Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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76 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
still not as good as the import...., October 18, 2005
Okay...this is an improvement over the previous box set...as the films feature a greatly improved picture and sound options..BUT..the foreign sets available though amazon.co.uk have great packaging...very cool book and documentaries NOT included in this set...heck there are NONE on this set. I also note that while the menus look identical to the foreign set (I guess you can tell I own both?)...to watch it with the original language and English subtitles...on the foreign set they are below the picture on these...ON THE PICTURE? ..why? when you have a widescreen do you need to put the subtitles on the images? They didn't on my import...
this is a pretty half a...ed effort on 20th Century Fox. and I agree the last movie in particular is a joke and insult to Mr Lee. It doesn't need inclusion.
I notice some folks take issue with "Imports" ..there is a difference between official licensed DVDs and "bootlegs" the items I am discussing are the DVDs available through Amazon.co.uk and are legit and its NOT just that there are extra DVDs for every movie but the picture is alarmingly BETTER (think BLURAY to VHS better) ...the US set is worth the 10bucks you pay for it but if you are a real fan of Mr Lee and this series of movies you can own versions which run circles around what we are offered in the USA. This is not the only series of films which find better and more restored or better quality outside of the US...and this isn't opinion but fact.
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I don't buy imports - this is the next best thing!, January 2, 2007
What can I say. I bought imports before and got burnt.
Suffice it to say, this is possibly the next best thing to own. Here, you get to actually watch the movies in the original languages, with the exception of Game of Death and Game of Death II, but they were always done in English and is not a big loss.
Having the original Chinese language is great on many fronts. First off, the dubbing that was done before in English was horrendous as it always has been. Plus, some things are changed from the story line when they translate it as they try to match the lip movements to the English words.
Also, because of the translation, this sometimes causes other scenes to be thrown out. Case in point is in Way of the Dragon/Return of the Dragon. When Bruce's character is standing outside the restaurant with his stomach growling, a man comes out and tells him to go on inside. In the American version, we see Bruce go in and then come out again, apparently after having eaten. Well, an entire scene was missed in where he goes into the restaurant to order food and can't speak a word of English, but that's what the waitress speaks in and what the menu is in. The entire exchange is hilarious. It also drives home the point that Bruce's character is out of place in Rome which makes more sense with many of the scenes in the movie which seemed strange when spoken in the English language.
Now, it would have been nice to have more "extras" other than the filler stuff they have here, which is basically slide shows, trailers and interviews with people. I understand the import versions have much more, but for me, this coupled with the 2-disc Enter the Dragon DVD makes my Bruce Lee collection complete.
With the Ultimate Collection, you get a new 5.1 English soundtrack but at times, it sounds funny during the fight scenes. Specifically, it sounds like the fight is taking place in a tunnel with the reverberation turned on a little too much I guess. It can be kind of distracting and disorienting with the way it sounds, but it's not a total loss. Still, the Chinese soundtrack is better. Different music and it just flows better.
The Chinese soundtracks are fine and make the movies much more enjoyable for me because you get to hear the true emotions of the actors. Some have complained about the subtitles being within the movie rather than in the black bars below. This is because these movies are in anamorphic wide screen, so on a HDTV, you'd have no black bars. To me, it's not that bad. That's how it would have been in the theaters to begin with anyways.
The picture for each of the movies are great, with the exception of Way of the Dragon. Early on, parts of it are fuzzy and out of focus. Now, this could be due to the camera shot itself because it's not the entire shot that's out of focus, but it's not enough to be completely horrible or unwatchable. But, after you get past that point in Way of the Dragon, the picture is great just like in all the other movies.
The only unwatchable things are the Game of Death (minus the final fights with the REAL Bruce of course) and Game of Death II and we all know why that is. If you really want to see how the Game of Death fights were, get the 2-disc Enter the Dragon DVD which contains at least 30 minutes of the fights in the order they would have happened, including his side kicks that were supposed to come along with him but were left out of the GOD movie for obvious reasons. It's a very interesting introspective on what Bruce was trying to envision with Game of Death and it's a shame it was never completed the way he wanted it. Plus, all the interviews up to that point are great, with Chuck Norris, Kareem Abdul Jabar and so many other former students and martial artists that knew and worked with Bruce Lee.
To me, this set is worth 4 stars. It could have gotten 5 stars with some extra content and the strange 5.1 sounds hurt that as well, but overall, this is worth having. Couple this with the 2-disc DVD of Enter the Dragon and it's completely worth 5 stars.
There is no better bargain in the states than this.
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50 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Disapointing, October 19, 2005
Once again after shelling out money for the definitive dvd set of Bruce Lee's Films, I've been ripped off again. The best american versions released to date, are the 5 disc set originally released by Fox. They contain Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury), Fists of Fury (The Big Boss), Return of the Dragon (Way of the Dragon)and Game of Death (which I never liked and considered a rip-off from the start). This new set is a region 1 NTSC release of the region 2 PAL release by Fortune Star. The sound on all of these movies is over-enhanced, and what is it with that english translation song on Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury)not to mention that the color saturation on Chinese Connection is poor and a little on the green side. Although, the color saturation and picture quality was a little red in the original Fox release, at least they kept it classic. Way of the Dragon changed all of Bruce's original cat calls (Kiai's). It sounds like they even had to dub Bruce's cat calls to fit in with this new improved version. The sound in the scene with the double Nunchaku, was terribly over enhanced (made it sound like there was a tornado behind him)
Maybe oneday, someone will get it right and restore these films correctly with homage to the great master. (leave out game of death and game of death II UGHHHHHH, and use the original soundtrack but boost it to 5.1 dolby, like they did in the Wizard of Oz, so we know it can be done properly)
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