Customer Reviews

Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Chamber of Secrets / Prisoner of Azkaban / Goblet of Fire) (Eight-Disc Gift Set)

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I went out to buy the newest Harry Potter DVD (Movie 4) on it's release day, even though I don't already own the first two (I do own Movie 3, however). I knew I'd get the two I didn't own eventually, so why not get Movie 4 upon it's release? I arrived at the store and noted the price for the 2-disc Widescreen Special Edition of Movie 4 was about $23 USD. I looked around a bit and found this boxset with all four of the movies in it for $49 USD. That makes them about $12.50 USD each, and even though I'm buying one movie I own already, I'm getting three that I don't for less than I would pay buying them all seperately (Movie 4 was half the price of the boxset alone!).

The boxset contains Movies 1-4 in the 2-disc Widescreen Special Edition format. That is 8 discs total. Each one is packaged the same as it's original release, though Movies 3 and 4 don't have the cardboard slip covers that came with them originally, but they still display just as nicely. The box that the movies come in is rather weak and poorly constructed and I doubt I'll be keeping it, however I bought the set to get the movies at a bargin price and not to get a nice box to put them in.

I strongly recommend this set for anyone who wants to get the whole set for one low price, it's a great way to catch you collection up for cheap!

First things first---Harry Potter isn't just for children.
He belongs to a mythic tradition as old as King Arthur and as new as Luke Skywalker, with such notables as Oliver Twist,
Huckleberry Finn and Dorothy Gale in between--all of them orphans whose adventures teach us something about life, loyalty,
and what it means to be a hero.

This collection of four film is a fine introduction to
the mythology of Harry and Hogwarts, and gives viewers a chance to see its very young stars grow up. Not since the glory days of MGM have such novice performers and seasoned veterans worked together so seamlessly.

Sure, there's plenty of magic going on via special effects--
Buckbeak the hippogriff being a special wonder, but just as magical are the performances of the human actors--seasoned pros like Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane, plus newcomers like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and especially Rupert Grint,
as fine a comic actor as any working today.

This eight-disc collection (one for each film, plus a disc of extras) is a tremendous bargain. If you love movie magic in any sense of the word, this is for you.

The movie is fantastic but I want to comment on the set. It is sad that movie studios think that they don't need to put any effort in production anymore. When the movie was still new and winning its audience, they really went out of their way to make a nice DVD. It was in a letterbox format, lots of nice art, done beautifully. But the third movie the studio didn't feel like all that effort was necessary anymore - we got a plastic box with a colorful insert with information in it. And by the forth movie? The colorful insert is not even there, just a plastic box with two DVDs in it. Wow! Just because we love these movies doesn't mean the company has to treat the viewers like a money making machine. Come on! Did They just pocket all the financial difference between producing a nice DVD set and a crappy one? Very upsetting.

I bought this movie for my two boys thinking it was just a good kids movie, but I found that I enjoyed it more than they did. What a great movie, I own all the ones that arte out on DVD.

Has all the Harry potters with their respective added materials, much cheaper than buying individually.

It really seems that the real point in buying a DVD Boxed Set is to save a little money. Therefore, as you can see, this Boxed Set has a price that's almost the same as the Years 1-3 Boxed Set. That makes it an excelente option for saving money. Moreover, on my case, I bought this Box because in Brazil we don't have a widescreen edition such as you have, and buying this international Box is the only way of seeing the movie at home on the original format. As sad before, maybe people doesn't have the option of renting the widescreen edition.
Finally, let me say that this is the best movie of the collection. Not even close to the magic of the book, but yet a very good entertainment option. I am a big fan of the books and I think the movie was able to show how different the story goes from now on, compared to the first 3 movies.
Buy it, you'll wont regret, specialy if you have kids at home.

The Potter series of books is one of the magnificent achievements of modern English literature. Although entertaning, the movies can do little more than compress and summarize the complex plot of the written storyline. I think they should make an excellent discussion thread centered around the stories, to demonstrate to young readers the difference between movies, constrained by time and expense and the writtne word, constrained only by the author's imagination.
The point wouild be to get the young reader to analyze what s/he has read in the books compared to how the movies present the stories.

As my title says, get these dvds as fast as you can because they will soon be OUT OF PRINT! Dont get fooled though.. this package is just all the previous (soon to be OOP) releases packaged with a very cheap carton box. I would suggest you ditch the outer box and keep them on your shelf individually!

Great buy, quality and money wise!

For a boxed set, it'd be nice to have all four movies packaged as nicely as the first two. They have slipcases and fold open like a book. The third movie is your standard two-disc case with an insert pamplet. The fourth doesn't even have a pamplet. The box they all come in is pretty flimsy (mine came rather beat up). A sturdier one would have been nice.

I was looking for all the HP movies and found different versions (1 disk, 2 disks) of each movie. When I found this set for the years 1-4 in the widescreen edition, I knew it was the way to go. Not only the package is quite attractive, all the movies look great in the widescreen version, and the extra features of the two DVDs of each movie give excellent pay back for my money. I fully recommend this to any Harry Potter fan, while we wait for the last two movies (and the final book!).