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256 of 260 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
NOT LAUGHING OVER THE TRANSFER QUALITY, April 6, 2003
This review is from: The Three Stooges DVD Collection (Curly Classics / Spook Louder / All the World's a Stooge) (DVD)
Columbia Tristar continues to neglect their wealth of classic catalogue titles by giving us movies that we really want to see in transfers that range from disappointing to absolute rip-offs. Over the course of their tenure at Columbia, "The Three Stooges" made some 200 short subjects that rank among the funniest one reelers ever made. It's no wonder these guys are a cultural icon - they're incredibly funny. But you won't be laughing when you see the quality of some of the transfers represented on these discs. Here's the long and short of it - in the mid 1990's somebody at Columbia decided it was time to honor the stooges with a laserdisc box set. So technicians at the studio went to their library and digitally remastered 32 short subjects and marketed them as a box set. However, in the intervening years, DVD replaced laserdisc and, with sales of classics slumping over at Columbia, the new regime decided that they would rather just slap any old quality of transfer onto a disc, rather than take the time to repair and remaster these classic shorts. But, they still had the original 32 remastered laserdisc transfers at their disposal. So what Columbia did was to spread these 32 shorts throughout their recently released DVD series and shove in three or four truly awful transfers in between on each disc, hoping the consumer wouldn't notice, wouldn't care or wouldn't complain about the varying degrees of quality. Well - I'M COMPLAINING!!! While certain shorts exhibit a relatively good gray scale and contrast levels, others are riddled with excessive film grain and digital compression artifacts including aliasing, shimmering and edge enhancement problems and extremely poor audio tracks that are either rendered at listening levels way below what is considered normal or are incredibly strident and scratchy. In keeping with the penny pinching - though in no way is the studio's spend-thrift attitude reflected in the price you'll be paying, there are NO EXTRAS! I've reviewed only this box set herein, but I've had a chance to view all of the currently available stooge material and I have to tell you that this review could easily apply to any of the DVD's currently on the market. BOTTOM LINE: NO WAY! NO HOW! NOT EVEN A NYUK, NYUK!
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99 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MORE NYUKS FOR YOUR BUCKS!, May 3, 2002
This review is from: The Three Stooges DVD Collection (Curly Classics / Spook Louder / All the World's a Stooge) (DVD)
This Three Stooges boxed set collects 3 of their best DVDs, for a total of 19 shorts. "CURLY CLASSICS" has 6 shorts, starting with their very first one from 1934, "Woman Haters." It's also unique in that the entire short is done in rhyme. "Men In Black" features the stooges as doctors whose motto is, for duty and humanity! It's one of their best and was even nominated for an Academy Award. "Three Little Pigskins" finds the stooges mistaken for star college football players, and is notable for featuring a blonde Lucille Ball. "A Plumbing We Will Go" shows the stooges to be three of the best plumbers who ever plumbed! As with many of their shorts with Curly, it was later remade with Shemp. In "Punch Drunks" Curly pops off whenever he hears Pop Goes The Weasel and punches his way to the heavyweight boxing championship. "Micro-Phonies" is hilarious, with Curly in drag as Senorita Cucaracha and Moe and Larry as Senors Mucho and Gusto. Not since Andy Kaufman did Mighty Mouse has lip synching to a record been this much fun. "ALL THE WORLD'S A STOOGE" has 7 shorts. The title short has the stooges disguised as children who are going to be adopted by a wealthy couple. "Violent Is The Word For Curly" does NOT involve him as a boxer or a wrestler. In fact, the stooges go from gas station attendants to being mistaken for visiting professors at Mildew College for Women. This short features them doing the classic song Swinging The Alphabet. In "Three Dumb Clucks" the stooges try to stop their father (played by Curly with sideburns) from marrying a young gold-digger, whose gangster friends plan to kill him for his money shortly after the wedding. This short was also redone later with Shemp to great effect. In "Grips, Grunts And Groans" Curly goes ballistic whenever he smells a certain perfume, which Moe and Larry use when Curly has to take the place of a drunken wrestler. In "Uncivil War Birds" Curly joins the Confederate army while Moe and Larry join the Union forces. Amazingly, the country survived this conflict! "Back To The Woods" features the stooges as palefaces dealing with Indians in one of their weaker efforts. In "Three Little Pirates," the shipwrecked stooges must don disguises and use their wits (speaking gibberish) to escape from the governor of Dead Man's Island. "SPOOK LOUDER" has 6 shorts, 1 with Curly and 5 with Shemp. The title short finds Curly and company as traveling salesmen who end up at the mansion of an eccentric inventor. It ends by answering the burning question, who's throwing those pies? "Fright Night" is Shemp's first short with Moe and Larry. Shemp's sparring with the boxer Chopper is priceless. (What's good for a fractured skull?) "Shivering Sherlocks" finds the stooges falsely accused of being bank robbers. The best scene is in the police station when they take the lie detector test. "Hokus Pokus" finds the stooges hypnotized by the Great Svengarlic and walking out on a flagpole high above the ground. Look out below! My personal favorite is "The Ghost Talks." The stooges must remove furniture from spooky, old Smorgasbord Castle, including a suit of armor. They discover that the suit is inhabited by the ghost of Peeping Tom. He does not want to be moved from his ancient home and he does his best to scare them away, although Shemp scares himself just by looking in the mirror! "Mummy's Dummies" is set in Ancient Egypt and features the stooges as used chariot salesmen. They stick the King's palace guard with a lemon and are taken to the palace to be executed. They are spared when they cure the King's toothache. They also save the day by uncovering a plot against the King and recovering stolen tax money. The grateful King rewards them with his daughter's hand in marriage. Since the daughter is ugly, Moe and Larry volunteer Shemp to be her husband. There is no truth to the rumor that "The Scorpion King" is loosely based on this story!
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
NOW APPEARING "THE THREE STOOGES" AT AMAZON, February 8, 2004
This review is from: The Three Stooges DVD Collection (Curly Classics / Spook Louder / All the World's a Stooge) (DVD)
First off let me say that as a "Three Stooges" fan this set is worthy of 5 stars. I only gave it 4 stars because of the DVD format and not the actual shorts themselves. After each short is done you have to return to the main menu to select the next short on the disc. This set is a great deal for stooge fans at Amazon's current price. I just purchased 4 other stooge titles separately at over $100 so this really is a bargain.
Now as far as Columbia Pictures and their release of the "Three Stooges" on DVD, I'm disappointed that the discs only have 5-6 shorts on them. We all know that a DVD can hold more than what they have put on them, so this really is all about making more money for Columbia Pictures and their blatant attempt to gouge the consumer some more.
If Warner Studios can put out Gilligan's Island on 3 double sided discs with 36 episodes in running order, than Columbia Pictures should be capable of doing better. I am anxious to see what Universal Studios has done with the upcoming Abbott and Costello box sets. Universal Studios have a 2 double sided disc set with 8 movies for around $22 coming out. Columbia Pictures should take note of what the other major Studios are doing and give us "Three Stooges" fans more for our money!
I have a feeling that eventually Columbia Pictures is going to do the right thing and finally release the "Three Stooges" in chronological order in box sets. I just hope I'm around to see it!
Disc #1 -(Curly Classics)
A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
Men in Black (1934)
Micro-Phonies (1945)
Punch Drunks (1934)
Three Little Pigskins (1934)
Woman Haters (1934)
Disc #2 -(Spook Louder)
Spook Louder
Mummy's Dummies
Shivering Sherlocks
The Ghost Talks
Hokus Pokus
Fright Night
Disc #3 -(All the World's A Stooge)
Grips, Grunts and Groans
All the World's a Stooge
3 Dumb Clucks
Three Little Pirates
Uncivil War Birds
Violent Is the Word For Curly
Update: April 2011
Three Stooges Fans asked for it and Sony/Columbia pictures finally delivered.Fans can now own all 190 "Three Stooges" shorts completely Restored & Remastered in glorious Black and White spread out over Eight amazing volumes. For fans on a budget the 3 disc collection is still a great way to start, but the new volumes from Sony/Columbia are absolutely superior in every way. The picture and sound quality is the best I've ever seen and heard, it's a "Stooges" dream come true!
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