Customer Reviews

America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills: The Ultimate Scream Machines

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

 

 

Finally a rollercoaster documentery with old AND new scream machines! This DVD is PACKED with incredible thrill rides from the beloved Magnum XL-200 to the brand new scream machines never before captured on video or DVD such as Superman Ride of Steel. Included on this DVD is a selection of rollercoasters from around the country, including: Incredible Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Gwazi, Medusa, Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist, Twister, Great Bear, Riddler's Revenge, Superman: The Escape, Volcano: The Blast Coaster, Raging Bull, Viper at Six Flags Great Adventure, Joker's Jinx, Ghost Rider, Superman Ride of Steel, Steel Phantom, Magnum XL-200, Desperado, and Coney Island Cyclone! An INCREDIBLE selection! Also included is a special feature that has a view on the worlds first and only water coaster (Buzz Saw Falls). Not only does this incredible DVD have great coaster choices, it also has the best selection of special features. It has it all from history lessons on certain parks, a very cool "angle feature" on practially every ride! Some interviews with park owners AND designers (including the very cool people who brought us Islands of Adventure!). This DVD also has its own personal soundtrack! The first i know of. Finally this is a perfect DVD for anyone (not just coaster fanaticts!). It has interesting footage and uses sound systems to its fullest (especial the DTS)! So this is definatly a MUST have for ANY coaster fanatic AND anyone looking for a GREAT DVD!

I've seen all the roller coaster videos and this, by far is the best! It truly uses all the advantages of DVD and surround sound audio. You can choose from three angles on the coaster ride sequences and the sound puts you right in the action. When the coaster curves left, the sound curves left, when it rushes by you left to right, the sound rushes by left to right. On the looking-straight-ahead shots you've got screams coming out of the rear speakers from the riders behind you. If you have a good home theater system, crank the sound all the way up and you'll feel the rumble of the coasters right down to the soles of your shoes. And the rock and roll music track is killer, but it doesn't overpower the screams and natural sounds of the coaster. It's a great audio mix. The coasters included are the latest and greatest ones, like Apollo's Chariot, Medusa, Joker's Jinx and Raging Bull, along with some all time favorites like Magnum XL 200, Steel Phantom and Coney Island's Cyclone. And the extra stories you get are terrific. There must be three hours of total programming on the disk! There's a history of Cedar Point, a history of Kennywood, a story about Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO, interviews with designers of Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, FL. It has a complete evening's worth of entertainment. This is a must for coaster enthusiasts, since it faithfully documents each coaster ride from leaving the boarding station to the return, but also it's great to show off the capabilities of your DVD/surround sound home theater system.

Being from New Zealand, rarely do we have the pleasure of riding such awesome Rollercoasters as those listed on this DVD. This Summer, I had the pleasure of holidaying in LA and Orlando, spending much time at parks like Six Flags Magic Mountain, Orlando's Islands of Adventure and Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay. This DVD had all the great Coasters I had ridden: Dueling Dragons, Hulk, Gwazi, Ghostrider, Riddler's Revenge and Superman: The Escape. It was easy to show my Friends all the great rides I had been on and by utilising the Multiple angle feature, I could show them different POVs (Points of View) in sync with the photos I had taken at each Park/Ride. From a personal standpoint, I enjoyed the interviews explaining unique features of a particular Park/Ride especially the one with Universal's Islands of Adventure team. I would love to see more this 'Behind-the-ride' or 'Making-of-the-ride' stuff included in future releases. Most of my letdowns have been noted in other reviews; Only one side of Gwazi and Dueling Dragons (Fire) is shown (This not entirely true, Front POV is Fire but the People riding in Angle 1 and 3 are on Ice) Medusa is TOO fast and as mentioned a promo film from Six Flags. I also believe Superman: The Escape and Magnum XL-200 are 'recycled' footage. Why? No Goliath or Millennium Force in the background of their respected parks. OK so I'm being pedantic, but I believe the Riddler's Revenge footage has been cut down in all Angles so you get about 75% of the full ride. Another Pet peeve of mine is the sheer fact that Angle 2 (Front car POV) sometimes switches between Front POV, Side POV and sometimes 'look back' POV to the people on Board. This is most obvious on the Apollo's Chariot footage which really distract from what would be an otherwise great ride footage. I liked the music as it often set the mood and pace of the ride video but as other have suggested, I would love to see this as an optional soundtrack. So to sum it all up:

Negatives: Inconsistent POVs, Recycled Footage, Some incomplete or distorted (Medusa) ride footage

Pluses: Multiple angles, Insights to Parks and Rides, Best collection of Parks and Coasters on a single DVD

Needed Improvements: Show both sides of a Duel track Coaster, Make the Music soundtrack optional, More behind the scenes look at the highlighted Coasters.

I highly recommend this to all Coasters enthusiasts and look forward to purchasing future releases.

Only one star, because it's not possible to give a 1/2 star.
This was a great disappointment to me. Whatever possessed the producers to release this DVD as it is, is beyond me.

Yes it goes into detail about:
Where the rides are.
The ride: length; height; speed; designers etc. but fails to deliver what I expected, which was a 1st person perspective.

What you get, at a conservative ratio estimate is:
5% 1st person view (your view as the rider)
40% 2nd person view (your face as you are on the ride)
55% 3rd person view (the ride viewed from all different angles)

If the producers of this DVD are trying to promote the rides AND this DVD, then I think they need to give you the three options above for the whole ride i.e. 100% of all 3 views from a selectable menu, as per...
1st person view would let you know exactly what to expect on the ride. It would also give those unfortunate enough not to be able to actually get on these rides a chance to "ride the rollercoaster" at home.
2nd person view would give you the impression that there is a hold-up in progress when everyone puts their arms in the air...seriously though it would let you see the expressions on the faces of the people on the ride like the "horror look" as they face that first drop. It could also give you a "rear view" look of the ride as well.
3rd person view would give you an overall appreciation of the ride viewed from all different angles and the construction that went into it.

Giving you the option of 3 different viewing angles would make this a far better product and a worthy addition to any DVD collection.....something for the producers of this type of product to think about.

This has to be the best roller coaster movie that I have ever seen!! When I first got it in the mail I was so extited about this and When I watched it I was amazed. It blew my expectations away and I was so thrilled. I probably will sound obsessed with coasters, that is true I love coasters so much and this movie really shows some of the best in america and My personal favorite is the HULK which is the first coaster you will see on this movie and The music they pley really matches what you are seeing or if you were on the ride what you would probably feel I love this movie this is a must have for people that love and really like coasters there are many on this movie that this coming summer of 2006 I will be riding becuase of this movie


A speacial thanks to all the parks and designers of these rides and a very big thanks to the makers/producers/narrarator you all did a great job with this movie and the acers (america coaster enthusiusts) Thanks this is the best movie Ever I watch it atleast 1 time a day I have gone through over 2 disks of this already because I wore them out they finnaly went bad afeter the 1000th time I watched them so I am probably going to get like 5 or 6 more thanks SIncerely a Customer OF AMAZON.com and the people who made this PS. this is a great movie for kids to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) have a great day and thanks for reading this

I found this dvd the best rollercoaster movie I have ever seen.It has lots of features. 3 diffrent angle views. Lots of good coasters. Hulk, Dueling Dragons, Raging Bull, Viper (SFGAm), Medusa, Superman the Escape, Riddlers Revenge, Jokers Jinxs, Volcaneo the blast Coaster, Magnum XL 200, Coney Islands Cyclone, Ghostrider, Desparado, Great Bear. Just to name a few. I would recommend buying this if you really love coasters.

Of all the Roller Coaster Videos and DVD's that I've seen, this has to be one of the best. This video includes great footage of every coaster and some POV shots. That is one of the things that makes me happy. I find the new Roller Coaster videos better becasue they include the newest Roller Coasters. This DVD includes both of the Coasters at Islands of Adventures, Gwazi from Busch Gardens, Volcano from Paramounts Kngs Dominion, Joker's Jinx, Appolos Chariot, Superman-The Ride of Steel, and Superman-The Escape and Riddler's Revenge from Magic Mountain. This movie also includes a few more. Definetly get this movie!

I haven't seen many roller coaster dvds, but I can imagine this rates high above some others. It goes into a fair bit of detail about the particular coaster you are seeing on the screen. It will tell you the designers, the duration, the speed and the highest heights of it. They have some pretty scary rides let me tell you, but they look like so much fun.
The reason I dropped a star for the review is for the 'silly screaming' of all the girls. It's annoying after awhile. The second reason I dropped a star, is because it's quite annoying when they show you what it's like to be on the coaster via set cameras (so you get a really good feel about what fun it would be) and the next thing you know, they are showing it at another angle. I like coaster films where the camera is on the coaster and you watch it like you are riding the ride. I don't like tidbits of such angles only to have them pan away to the external shot so you lose that great feel. Despite this slight annoyance, if you are a fan of coasters like I am; you'll really apreciate this high quality production.

When it comes to roller coaster dvd's, there are unfortunately only two choices: you het either an exciting dvd that shows roller coaster rides from your (among others) point of view but gives no information about the coaster whatsoever, or the dvd gives a lot of interesting information but hardly shows any rides. This is the first type of dvd. This is all you get, but what it shows you, it shows that very well.

I purchased this DVD because of it's features listed in the technical information sheet. As a Home Theater Salesman in Australia, good dts software is hard to come by, but very necessary. Non-violent, but yet exciting dts scenes that can be demonstrated to the average family are hard to find, especially ones with dramatic flucuations in dynamics etc. This DVD promised everything; dts; multi angle; interactive menus, etc. While the multi angle feature on this title is excellent for demo, the soundtrack itself is hopeless. The dominant sound is music in dts, and not rollercoaster sound effects as I had hoped. I'm hoping that if a second disc is made, there is an option to remove the music in the sound option menu.