Customer Reviews

American Idol - The Best & Worst of American Idol ( Limited Edition )

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I admit, season 5 is the first season of "American Idol" that I started watching it. I ran out to buy this set after I saw the permiere episode of season 5. I was a little spectical at first but Im glad I bought this. Great for a American Idol beginner [like me.] or a avid watcher. I reccomend buying the best and worst together because you get a great bouns disc. This set is one of the best purchases I've made in a long time.


Disc one

Disc one is "The Best of American Idol". It features all the winning Idols audtions {Kelly Clarkson,Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Burrino and Carrie Underwood} You also get the runner-up audtions {Justin Gurinni, Clay Akien, Diana DeGarmo and Bo Bice.} Plus featuretts on how the show is made, "Cuddles" a extremely funny {yet disturbing} short with Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell going on a date. "Your a Star" with montages of good and bad audtions. This disk is great if you want to see great Kelly Clarkson preformances. If you want to see bad audtions get the worst of.

Disc 2

Disc two is "The Worst of American Idol". With Paula Abdul taking us through, we have everyone's favorites. {Mary Roach, Tamika Bush, Scat Girl and more.} Not only will you get William Hung's "She Bangs" audtion but you also get a extended audtion and "She Bangs" proformed with dancers!!! Be sure to take asprin before you watch this disc. Winning and Fun, this disc will be your favorite.

Disc 3

Disc 3 only comes if you buy the "Best and Worst" together. If you are fans of season 4 this disc is totally for you. Packed with interviews with Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice, this disc is OK if you like Carrie. The interview with Carrie lasts about 42:00 and unless you are a mega Carrie fan you'll get a kick out of the interviews. Bo Bice is very funny. I am a big Bice fan and I was so happy to see the Bicer in action! His interview was very very funny. The best feature on the disc is the "Carrie and Bo return home" feature. This feature allows viewers to go in-deph to where Carrie and Bo grew up. {The most winning thing on the disc is watching Bo return home!}

This is the number 1 thing for an American Idol fan to have. You won't be able to live without it. The only thing that bugs me is Carrie's profomance of "Could've Been" by Tiffany isn't here. There could've been more Consentine moments here. I think you only get one preformance from him. That's ok, Buy this now!!

The best thing about "American Idol: The Best & Worst of American Idol (Limited Edition) is not that Paula Abdul is "hosting" the three DVDs rather than Ryan Seacrest, but that all of the Worst bits are on the second of the three DVDs. After watching over an hour Keith Beukelaer and those who cannot sing and Tamika Bush and those who want to argue with the judges, I had to proceed to the third disc. I can only take so much, because I do not watch "American Idol" to see people humiliated, I watch it to see people who can sing learn how to perform in front of millions of viewers. Watching the premier of "American Idol V" this week I was totally disgusted by how not the judges but the producers of the show further ridiculed a young man with gender issues by playing the theme from "The Crying Game" underneath his post-audition meltdown. I really think those who audition and are given a hard reality check by the judges need to be venting at the producers who set them up and not Randy, Paula and Simon. At least William Hung brings a smile to your face for the right reasons, but he is really the only reason to go back and watch anything on the worst disc.

That is why I liked being able to see the complete auditions for the top two contestants from the show's first four seasons. Seeing the judges me impressed is always a lot more fun than watching them come up with minor variations on telling somebody they are terrible. Yes, it would be nice to see more of the memorable performances, but they do get beyond the winners and the winning moments from each season (Kelly Clarkson squealing and crying through "A Moment Like This" is still the best of those, although Fantasia's "I Believe" has its moments too). But "Breaking' Up is Hard to Do" was Ruben Studdard's best performance, and you can say the same for Clay Aiken's "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Fantasia Barrino's "Summertime," Bo Bice's a cappella "In a Dream," and Carrie Underwood's "Alone." They also get beyond the winners, so that you have Tamyra Gray's "Feel the Fire" and Constantine Maroulis' "My Funny Valentine." But you do end up with the eight auditions, nineteen featured performances, to go along with recaps of the seasons (the first three are dealt with together and then season four). There is also the infamous Paula and Simon kissing/nightmare bit (but not the spoof on the big stir about Paula from last year).

The third disc has an extensive interview with Carrie Underwood (the girl knows how to tell stories and the one about not being sure she wanted to actually get on an airplane and fly away from Chekotah is about as endearing as you can get), along with a follow up one with her and interviews with Bo Bice, Vonzell Solomon, and Constantine Maroulis. Then there are "extended never-before seen footage" of Carrie and Bo on their return trips home shortly before the 2005 "American Idol" was crowned. Then the finale is an exclusive Paula Abdul interview where she discusses her experience on the show and her relationships with the contestants and other judges. The interviews alone run close to two hours, so the bonus disc is not a skimpy throw-in. All things considered, fans of Carrie Underwood will be very happy with what they get to see of her on this disc. It even leads you to not only hope but actually believe that life in the big cities and the fast lane will not change this small town girl. She is definitely the star on this disc and makes up for the fact the "Worst" disc brings the overall rating of this collection down.

Well, I've been a HUGE fan of American Idol ever since the beggining. When I heard that they were releasing a 3 disc DVD, I was ecstatic. I thought that I would finally be able to get all those classic performances on DVD, but when I got this, I have to say that I was very dissapointed. Now, this does have SOME of those really great performances. like "Respect" by Kelly Clarkson, "Summertime" by Fantasia, and "Alone" by Carrie Underwood, among a few others, but there are definitley quite a few missing. For example, where is Jasmine Trias' performance of "Inseperable"? and they put Diana DeGarmo's performance of "Enough is Enough" but did not put her signature song "Don't Cry Out Loud", what gives? they also miss a bunch of other great performances, like "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Kimberley Locke, "Circle of Life" by Jennifer Hudson" and "This is the Night" by Clay Aiken. While I'll admit that this is a must have for an American Idol fan, I just hope that if they come out with another box set, they will re-think it and REALLY put the best of American Idol.

For anyone who has ever watched American Idol, even in passing, this is the PERFECT DVD. I am a HUGE fan (Fantasia, Bo, Constantine especially) and I couldn't be happier with this. I especially like the season reviews and all of the extended interviews and performances that are on the "Best Of" disc. There's also great interviews with the idols on tour. I thought that this would be a nice collection of all my favorite parts of the show BUT I was happily surprised to find that this is packed with never before seen footage (and I thought I had seen it all!)

The Collector's Edition has a Bonus Disc that is the greatest---interviews with the season 4 contestants (Carri, Bo, Vonzell and Constantine), and a fantastic interview with Paula Abdul.

The Worst Of disc of this set is hysterical---this is the kind of DVD that EVERYONE will find entertaining (even though you may cringe during some of the really bad performances).

Overall, there's HOURS of entertainment---performances, auditions, interviews, etc. This is the type of DVD that's going to make my Christmas shopping much easier.

I am admittedly a huge American Idol fan, especially Season's 3 & 4 and can't wait to get my copy of the DVD.
The following is a review from the Washington Post that someone posted on the Fox American Idol site. I am posting it for people that want to know more about what's on the DVD's.


High and low notes of `Idol'

New DVD set explores popular show's first four seasons

By Curt Fields

Washington Post


Fans of TV's insanely popular "American Idol" fall into one of two camps. They watch because they enjoy rooting for the occasional discovery of genuinely talented performers, or they enjoy the train wreck of seeing people who have no business being near a microphone destroying a song and acting amazed when they're told they stink.

Whatever your motivation for watching, Tuesday's upcoming DVD releases should tide you over until the show returns in January as "The Best of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98), "The Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($19.98) and, combining the two and tossing in a bonus disc, "The Best & Worst of American Idol: Seasons 1-4" ($34.98) hit the market.

"The Best Of" disc contains some of the show's more memorable moments, including Fantasia Barrino's "Summertime," Kelly Clarkson's "Respect" and Bo Bice's a cappella "In a Dream." It focuses primarily on the top two finalists from each season, so there's lots of Clarkson (the most successful post-"Idol" performer so far), Justin Guarini, Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken, Fantasia (she's dropped the Barrino since winning in Season 3), Diana DeGarmo, Bice and Carrie Underwood.

A few other contestants are represented. Season 1's Tamyra Gray sings "Feel the Fire" and reminds you what a joke it was that Guarini made it to the final two that year.

A collection of season recaps is a fun bit of nostalgia for fans, as is seeing the full-length auditions of the winners and runners-up and watching them evolve musically and stylistically. (Watching Aiken's look steadily transform from geek to pop singer in the photo album feature is a testament to the power of stylists everywhere.) Even the most devoted fans will learn new tidbits. For example, Underwood was flirty and animated at her audition, much more so than during the rest of the season. Who knew she had a personality?

There is a certain amount of filler. I, for one, need never see the skit of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul on a "romantic date" ever again. The photo gallery is a bit boring because there's no sound with it, but it is fun to see how many contestants you can still name.

"The Worst Of" features all the note-cracking, tuneless delusional favorites from the audition shows. The guy who did "Like a Virgin"? Yep, he's on it. The crazy blonde chick? Yep. The guy who needed subtitles? Yep. And many more abysmally bad singers, a large number of whom felt compelled to argue with the judges about their abilities. And, of course, breakout success William "She Bangs" Hung is featured.

If you get the combined package, there's a bonus disc with lots of interviews of various Season 4 contestants, extended footage of Underwood and Bice on their "hometown trips" and an "exclusive" Abdul interview.

This is a great look at a truly phenomenal show. It's an exhaustive (over 10 hours) look at the only interactive reality TV show.

Watching this DVD makes it easy to see why this show is the success that it is. There's comedy (the Worst Of DVD), drama (the season overviews on the Best Of DVD recap all of the eliminations during each of the 4 seasons---some of which STILL will make you shake your head) and, most of all, there's the music. Take another look and listen to Fantasia singing "Summertime" or Bo Bice singing an acappella version of "In A Dream" or Constantine singing "My Funny Valentine" and you'll get chills all over again.

There's tons of interviews that were either cut short during the TV show (like the "return home" interviews on the Bonus Disc) or made only for this DVD (like the interviews with the Idols on Tour that's on the "Best Of" disc).

All in all, I'd say this is a perfect DVD set that everyone from a die-hard American Idol fan to the soon-to-be-fan that has never watched the show before will enjoy.

Great gift potential.

Wow this dvd set shows the best Idol has to offer when you watch it.3 dvds with at least 2 1/2 hours each of pure Idol entertainment.The first disc contains the best performances from the last 4 years from some of the most memorable top singers.Disc 2 has the worst ever auditions from also memorable rejects.(Yes William Hung is here folks!)Also a handful of full auditions where you see it from beginning to end.The best is Leroy Wells's audition and William Hung's.Those two alone are worth the watch on disc 2.Disc 3 contains bonus unseen footage of Idol 4 winners Bo and Carrie with extras.I was disapointed in some of the selections from Disc 1 in the song selections.Kelly Clarksons best performance was when she did Mariah Carey's version of "Without You". I had hoped it would have made the cut here but it did not.But overall the set is worth the "worst" dvd,you get some good laughs out it.If You enjoy American Idol at all this set will cure your hunger in the idol offseason to hold you over.Enjoy!

This was long overdue since American Idol has produced many successful singers, some successful (Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia), some mid-success (Ruben Studdard), some subpar to moderate (Kimberly Locke), and some poorly received (Justin Guarini's flop 150,000 selling debut, Diana DeGarmo's album facing the same thing). I'd rather stick with the best singers from the show to watch and ignore the worst singers DVD. I don't know why some people would prefer to see the worst singers' DVD, since most of them sound bad. Only Koch Records bothered to sign one from that worst singers bunch, William Hung and rush release some lame 45-minute album from him. But I have yet to find out if Tamika Baker, who argued with Simon Cowell in the 2002 auditions, changed her ways, got her act together, and focuses on a music career, let alone making her debut album. She has the look and can sing okay, but the bad attitude has got to go! Or some of the others who sounded bad at first, but are considering other areas like acting but nowhere near singing. The TV exposure does help sometimes--those talent agents watch those shows a lot. There were some very good singers too in the auditions that didn't make the final 234 or the final 117 or the final 87 or 32. Kelly Clarkson has been the most successful to come from that show--a second album that has scored 4 hits and endless radio airplay over 52 weeks since last year's release of it! Her creative growth has just been so dramatic 3 years since she first appeared on that show. Fantasia, Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard, Bo Bice and others have been well received too, with loyal fans. It has taken four seasons for the show to grow and get better with its competition. Simon Cowell is just as rough as ever and Paula Abdul keeps her nice touch, while Randy Jackson
constantly says his What up Dawgs a lot, yet provides encouragement. Ryan Seacrest is still funny, yet has a tendency to outsmart the caustic Simon. Perhaps one of the more impressive performances is of Bo Bice singing Badlands' In A Dream acapella with no musicians playing. This fully moved the show a step up and proved that some of these people are serious about performing in the music business. It was one of the best moments I've seen on TV this year in 2005, hearing Bice's rawness in the singing of this rare song. Fantasia has gotten better and better since she performed on that show, even won some music awards long after her win. I hope that American Idol continues to produce and create future singers and stars, whether they win it, or don't make it to the first or third round of those auditions or finals. While it has a way to go to outlast the 12 years that Star Search was on, this is a very modern and interactive talent competition for the millennium. The viewers choose the best singer, not the record companies. Catchy theme music and a very fun, suspenseful pace.

One thing--how many black shirts does Simon Cowell really have? He wears them so much on the show--he's even set a fashion trend where I see more black shirts worn on many awards shows and events.

heheh, one of the advantages of knowing the people I do is that I get to sneak peeks at different DVD's..hehehe...well I've seen this one.

All I can really tell you is that the Best of is just like you'd expect. You see the best performances, the best moments on a jam...and i mean JAM packed DVD (seriously between both discs 1 and 2 and the bonus disc I'm not sure If I have enough time to watch everything on it!)! On the worst of I found myself trying not too look because of how horrid some people are. It's just sad to a degree to watch these people croak, scream, and cry their way through a song (my fave is Simon's comment after the girl with the Puppets sing "I'm tempted to put the dog through!").

And the bonus disc, well for American Idol this stuff is for you. If you are curious the type of people that get picked, what it takes and what it doesn't take, pick up this DVD. The Deluxe edition I am told will be limited...meaning they are going to destroy the masters after a certain limit. Get it now crew ;)

This DVD set is GREAT!!! The WORST disc is as good as the BEST disc. I really liked the American Idol 4 tour interviews, and the back home footage of Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. Very good DVD set for American Idol Fans!!!!