had Bette Davis vol. 3 and Gangsters vol. 3 last week, so it is a possibility. The prices weren't great though, around $39 or $49. Costco does great on clearance items but lately haven't been doing so well on new release titles.

kim, Check quickly. I was in one store last week and I don't recall seeing the Motos there any longer. The stock does change quickly (and, LOL, other times never at all). filmlover

Yes, Don Q, Son of Zorro was a sequel, with Fairbanks playing both father and son (it mostly focused on the son). However, the film was based on a book that actually had nothing to do with Zorro.

Enchanted (reviewing the Blu-ray version) I was at first hesitant to post a review of this feature since it is so new, but there are enough elements of classic animated films of Disney from the past in here to warrant it, plus there is a special "D-Files" section (exclusive to Blu-ray) mentioned later that does show classic Disney animated clips in high def. The first twenty minutes of "Enchanted" takes place in an animated, musical world where our heroine lives, waiting for her prince to arrive, but the film truly comes to life (no pun intended) when she in is transported to live-action modern day, real-life Manhattan and becomes real (played by the truly charming and captivating Amy Adams). While she waits for the prince to come rescue her, she stays with a lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter who help her. She in turn brings magic into their lives. The film is very enjoyable and the tunes are good. As I mentioned, there are plenty of references to older Disney classics, from easy ones like the evil queen (Susan Sarandon) who turns herself into a spitting image of the old hag from ?Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?, to harder to spot salutes like Paige O?Hara in a TV soap opera telling the man she is with she could never love someone who doesn?t like himself (a reference to starring as the voice of Belle in ?Beauty and the Beast?). The receptionist sitting near the fish tank at the lawyer?s office is played by Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in ?The Little Mermaid.? One of the men who played the chimney sweeps from ?Mary Poppins? is a dancing elderly man in a scene in Central Park. The women who were the voices of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella have lines in a ball sequence. There is much more like this. That in itself is enough to do a review here, but there is a bonus feature on the Blu-ray disc, not on the standard DVD, that earns it a place here. There is an interactive game that can be selected for viewing during the movie called ?The D-Files? ("D" for Disney). A whole lot of multiple-choice questions, mostly easy for fans of Disney history, are asked at different points during the viewing of the film. When you answer correctly, you are taken to a section with someone involved with the filmmaking process of ?Enchanted? and usually a clip from one of the past Disney animated classics involving princesses, such as ?Snow White,? ?Cinderella,? ?Sleeping Beauty,? ?The Little Mermaid,? and ?Beauty and the Beast (okay, so she became a princess at the end).? The best thing is that each clip is done in FULL 1080p HIGH DEFINITION! ?Snow White,? due to its age is the only one that looks like it will not benefit from HD, but the rest are a visual treat and make me long for their eventual Blu release! Highly recommended! P.S. -- I almost forgot to mention that the Blu-ray picture quality and sound of "Enchanted" itself are extraordinary, a definite demo to show people when they come to your home.

Please review Disney classics DVDs here, thanks. When reviewing, good things to keep in mind that people want to know: how good was the film quality, was the film itself any good, what were the extras and how good were they, was there a good commentary, etc. You know, stuff you would like to know if you were thinking about buying a particular DVD.

duplicate post, sorry. Message was edited by: filmlover

Popeye the Sailor Vol. 1 1933-1938 This is a truly exceptional collection from Warner Bros. of the first 60 Popeye cartoons (restored and in order). The video (in their original b&w) and audio are perfect. Two of the highlights are Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor and Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves) two that were done in color at twice the length of a normal color and it?s nice to see beautiful versions of these that you will see often in public domain weak copies. Each of the four discs has several good featurettes (never lasting long enough, unfortunately). An excellent one focuses on the history of animation from the beginnings to 1920. As a bonus, each disc has several ?from the vaults? silent cartoons of other characters (including Krazy Kat, Koko, and Mutt & Jeff). There is also commentary for a number of the Popeye cartoons. As to the commentary, this ranges from excellent to pointless. Jerry Beck, who has written several good books on animation, is very informative. However, they have also include commentary from three modern people working on cartoons, who are more of a having-a-good-time audience (?Gee, look at that? type of thing), and put them on cartoons like Ali Baba when we could truly benefit from someone knowledgeable like Beck. This is definitely a 5 stars out of 5 stars release, a must have. The second volume (1938-1940) will be released on June 17, 2008 but will only be two discs and 31 cartoons. (I suspect some people hesitated paying the $64.98 street price on volume one so they are doing it with less and charging $34.98 with vol. 2). It still looks like a winner because among the extras is supposed to be the full-length animated Gulliver?s Travels (will be great to see this one restored and not like in the public domain copies out there).

FilmF: The clips in the Editing documentary are from various studios. As to a list, there are quite a lot but most of them are so quick, that it wouldn't be worth me stating one above the others.

Bullitt (Blu-ray) The Blu-ray edition of the classic "Bullitt" features a high definition picture, but, regretably, would only give a 3.5 out of 5 for the picture quality. It suffers from too much soft focus and occasional grain. However, it is still worth seeing this film in high def. There is also a commentary by Peter Yates. There is a good featurette from the time of filming that shows the making of the car chase, but it is in standard definition. Also in SD is the special bio feature Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool. My favorite, though, is a new documentary in high definition on Movie Editing, featuring a look at a lot of film clips (and because they are in 1080p in this documentary, we can get a look at how they will look on Blu-ray). The documentary runs about 90 minutes. On the whole, I think this is worth definitely renting but not so sure I would recommend it for a purchase.

Charlie Chan vol. 4 The new Charlie Chan set features four films starring Sidney Toler: Charlie Chan in Honolulu, Charlie Chan in Reno, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, and Charlie Chan in City of Darkness. While the presence of Warner Oland and Keye Luke are missed from the series, Toler and Sen Yung are enjoyable, enough. The four films have excellent picture quality and sound. Each disc has extras that are tied into the film and all are interesting, except the one on San Francisco's Zodiac Killer only shares a passing name with a mysterious figure in Charlie Chan at Treasure's Island amd doesn't really belong. However, there is an nice short on the World's Fair on Treasure Island with a good amount of actual footage of the Fair that more than makes up for it. Another recommended set from Fox.

I have to disagree, strongly, that one should wait until Blu-ray comes down to $150. That may never happen. Or if it does, it may not be until ten years from now. It's a costlier machine to produce than a DVD player. The only reason HD DVD machines were down to about $150 for awhile was because Toshiba tried to win the technology war by losing hundreds of dollars on each machine they sold in hopes of getting people who would buy HD DVD. That faiiled and they lost about a billion dollars on the war. Now is a good time to get into Blu-ray. The Panasonic 30 model handles 1.1 profile (picture in picture). Profile 2.0 players (the ability to download things on the web, though that is of no interest to me at all) are due out within the next month or two from Sony and Panasonic. Blu-ray sales are increasing and will expand a lot during the next year or two. But I doubt they will ever come down to $150. If you see one at about $300-$400, go for it. Believe me, it is worth it. You will be surorised how much difference you will notice with high def, and how it will be hard to watch standard-definition DVDs after that.

Several pages back, I think I mentioned that 2009 should be a great year for Blu-ray classics because WB will be issuing special remastered versions of Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, and The Wizard of Oz. Also, Disney, as has been mentioned before, will be doing Pinocchio in 2009 on Blu. That will be fantastic. I hope in a couple years for its 70th anniversary we will get Fantasia on Blu.