Customer Reviews

Warner Classics Mega Collection

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

 

 

As a big movie buff and collector, and a big Warners fan, this is a great collection. God knows that I have spent more than $1500 collecting movies. Some people have criticised the cost, but, this is clearly designed for people like me, who are big collectors. Spending $1500 on this is no different than people who spend $1500 on a Steiff animal or porcelin dolls.

The only disappointment is that Warners has YET to put the movie that really made Warners a major player on DVD, The legendary "Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson. that one disc would complete my collection of the AFI top 100 films of all time. I'm really missing that classic. So, please Warner, if you see this, release the great 1927 classic and complete my collection.

Over the course of three years, Warners has risen to the top of big studios when it comes to their treatment of vault titles. It seems like every month I've another Warners boxset coming in the mail. I'm still watching the Garbo collection. If you haven't had a chance to delight in not only their fine transfers, but amazing bonus shorts, this is it.

The "Warner Classics Mega Collection" certainly contains a large number of classic films. Some of my favorites that are contained within this massive 198-film collection include the following:

* The classic children's tale of "The Wizard of Oz" (1939) starring Judy Garland (1922-1969)

* The Civil War drama of "Gone With the Wind" (1939) starring Clark Gable (1901-1960) and Vivien Leigh (1913-1967)

* The Roman/first-century story of "Ben-Hur" (1959) starring Charlton Heston

* The classic musical of "My Fair Lady" (1964) starring Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), Rex Harrison (1908-1990) and Wilfrid Hyde-White (1903-1991)

* The gripping story set in Russia circa World War 1 and the Bolshevik Revolution of "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie

* The film based upon Ernest Hemingway's (1899-1961) classic novel "To Have and to Have Not" (1944) starring Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957) and Lauren Bacall in her big-screen debut

* The chilling sci-fi/horror film "Them!" (1954) starring James Whitmore and Joan Weldon

* The comedy "The Glass Bottom Boat" (1944) starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor

* The classic musical "Top Hat" (1935) starring Fred Astaire (1899-1987) and Ginger Rogers (1911-1995)

* The hilarious "To Be or Not to Be" (1942) starring Jack Benny (1894-1974) and Carole Lombard (1908-1942)

* The extremely funny "A Day at the Races" (1937) starring Groucho Marx (1890-1997), Harpo Marx (1888-1964), Chico Marx (1887-1961) and Margaret Dumont (1882-1965)

* The Equally funny "A Night at the Opera" (1935) also starring the Marx brothers and Margaret Dumont

* The chilling original version of "A Christmas Carol" (1938) starring Reginald Owen (1887-1972)

* The exciting "Blood Alley" (1955) starring John Wayne (1907-1979) and Lauren Bacall

Of course, this is but a small percentage of the total number of films contained in the "Warner Classics Mega Collection". Other well-known films include "Casablanca", "King Kong", "The Maltese Falcon", "Singin' in the Rain", "Rebel without a Cause", "Gigi", "The Searchers", "Giant" and "Rio Bravo" just to name a few more.

The advantage of purchasing such a large set of DVD's is that you never have to worry about purchasing them separately. If you're looking to have an instant DVD collection of very enjoyable films, this 198-film library would certainly please many individuals' tastes in film. Of course, if you already own one or more of the DVD's contained in this set, you may not want to duplicate the DVD's that you already have. Also, you might not want to purchase the set if there are films contained within it that you don't want or because of the set's price. Overall, though, the "Warner Classics Mega Collection" is a very interesting mammoth-sized DVD collection that I give a combined rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

I've examined this set carefully, and it seems Warner went boxed-set wild on this one and pretty much unboxed the following sets to produce this collection:

Astaire & Rogers Collection Volume 1
Bogie & Bacall - The Signature Collection
The Chaplin Collection Volume 1
Classic Comedies Collection
Classic Musicals Collection - Broadway to Hollywood
Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory
Controversial Classics Collection
Cary Grant Signature Collection
The Doris Day Collection 1
The Elizabeth Taylor Signature Collection
The Errol Flynn Signature Collection Volume 1
Film Noir Classic Collection Volume 1
Film Noir Collection Volume 2
Garbo - The Signature Collection
Hammer Horror Collection
Humphrey Bogart - The Signature Collection Volume 1
The Complete James Dean Collection
The Joan Crawford Collection
John Wayne Signature Collection
Judy Garland Signature Collection
Lassie Collection
Warner Bros. Classic Holiday Collection
Warner Gangsters Collection

This is in addition to the actual collections they mention. Thus you can look at these individual collections and see if it is to your liking. Most all of the sets seemed to have favorable ratings. There are also some odds and ends, but overall, I didn't see any real duds. I also didn't see much past the year 1970 with most of the films concentrated in the years 1930-1960, so this is mainly for someone who likes early classic cinema.

Yes, almost the perfect collection. Almost the best of the very best. One question though... Where is Sergeant York????????

Sure all the movies on there are great, and wow what a chance to get them all, but come on, this is absolutely sickening. The ultimate gift for the movie buff? With the list price of 4 grand, and the Amazon price at a grand and a half, it'd be cheaper to slap the movie buff who puts this on his xmas list. Seriously, there's no way anyone who buys this can say the economy's bad if they've got 1.5 thousand dollars to blow on something so meaningless. I'm for splitting that package up into about 4 or 5 sets, lower the price and viola! You're not a glutton for buying one of them at a time. Perhaps I'm the only one in this consumer day and age who doesn't find this to be a deal of the century, but rather one of the sickest displays of commercialism I've seen.

but come on...there's not ONE David Lynch film here, not ONE John Waters film here, not ONE film by the Cohen Brothers, and, where's films like FAT GUY GOES NUTZOID or BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA? Where's the movies from the Big Dwarf Rodeo? Ok, I suppose, if you've got the scratch to drop, and the hours upon hours to spend to watch some of these hacknied movies, then knock yourself out.