The Mel Brooks Collection

Description

“Enjoy! Revel! Live!” as Mel says…and “have yourselves one sweetheart of a good time.” Presenting nine hugely popular films from one of cinema’s most celebrated, prolific and funniest filmmakers, Mel Brooks! The undisputed king of hilariously quotable films, Mel has delivered hit after hit after hit, each one as memorable as the next. This nine-disc Blu-rayTM collection includes some of the most sidesplitting, gut-busting, guffaw-inducing films ever made. It really is “good to be the king!”Contains the films Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, History Of The World Part 1, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Silent Movie, To Be Or Not To Be and The Twelve Chairs. Review: What a Great Collection - Filled With Extras - I was originally looking to only replace one DVD movie. However when I went looking on desertcart I saw that the collection was on a Timed Deal on desertcart. It had an extreme price cut and I could not pass it up. However even at the higher price it appears to be a value balancing both the content and price per disk in the set. I believe it to be worth the investment so as one would say the buy is not just a "Roll in the Hay" (pardon the Pun). Here is the low down on the collection: 1) The Box and Packaging of the disks is very good. Includes a cover box and a plastic multi-disk case. (The disks did not shift out of their spot in shipping) Disks also go in and out of the case easily. The Silk Screening on the Box Art is well done. Great selection of Cover Art which is a picture of Mel Brooks as a "Director". 2) You receive quite a number of movies for the price. Silk Screening on the disks is clean and crisp. 3) The picture quality is better than DVD, but maybe not as good as I have seen with other box sets. But not to worry they do make good use of the extra room on the Blu-Ray with Extras. 4) I was impressed with the number of extras that were included, an Example of this is: In Young Frankenstein you get additional out-takes, interviews, bloopers, deleted Scenes, etc. 5) I would recommend exploring the extras - they are fun to watch and also give you some insight into the creative process and at times a bigger picture of the story. (I.E. in Young Frankenstein you get to view, as part of the deleted scenes, the reading of the Baron's Will) 6) Includes Trivia Tracks which are fun to play. 7) Downside is it does not contain all of his movies. It would be Nice to have a Volume 2 or 3 which would eventually bring all the features together under one consistently produced collection. 8) Makes a great gift! I would recommend the collection. So start trading in your DVDs. This Collection Includes the Following 9 Titles on a set of Blu-Ray Disks: Blazing Saddles Spaceballs Young Frankenstein High Anxiety History of the World Part 1 Robin Hood: Men in Tights Silent Movie To Be or Not To Be The Twelve Chairs Blazing Saddles Extras Include: New Featurettes: Trivia Games Isolated Score Tracks Deleted Scenes Gag Reels Commentaries Interviews Documentaries Still Galleries Review: Some classic and timeless comic treasures from the relentless mind of Mel Brooks - I assume you know that Life Stinks, Dead and Loving it, and The Producers are not included in this set due to belonging to another studio. So with that caveat out of the way let's talk about what is included- nine of the funniest movies ever released to the American public. Mel Brooks remains a master comic with an impeccable sense of timing and showmanship and these films represent the bulk of his incredible comic legacy. They are funny on SOO many levels and poke fun at lots of things, very little is sacred to hold up to ridicule with Brooks. He is a comic talent that does not hesitate to show that the emperor really has no clothes on. The jokes range from the infamous farting campfire scene which is still hilariously funny to some gags which require thought to "Get." The laughs come fast and furiously though and are still as intense as I recall on first viewing them. Most of these movies could not be made today, as we have become so impacted by the "Politically correct" movement that we can't even mention the "N" word without castigation, and yet in "Blazing Saddles" it is used no less than 17 times, by whites and blacks. The genius is that we can see how patently stupid racism is, a truth that is a two edged sword. Oh well, enough social commentary. How about the movies? There are NO clinkers here and for one price you get to watch all these movies in pretty convincing high definition, although the Blazing Saddles version is the older transfer, not the restored 30th anniversary edition. No matter, it still looks really really good and it is hard to imagine any of these films looking much better without the inevitable expensive and intensive restoration effort. I would grade them all a solid 8 out of 10 scale for video and almost as good for sound. There are those movies made for high definition which instill a sense of wonder in their detail and coloration, I am thinking of "Blade Runner" and the opening scenes of "The Sound of Music" and there are those that have incredible soundtracks which blow you away with the surround experience. The essence of Mel Brooks movies is your belly, as in lots and lots of belly laughs, which he successfully provides while making us appreciate the absurdity of such things as racism (Blazing Saddles), royalty (History of the Word Part 1), riots (Young Frankenstein), sexuality (Blazing Saddles- you will be like warm sauerkraut in Lilly's hands). Only Mel Brooks could pull off all these things and still make us laugh at ourselves and our own foibles. If this not the true essence of comedic genius, then what is? But relax, the visuals and the sound are wonderful, far far better than the old VHS tapes and even better than the movies I had collected on DVD. At the price asked for the movies you receive this is a bargain, and it can be had even lower priced if one buys when it is on a special sale. But you really can't go wrong, these are hilarious movies. There are only a handful of people who approach Brook's level of genius with comedy IMHO and even if you disagree, these are wonderful movies to have in any family collection. Just be sure to specify how you want them divided up in your will, you know like Baron Von Frankenstein did in his. God Bless ya! But relax