Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: The Karate Kid I & II (Collector's Edition)

 

This is a collector edition Blu-Ray featuring the first two Karate Kid movies starring Ralph Macchi and Pat Morita, 1984's The Karate Kid and the 1986 sequel, The Karate Kid Part II. The first movie was an adaptation of the proverbial 98lb weakling being bullied, said weakling being played by Ralph Macchio. He plays Daniel Larusso, who is forced to move from NJ to CA with his mother when she gets a new job. They live in a run-down apartment with an odd janitor (played by Pat Morita) from Okinawa named Mr. Miyagi. As Daniel starts a new school, he tries to win the affection of Elisabeth Shue's character Ali, whose ex-boyfriend Johnny ( played by William Zabka) is not over her and takes to beating the snot out of Daniel regularly. Daniel checks out the local karate Dojo, the Cobra Kai Dojo, only to discover that Johnny is the head student there. It is run by a crazy ex-military vet (played by Martin Kove) who encourages bullying behavior. When the Cobra Kai kids jump Daniel outside the apartment complex, Miyagi saves him and starts training him in Karate.

The first movie has many great themes, such as family, friendship, bullying, self-defense, etc., that still hold up 30-plus years later, even if the cheesy music montages and over-acting that were the hallmarks of 1980s movies have long since gone out of style.

The second movie, other than the first few minutes, takes place six months after the events of the first movie. In it, Daniel and Miyagi travel to Okinawa when Miyagi gets word that his father is near death. When they arrive, they are caught up in a decades-old honor feud and grudge that Miyagi's ex-best friend Sato (played by Danny Kamekona) still has for him. While there, Daniel falls in love with a local woman named Kumiko (played by Tamlyn Tomita), the niece of Miyagi's old love interest, Yikie (played by Nobu McCarthy). Sato's nephew, Chozen (played by Yuji Okumoto), feels disrespected by Daniel and the two battle throughout the movie, culminating in a very good fight at the end of the movie.

I will not give away more about either movie in case anyone reading this has not seen either one. These are definitely the two best movies of the four that were made. A case can be made for the argument that Part II is as good or better than the original. However, I think most people believe the original movie is the best. 

The Blu-Ray set is a two-disc set, with one disc for each movie. The blu-ray transfers are okay for both movies, but not a total HD restoration. I don't think one was necessarily needed for these movies, but it would have been a nice touch. The first movie has the most extras. Each one has a "Blu-Pop" version of the movie in which pop-ups with information about the movie appear throughout the movie (kind of like the old pop-up video show on VH1 for those old enough to remember that). The first movie has a two-part making-of feature of about 45 minutes combined and a cast and crew commentary track. The second movie just has the Blu-Pop version and a short making-of featurette.

Overall, the movies are good and hold up relatively well. There are certainly parts of each movie that are dated 30+ years down the line, but they are generally good movies with good messages and will definitely evoke a nostalgic feeling in those of us who were kids in the 1980s.

4K-UHD/Movie Box Set Review: Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy

 

Back to the Future: The Ultimate Trilogy is a box set containing the three Back to the Future movies: the iconic 1985 original film starring Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thomson, Crispin Glover, and Tomas F. Wilson in the main roles and Claudia Wells, James Tolkan, Wendie Jo Sperber, Billy Zane, and Marc McClure in the primary supporting roles; 1989's follow-up Back to the Future Part II, which brought back Fox, Lloyd, Wilson, and Thomson to reprise their roles with Elisabeth Shue replacing Claudia Wells as and Jeffrey Weissman replacing Crispin Glover (and includes Elija Wood's first acting credit in a very small role); and 1990's Back to the Future Part III, which added Mary Steenburgen to the cast. All three movies were written by the duo of Robert Zemeckis (who also directed all three films) and Bob Gale (who was an executive producer on all three movies).

Chances are, most people know the plots of the movies, but for anyone who does not, in the original film, a local scientist in the fictional town of Hill Valley, California, named Emmit "Doc" Brown (Lloyd) invents a time machine in 1985 that he built into a Delorian. A local teen named Marty McFly (Fox), who has befriended Doc Brown, helps him film the first time travel experiment, which is interrupted by Libyan terrorists from whom Doc stole Plutonium to power the time machine, and during which Marty is transported back to 1955. In 1955, Marty accidentally interrupts his parents' (Glover and Thomson's) first meeting, causing his mother to fall in love with him, which starts erasing his existence. Marty must help his parents get together, deal with the town bully, Biff Tannen (Wilson), and get the younger version of Doc Brown to help him get back to 1985. In the 1989 sequel, Marty, Doc, and Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer (played by Shue), first travel to 2015 to prevent Marty's son (also played by Fox) from doing something criminal with Biff's grandson, Griff (also played by Wilson). Biff steals the time machine in the future and travels to the past to give himself a sports almanac so that his younger version can use it to bet on every major sporting event, making him a millionaire in a new version of the future. Marty and Doc then have to go back to 1955, into the events of the first movie, to get the book back from young Biff and restore the timeline; in the 1990 conclusion to the trilogy, Marty has to travel back to 1855 to rescue Doc from the old west.

The 4K set is a six-disc set containing three UHD discs (one for each movie) and three regular Blu-Ray discs (also one for each movie). The 4K discs and the regular Blu-Rays have the same content, the movie and the bonus material. There are hours of bonus content for each movie. The bonus material includes archived behind-the-scenes material shot while the movies were being filmed, material created for the original DVD release, and material filmed in 2010 for the original Blu-Ray release. No new bonus content has been created for the 4K release. The extras include deleted scenes, a three-part documentary called Tales from the Future, which features interviews with the cast and crew, promotional material, the trailers, and more. Each movie also has two commentary tracks, one featuring a Q&A session with Zemeckis and Gale at USC, which plays for a portion of each movie. The longest is in the first movie, and the shortest is in Part III. Then, each movie has a feature-length commentary track with Bob Gale and another producer, Neil Canton. What knocks the set down a star for me is the packaging. It comes in a nice-looking digibook case, but the discs are all in tight slip notches, which makes them hard to get out and susceptible to scratching. 

The three movies are well-written and very well-acted. Even though the first movie is nearing 40 years old, it (and the sequels) hold up reasonably well. The bonus features offer a lot of insight into the filming process, including how Michael J. Fox came on board (he was initially not going to be allowed to film the movie by the showrunners of Family Ties, which was the wildly popular 1980s sitcom he starred in), the firing of Eric Stolz who was originally hired to play Marty when Fox was allowed to film the movie, and the producers side of why Crispin Glover did not return for the sequels (they claimed he was making unreasonable demands because he did not like how the first movie ended). There is no discussion of Glover's lawsuit because of the use of archival footage featuring him in Part II. There is also an interesting insight into how they envisioned what things would be like in 2015. Gale said they were trying to think of the most unrealistic things they could (hence flying cars and hoverboards), which makes things they got right (e.g., biometric identification and locks, video conferencing/calling, etc.) even more impressive. It is interesting that they thought fax machines would be prevalent and that every home would have multiple fax machines.

While it is easy to think that the movies are totally derivative of each other (and they do recycle some jokes in all three movies), they are really very different. In the first, Marty's parents are arguably as important to the story as Marty is, and the story is about George McFly's transformation from a lovable loser to a confident success. In the second movie, Biff is the more important character, and we see the first movie's events from a different perspective. The third movie is about Doc Brown's character, with Marty almost as a supporting character in Doc's story. The movies are mostly family-friendly, although there is quite a bit of swearing (the worst of which is the word "shit") in each film, a couple of cleavage shots of Lea Thompson in Parts I and II, and a butt shot of Michael J. Fox in Part III. While the movies are a bit dated, and some things would probably be changed if they were made today, they generally hold up well and are definitely worth watching, especially for 1980s kids who grew up with the movies. 

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Bill & Ted Face the Music/Bill &Ted's Bogus Journey/Bill &Ted's Excellent Adventure

 

This set contains the three Bill & Ted films, or as some may call them, Keanu Reeves' other, other trilogy, on three separate Blu-Ray discs. It contains all three movies, 1989's Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, 1991's Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, and 2020's Bill and Ted Face the Music. All three movies starred Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. The first two movies also starred George Carlin, and he appeared posthumously in the third film as a hologram. The franchise also featured recognizable actors such as William Sadler, Pam Grier, Holland Taylor, and Jayma Mays.

I will spend most of the review on the third and newest film, Bill & Ted Face the Music since the other two have been out long enough that most people who would get this have probably seen them multiple times. But, as a short synopsis, the first movie, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, was a late 1980s movie about two high-school slackers who could not play any instruments yet had a band whose music was fated to unite the world and become the philosophy that future civilizations relied on. It was also the movie that would make Keanu Reeves a household name and cause nearly everyone to question his casting in The Matrix about a decade later. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey was the sequel that followed a couple of years later, that had an almost Terminator-like theme where evil robot versions of Bill and Ted were sent back to kill them and destroy their lives to keep them from having any influence on the future. The third movie, released in 2020, revealed that the duo, now in their 50s with daughters of their own, had yet to write the song that would unite the world, which put the future of all civilization at stake. That is about all you need to know about the plots of each movie.

The movies definitely fall within the realm of tongue-in-cheek comedy, with some deeper themes of family and friendship (especially in the third movie) weaved in. They are meant to be a kind of "stupid funny" and you can tell that the writers and the actors took their work seriously, nobody seemed to take themselves too seriously, which made all the movies work, despite all the movies having a different feel and tone from each other.

Each of the discs has an assortment of extras, including theatrical trailers for the first two movies, two different commentary tracks for the second movie, as well as a retrospective on the second movie that was filmed around the time that the third movie was being made. For the original movie, there was also (I kid you not) an air guitar tutorial/featurette, and for the most recent movie, the main bonus feature was a 45-minute portion of the virtual comic-con panel hosted by Kevin Smith, including the writers, producer, director, as well as Keanu, Alex Winters, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, and William Sadler.

Overall, the movies are all very good if you take them for what they are. They are not meant to be Academy Award-winning movies, just fun, fairly innocent, tongue-in-cheek comedies. I like that the third movie was able to get many of the serving original cast members from the first two movies back together and even found a way to provide a posthumous George Carlin cameo. I know that there are some people who thought making the third film without Carlin would never work, but in reality, he had a pretty small role in the first movie and even less of a role in the second movie (which really amounted to an extended cameo), so while he was a fun character from the original movies, he was not so integral to the story that they could not make a third movie without him. And, I think that the new cast members who were brought in did a good job with their parts, even those who were playing parts that were recast. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, the first movie especially will cause a bit of a nostalgia trip and the third movie provides a fitting end to the story. It is definitely worth the pickup for those who still get movies on physical discs.

4k-UHD/Movie Collection Review: The Matrix Trilogy

 

I will only review the 4k set, not the movies themselves. The movies have been out long enough that people know what they are and how they feel about them. I personally like all of them almost equally, but anyone who has been around since the first movie came out, who was a fan of the first movie when it came out, knows the opinions on the quality of the second and third movies that are out there.

If you already own the ultimate edition trilogy on Blu-Ray, the only reason to get this is for the video and audio upgrade in the UHD format. But, be warned, not all the extras from that version carried over, such as the Animatrix episodes. You probably want to hang onto that set if you are a bonus material buff. This still gets you a lot of the behind-the-scenes and making-of features from the original Blu-Ray releases, and you have multiple commentary tracks on the UHD discs (if you want to watch the movies multiple times to get multiple perspectives on them). The audio and video upgrade on the UHD discs are substantial and make the double (or triple) dipping worth it (depending on how many versions you have purchased over the years). While some of the CGI limitations that existed at the time the movies were made still exist in the UHD version (such as making Neo and Smith look like animated characters in the fight scene in the courtyard in the second movie), the overall detail and sound are significantly better than the DVD release and even a big step up from the initial Blu-Ray release. If however, you do not have a 4K TV or projector and a 4K UHD Blu-Ray player, then it is not worth investing in this as you will essentially get the same A/V quality from the existing discs which are less expensive to pick up than this one.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the 2014 entries in the MCU collection of movies. It stars Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Emily VanCamp, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Redford. It is both a follow-up to The original Avengers movie (the events of which are lightly touched on in this movie) and to the first Captain America movie, The First Avenger. It is, not surprisingly, more of a follow-up to the latter than the former. In the movie, Steve Rodgers (played by Evans) is still trying to adjust to living in this century after having "died" in the 1940s. It also continues the S.H.E.I.L.D/Hydra battle that started during the events of the first movie when it was assumed Hydra was defeated. To say much more would be to give away too much of the plot, but Hydra uses their own super soldier (The Winter Soldier) who ties back to the first movie as well. And, of course, for those who follow The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D series, the fallout from the events of this movie is also continued there.

There are multiple physical media releases for the movie now. The single-disc blu-ray includes a few short featurettes, some deleted scenes, and a gag reel. There is also a commentary track for the film by directors Anthony and Joe Russo. It's not a ton of material, but it's fine for what there is. Of course, the movie looks and sounds great on blu-ray.

The movie is very well written and acted. Some of the familiar notables (Black Widow, Agent Hill, Nick Fury), all play roles in the movie. It also introduces the character of Falcon (Mackie) into the movie. Scarlett Johansson probably has the biggest supporting role in the movie as Black Widow, and she and Evans have pretty good chemistry playing the straight-laced Rodgers against the not-so-straight-laced Black Widow. There are 2 scenes after the movie, one mid-credits scene and one post-credits that will set up the inevitable Captain America 3. All in all, if you are a fan of the Marvel movies, this one is one of the better stand-alone movies and sets up some of the larger storylines. If you liked the first Captain America movie then you will probably like this one as well.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection

 

This set contains the seven "main" Nightmare on Elm Street movies, including the 1984 original movie, 1985's Part 2 (Freddy's Revenge), 1987's Part 3 (Dream Warriors), 1988's Part 4 (The Dream Master), 1989's Part 5 (The Dream Child), 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and 1994's Wes Craven's New Nightmare. The original film was written and directed by Wes Craven and starred Robert Englund (in the iconic role of Freddy Kruger), Heather Langenkamp as Nancy Thomson, Johnny Depp (in his first movie role), and John Saxon. Craven would mostly bow out of the series until the final movie, New Nightmare, which he also wrote and directed (although he was a co-writer of the screenplay for Part III). Langenkamp would appear in three of the seven movies, and Englund appeared in all of them. This set does not contain the Freddy vs. Jason crossover movie with Friday the 13th, nor does it have the 2010 remake. All of the movies are centered around Freddy Kruger, who was a serial killer of children in life and who, after he was burned alive by the parents of the town he lived in, was able to return as a supernatural killer who could enter and kill in a person's dreams.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was one of the definitive horror movie franchises in the 1980s. It definitely suffered from what almost all of the series, like Halloween and Friday the 13th, did: It got too bloated and too goofy, to the point where there were more bad movies in the series than good ones. The one constant throughout, however, was the fact that Robert Englund made Freddy cool and funny and maximized his time on the screen. Not surprisingly, the three best movies were the ones in which Heather Langenkamp was involved either playing Nancy (in Parts I and  II) or herself (In a New Nightmare). Also not surprisingly the two best were the first and last movies in the series where Wes Craven was directly involved as the writer and director. In fact, the best movie of the series, in my opinion, was the final film, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which blended the fictional characters with the lives of real-life actors. In fact in that movie Freddy probably had the least "personality" but was far scarier when he was onscreen.

This is a five-disc set (Parts 4 and 5 share a single disc, as does Freddy's Dead and A New Nightmare). The movies all look okay on Blu-ray. Given how old they are and the fact that most of the movies were made before CGI was really well developed, most of the movies do not look anywhere near as good as more recent movies do (and HD sometimes amplifies the fakeness of the effects). Some of the effects are pretty cheesy, and although I think they did about as good a job with the transfer absent a complete restoration as possible, there are limitations with movies this old. The original movie is on its own disc, then each subsequent disc has two movies. 

Each of the discs has bonus content for the movie or movies on that particular disc. The last disc is a DVD of bonus material that has between 3 and 4 hours of additional bonus content. It looks like most (but not all) of the bonus material was carried over from the various DVD releases that have been put out over time, as opposed to newly created for this release. The first movie has the most bonus content, and then it tails off somewhat after that. Most of the bonus material is behind-the-scenes features with the actors or filmmakers of the particular movies. Each movie has at least one commentary track and then there are some deleted and alternate scenes for some of the movies. The Bonus DVD also includes a couple episodes from the (really bad) Nightmare on Elm Street TV series. and some more behind the story kind of features.  All in all though, if you are a more casual fan of the series and do not need every single extra in existence and just mainly want the movies, then it is worth adding to your collection.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: The Ultimate Matrix Collection

 

This is a six-disc box set with the original Matrix trilogy (1999's The Matrix and 2003's The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions). It also includes the set of animated shorts, The Animatrix, which fleshed out the content in the movies). The movies starred Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving and included a strong supporting cast including Harry Lennix, Gloria Foster, Lambert Wilson, Monica Bellucci, and Joe Pantoliano, to name just a few. 

The Matrix franchise has been around long enough now that pretty much everyone knows the story. In a war between humans and machines, humans lost and were used as batteries to power the machines. A few formed a resistance and continued the war in an almost covert fashion (or so we are led to think).
The first movie was truly groundbreaking, both in the story (let's face it, it was one of the few original movies of its time that was not a reboot or sequel) and in terms of special effects. The whole "bullet time" concept that they used to give characters powers in The Matrix was like nothing that we had seen up to that point. Yes, CGI and digital effects have evolved in a huge way since then, but the original film was really the bridge between what was being done in films like Blade to what you got in the Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings movies, and almost every sci-fi/fantasy movie out now.

Most of the criticism of the movies themselves tends to center around the continuation of the story in Reloaded and Revolutions. Although given that the anticipation for the Matrix sequels rivaled that for the Star Wars Prequels (which also came out at the same time) given the popularity of the original film, I honestly don't know what story they could have told that would satisfy everybody. In some ways I do think the filmmakers had the Lucas complex of falling too much in love with the CGI, especially since at that point they did not have the technology to make the digital characters look as real as Gollum in LOTR, so during the burly brawl in Reloaded when they switch from the actors to all digital it looks like a video game. I personally however think the story continuation that was done in the 2nd and 3rd films is better upon repeated viewings than when I originally saw them in the theater.

What makes the set shine however is the tons of bonus material. For each 2 hr movie, you get anywhere from 3-4 hrs of bonus content per disc. There are multiple commentaries on each movie and several making-of and behind-the-scenes features for each movie. The extras include a lot of explanation of the digital effects and why the filmmakers and crew did things the way they did and a great look at the stunts and the training that all the actors did to do as much of the fight sequences and wire work as they could. Say what you want about Keanu Reeves's acting ability, but he busted his ass when it came to training to do the fight sequences which were of course the staple of his character.

Aside from the bonus material on each movie disc, you get all the Animatrix features that fleshed out the story (both before the original movie showing how the war started) and in between the films where we got bits and pieces of information but not the entire story. Plus you get a bunch of bonus material on how the animatrix stories were made. Finally, there are 2 discs that revolve more around the story itself, how the filmmakers came up with the story, and some of the early concept art, as well as the featurettes from the video game. So if you are one who loves going through the bonus material on the discs then you will be extremely happy with all you get, because you can spend hours upon hours with all that is there.

The A/V quality of the movies on blu ray is very good. There are some limitations because of the fact that the movies are older now (with the first movie being about 15 years old), but they are better on blu-ray than the original DVD releases. I would say that this set really is for hardcore fans of the series overall. If you hated the second and third movies as some do, then you are far better off getting the stand-alone Matrix blu ray and being done with that. Because that is only a small part of what you will get in this set. If you like the other movies but do not really care about going through all the bonus material then you probably just want to stick with the movie trilogy. But if you want to get the entire experience, then you cannot go wrong with what is here.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Lethal Weapon Collection

 

This is a five-disc set with the four original Lethal Weapon series of buddy-cop movies (1987's Lethal Weapon, 1989's Lethal Weapon 2, 1992's Lethal Weapon 3, and 1998's Lethal Weapon 4). All of the movies starred Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh. Throughout the series, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan,  Joe Peschi (who would be a co-star in parts 2-4), Patsy Kensit, Renee Ruso (who would co-star in parts 3 and 4), Chris Rock, and Jet Li (among others) would co-star.  It should be noted that this set only contains the theatrical versions of the movies. If you strongly prefer the extended editions of the movies, which to this point are only available on DVD, then you will probably want to steer clear of the Blu-ray set. It does, however, include the extended scenes (for films 1-3) included as bonus material on the disc for that movie. 

As I said above, there are 5 discs in all in this set. There is one disc for each movie, and then a 5th disc that contains 4 separate featurettes (one for each movie) which is essentially a 25th-anniversary commemorative documentary, with the highlight being a sit-down interview with Donner, Gibson, and Glover, interspersed with interviews from some of the other actors (mainly Renee Russo and Chris Rock) and filmmakers from the series. They also weave in some footage from the filming of each movie. In all the bonus disc has about 2hrs worth of additional material. The bonus material on Lethal Weapon 4's disc is a 30 min compilation of alternate and deleted scenes and gag reel material from each movie. So between the 4 movies, all the deleted scenes and bonus material there is about 10.5 hrs worth of content for those who go through all the extra features.

As far as the quality of the movies goes. Obviously, the A/V quality is better in the 4th movie than any of the others. You can tell there was no heavy film restoration done, so the movies pretty much look exactly the same as they always have. So, you are not getting the great jump in picture quality that you would get from movies that have a ton of CGI or released more recently. That is why sticking with the DVDs for those who prefer the extended editions of the movies is fine. I am not sure that the material included on the bonus disc is out there on the DVD releases though so you may want to take that into consideration. Hopefully, at some point, especially if a fifth movie gets made, there will be 4k restorations of all the movies, but that remains to be seen.

Overall, I am very happy with the set and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the series, especially those of us who are old enough to have seen all (or, in my case, the last three) of the movies in the theater when they were originally released. The movies mostly hold up well, but some of the dialogue (especially from the first two movies), is cheesy and/or would be considered non-PC these days. Even so, they still hold up as movies with great action blended with comedy and drama.

Blu-Ray/Movies Box Set Review: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection

 

This is a set that contains some but does not contain all, of Hitchcock's movies Depending on what you consider his best movies to be, this may not contain your favorites. Nor do each of the movies have perfect video and audio. The 15 movies included in this collection (each on separate discs) are Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Rope, Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Frenzy, and Family Plot. 

There are a lot of reviewers on Amazon pissed at Universal for not restoring all of them. I am never one who expects movies that old to look as good as something made today, so the grain and glitches in the video that you occasionally see do not bother me all that much. In fact, some movie purists enjoy seeing grain and imperfections that are common to movies that were shot on film. That said, some movies have a wonderful restoration (e.g., Sabotuer), others have a good to very good restorations (e.g., The Birds, Rear Window, and Psycho), while others (e.g., Family Plot) have a very bad transfer. The films that have been restored like Rear Window do look great, however. 

I also think the extras that you get on each movie are very good. The documentaries which have interviews with the remaining stars, filmmakers, and Hitchcock family members are very good. I don't really know how this compares to the DVDs that are already out there. You probably want to research whether this will be that much of an upgrade to what you already have if you own any of the movies included here. That said I do like the collection and am very happy with it.

DVD/Movie Set Review: The Dark Knight Trilogy

 

This is a blu-ray box set of the trilogy of live-action Batman movies starring Christian Bale and directed by Christopher Nolan. Any fan of Batman knows that the movie franchise was nearly dead after the dreadful Batman and Robin movie in the late 1990s. The franchise had changed directors once (Tim Burton to Joel Schumacher) and stars three times (Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer to George Clooney). While the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton movies were very good.  Batman Forever (which was the first one directed by Schumacher) was good but edging toward the campy side, and Batman and Robin was almost universally reviled. This trilogy brought the series back in a big way.

First, it brought back stability. Nolan co-wrote and directed all three movies, so the tone, visuals, and feel remained the same. Just as importantly, Christian Bale was in the lead role for all three. Regardless of whether you think he was the best Batman/Bruce Wayne or not, the continuity that not changing actors every movie brought was very important. Secondly, the movies were more than just superhero or action movies. It brought in big-name actors for both the main roles and the supporting roles and focused on not only having good scripts but excellent acting (punctuated by Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker). Those elements were spotty in the superhero genre up to that point. In some movies, you would have big-name actors and a good script. In some, you would have a decent script but only one or two big-name actors, and in some, you would have an awful script. These movies did not rely just on a bunch of special effects and lots of explosions to tell the story. Lastly, Nolan tried to bring a sense of realism where possible. Obviously, these are movies based on a comic book, and most of what you see in them could not happen in real life. But, the fact that the movies were filmed in real cities and that the gadgets he used (especially in Batman Begins) were somewhat realistic (like his grappling gun) made the movies more enjoyable for me.

Of the three movies I actually think the last one has the best overall story. Obviously, however, Heath Ledger's performance as Joker was the touchstone of the three movies. He played the in-control psychotic so well, that it will be hard for anyone to top that live-action version of the character. Even though I think Ledger was the best villain, I think all the movies did a good job with the bad guys. I especially liked that they cast Bane based on acting ability and not just finding a big guy with no talent. Obviously, Tom Hardy is not 7 feet tall or anywhere near it, but his version of Bane was much better than the one in Batman and Robin.

Chances are if you are reading this you have already seen each movie multiple times. While I do not think any of them are absolutely perfect, I think they are as close to perfect as the superhero movies that had come out up to that point had been in a long time. And, you can certainly argue that the success of Batman Begins played a big part in the Marvel movies being taken seriously from the start.  I had hoped that the series that Nolan started would continue in some way. The ending of Dark Knight Rises certainly left that possibility open. But, after this many years, if it were to do so, it would more likely be in a "Batman Beyond" type of situation in which Bale plays the role of Alfred to a new, younger, Batman. 

This set repackages the original blu-ray releases into a decorative outer box. You get the same extras/bonus content (if you like watching that material) that the original discs were released with. There was no new bonus content created for this release. If you bought the movies individually on blu-ray the only new thing you get with this is the outer box. But, if you do not have the movies and have not upgraded to a 4k blu-ray player and a 4K TV, this is a good pickup, and definitely worth watching.

4k-UHD Box Set Review: The Dark Knight Trilogy

 

This is, as most probably know, the trilogy of Batman movies (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) that were written and directed by Christopher Nolan, and starred Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Batman Begins (released in 2005) represented the resurrection of Batman in live-action movies after the turd that was Batman and Robin had pretty much killed it off in 1999, and arguably set the stage for the success that superhero movies have had to this day, including the MCU movies because Nolan (and the studio) wanted to make a serious movie that was grounded in some kind of reality. The Dark Knight (released in 2008) is best known for the masterful performance of Heath Ledger playing The Joker, and The Dark Knight Rises (released in 2012) was a good conclusion of the story. The movies have a strong supporting cast including Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Ken Wanatabe, Anne Hathaway, Katie Homles, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhall, Mathew Modine, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and Joseph Gordon Levitt (among others). 

In this set, each of the movies is packaged in individual cases within a decorative outer box. Each movie is a three-disc set with a 4k UHD disc and two regular blu-ray discs. The UHD discs just have the movies themselves, and then one of the regular blu-rays has the movie (which can be played with an in-movie experience that pops up facts about the movie throughout) and the second regular blu-ray disc just has special features. For each movie, you get 2-3 hours of bonus content with a lot of behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes that include interviews with members of the cast and crew, as well as featurettes on some aspect of the overall Batman mythology, and trailers. The A/V quality of the UHD discs is awesome, especially for the scenes filmed in IMAX for the second and third movies, and are reference quality, especially if you have a large screen and a great sound system to watch it on.

Overall, the movies are great. They are, arguably, the best of Batman in live-action. I liked that they set the movies in the "real world" and made his gadgets have some grounding in reality so it looked and felt like the things in the movie could happen in real life. In my opinion, Bale, at least up to that point had done the best job playing both characters (Bruce and Batman) in live-action and being believable in both roles. I think Michael Keaton was a great Bruce Wayne, but was not as believable as Batman. I think Kilmer played a good Bruce Wayne and a good Batman, but he was not as good as Keaton or Bale as Bruce and not as good as Bale as Batman. And Clooney was not great in either role. I think the A/V quality of the UHD presentation is good enough that it warrants the upgrade even if you already own the movies on blu-ray. I definitely recommend this set.

DVD/Movies Review: The Librarian Trilogy

 

This is a two-disc set containing the three Librarians movies, starring Noah Wyle in his first major post-ER role. Wyle stars a Flynn Carson, a perpetual student with a multitude of pretty useless degrees and no life. Flynn receives an invitation to apply for a job as the librarian at the New York Metropolitan Library. He discovers that the Librarian collects and protects magical and supernatural artifacts like Excaliber, Pandora's Box, and The Ark of the Covenant. In the first movie, The Quest for the Spear, the Spear of Destiny is stolen from the Library, and Flynn and his Guardian, Nicole Noone, (played by Sonya Wagner) have to recover it. In the second movie, Return to King Solomon's Mines, Flynn and an archeologist named Emily Davenport (played by Gabrielle Anwar) must find, and guard the secret of King Solomon's Mine. The third movie, Curse of the Judas Chalice, is set in New Orleans and has a storyline that involves vampires and their version of the Holy Grail. 

The movies are basically Indiana Jones knockoffs with even more supernatural elements than Indiana Jones, mixed with a love story. In each movie, Flynn ends up falling in love with the female lead (Wagner in the first movie, Anwar in the second, and Stana Katic in the third). None of the movies had a huge budget, so the special effects could be a bit cheesy, but I think cheesy was the vibe they were going for. 

Each of the movies has some extras including deleted scenes and some behind-the-scenes featurettes. The extras run about 15 minutes or less per movie, so none of the movies have an extensive amount of bonus content, but it is there for you.

I'd say that the movies are good, but not great. They do have strong supporting casts including Jane Curtin, Bob Newhart (both of whom reprise their roles in the spin-off TV series The Librarians), Kelly Hu, Kyle McLaughlan, Olympia Dukakis, 

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: The Complete Scream Collection (Scream 1-4)

 

This set contains the four original movies in the Scream franchise, Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), and Scream 4 (2011), created (and mostly written) by Kevin Williamson, directed by Wes Craven, and starring Neve Campbell as Sydney Prescott, Courtney Cox as Gail Weathers, and David Arquette as Dewey Riley. The series paid homage to, and also poked fun at the horror movie genre, especially the big horror franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. While Cambell, Cox, and Arquette were basically mainstays throughout the series of movies, especially in the first three movies, all of the movies included a number of recognizable actors and actresses in supporting roles, some of whom were relatively unknown at the time they were in the movies but would go on to be stars. Some of them included Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, Liev Schreiber, Portia de Rossi, Omar Epps, Joshua Jackson, Tori Spelling, Luke Wilson, Heather Graham, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Skeet Ulrich, Hayden Panettiere, Matthew Lillard, Patrick Dempsey, Parker Posey, Emma Roberts, Jerry O'Connell, Drew Barrymore, Henry Winkler, and Sarah Michelle Gellar (who was just on the cusp of her Buffy megastardom). Carrie Fisher also had a great guest-starring role in Scream 3.

The movies definitely range in quality, with the first being iconic, and the rest trying to, but never able to, live up to the quality of the first one. Personally, I think that Scream 3 is the worst of the group with Scream 4 doing a good reboot of the series using the legacy characters but not having the legacy characters dominate the new group of younger actors.

This set is imported from Canada, and it is the easiest way, if you are in the US, to get all four movies in a single collection. In the US it is possible to get 1-3 as a collection, but 4 (apparently because of a rights issue) is not bundled with them. This set appears to include all of the same extras that the US blu-ray releases got including the commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes featurettes, Q&As, and promo material. The commentary tracks were always the longest bonus feature. Williamson did the commentary on the first movie and Craven (and various cast members) provided commentary tracks on 2-4. The movies all looked and sounded good in HD. Obviously, the more recent movies looked better. The movies are now getting released in 4k, but I think the blu-rays look fine, especially being upscaled by a 4k player on a 4k TV.

While the franchise is not perfect, it has, on the whole, been good. The misdirection in the first movie was the best twist that the series has come up with. In the subsequent movies the writers tried to (in my opinion) get a bit too cute with the twists, misdirection, and big reveals. Sometimes they worked better than others. The movies are definitely very violent and bloody, and there is a lot of swearing. There are some sexual content and jokes mixed in, but no real nudity. There is also some humor mixed in, mostly dark humor, especially in the first few movies. The movies will definitely not appeal to everyone, but if you are a fan of the horror genre, and 90s movies and TV series (the stars of which basically made up the cast of the first three movies), then this is definitely worth the pickup. Especially, if you can grab it at a reasonable price.

Blu-Ray/Movie Set Review: Riddick: The Complete Collection

 

This set contains all of the Riddick movies (Pitch Black, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Riddick) that starred Vin Diesel in his other, less well-known franchise, as well as the short animated film, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, that bridges the time between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. The first movie involves a space freighter carrying both cargo and passengers (including a dangerous criminal on his way to a high-security prison, Diesel's Riddick), encounters difficulty en route, and crashes on a deserted, seemingly lifeless planet with three suns. It then turns into a horror movie as the suns set and the true nature of the plant is revealed. The second movie has some ties to the first movie but is a very different story pitting Riddick against a race of planet invaders called Necromongers. The third movie, is a bit derivative of the first, seeing Riddick stranded on an Alien planet, this time hunted by mercenaries when he activates a beacon on an abandoned ship. Then he has to deal with the mercs and the planet's original inhabitants.

Each of the movies looks very good in HD, with, as you would expect, the A/V quality getting better with each movie. There are extras for each of the movies, including commentary tracks on all three movies, deleted scenes for every movie, featurettes on the effects, making of documentaries for each movie, an extended edition of Riddick, and more. So, if you like watching bonus material, there is a lot there for you.

Overall, the movies are a good blend of action and, with the first and third, horror/suspense. The acting is okay to good. Diesel is what he is, but each movie has a good supporting cast that makes up for his shortcomings. Between the three movies, they include Cole Hauser, Keith David, Alexa Davalos, Karl Urban, Tandie Newton, Judi Dench, Colm Feore, Katee Sackhoff, Keri Hilson, and Dave Bautista. As long as you do not go into them expecting academy-award-winning material, they are enjoyable. The dialogue can get clunky and/or downright dumb sometimes, but the action sequences generally make up for those moments. So, if you like action movies these are good ones to check out.

DVD/Movie Collection Review: Porky's the Ultimate Collection

 

As anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows, Porky's was on the raunchier end of the coming-of-age comedies. The original movie, written and directed by Bob Clark and released in 1981 was set in FL in the 1950s and told the story of a bunch of teenagers (played by a bunch of twenty-somethings who barely pass as teenagers) from the fictional Angel Beach High School who want to have sex. They figure the best way to do that is to go to the local hicksville strip club called Porky's, run by a guy, as you would guess is named Porky (played by Chuck Mitchell). They also manage to peep into the girl's shower at school (in that classic hole-in-the-wall scene and the extremely funny aftermath). The final act of the movie turns into an action-revenge story as the kids take down Porky's after one of them gets beat up. The other almost iconic scene in the movie was the one with Kim Catrall (in one of her early movie roles) that involves a lot of howling.

The second and third movies, Porky's II (The Next Day) and Porky's Revenge never did live up to the first movie. Clark bowed out of the franchise after the second movie, and by the third movie, none of the actors could pass for teenagers in their senior year of high school. Both the first movie and the second movie dealt with the racist south. The second movie especially lampoons the KKK and the racist southern preachers with the story set around the fact that a Native American transfer student was cast as Romeo - alongside a Caucasian Juliet in the high school play, and the protagonists taking down the racists. The third movie, released in 1985 was about Porky blackmailing the Angel Beach basketball team as revenge for the kids destroying his club in the first movie.

As far as the DVDs go, the set has all three movies on separate discs. The first movie has the most extras, with the commentary track by Bob Clark being the most extensive, and then a 13-minute making-of documentary. Then, each disc has the trailer and some tv spots for the respective movies. Definitely not as much as some box set releases get, but given that none of the movies were a critical success, that is not all that surprising.

Overall, the first movie is good and the other two fall in quality. There is a lot of nudity in each movie, including full-frontal nudity from both men and women, which was highly controversial back then. The themes of racism and antisemitism in the first two movies would be much more of a big deal now, and chances are the movies could not get made the same way today as they did back then. Porky's Revenge is more of a straight-up comedy (and is also the worst of the three). None of the movies were as good as other coming-of-age-teen comedies or dramedies of the era like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Sixteen Candles, but it was definitely a precursor to the more raunchy teen comedies like American Pie that would come out years later. For most people, the movies will be a nostalgic blast from the past, and for that, this is a good set.

Blu-Ray/Movie Collection Review: Halloween: The Complete Collection (Limited Deluxe Edition)

 

This 15-disc set released in 2014 contains all of the original Halloween films (1-8), the two Rob Zombie remakes, and hours of bonus content. The set is probably overkill for many people, including casual fans of the original Halloween movie, especially now that it is out of print and very expensive. But, for those who are die-hard fans of the movies and love getting bonus content that comes with purchasing physical discs over streaming, this is a very good set. I will not spend much time reviewing the movies since anyone likely to be looking at this already is familiar with them. This set includes multiple versions of the original 1978 classic horror movie and its original sequels (plus Halloween III, which I personally do not count as a part of the Halloween series, and Rob Zombie's remakes). The movies range in quality. Most people consider the original movie the best, but opinions vary wildly on the quality of the other movies. For me, Halloween Resurrection is the worst of the bunch, but opinions definitely vary. Here is a breakdown of what you get on each disc:

Disc One: The first disc contains the original theatrical edition of the first movie. The extras include a great audio commentary track with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis, an hour-long featurette entitled "The Night She Came Home," which chronicles Curtis using her (and the movie's) fame to raise money for charity through an appearance at an autograph signing/convention appearance. Then there is a ten-minute featurette on the neighborhood the movie was shot in showing some of the locations, a collection of scenes that played in the TV cut of the movie, the trailer, and TV and radio spots. There is also a new commentary track on the movie with the director of photography Dean Cundey, Editor Tommy Lee Wallace, and Nick Castle, who played Michael (aka "The Shape").

Disc 2: This disc includes the movie's theatrical cut with a commentary track by Carpenter, Curtis, and producer Debra Hill. The commentary track repeats a lot from commentary on disc 1 but does have some decent additions from Hill. Then there is an 87-minute retrospective documentary with the cast and crew members made after the original Blu-ray release. Then there is a fast film Facts featurette and the same TV and radio spots from disc 1.

Disc 3: This disc includes the theatrical version of Halloween II, the sequel to Halloween that Carpenter reluctantly made in the early 1980s, continuing the Laurie Strode/Michael Myers story, picking up exactly where the first movie ended. There are two commentary tracks on the movie, the first with director Rick Rosenthal and actor Leo Rossi and the second with actor/stunt coordinator Dick Warlock. Then there is a 45-minute making-or retrospective documentary and an episode of "Horror's Hallowed Ground," which looks at the shooting locations, deleted scenes, an alternate ending, stills, the theatrical trailer, and TV and radio spots.

Disc four: This includes the TV version of Halloween II, which basically removes the gore and nudity from the theatrical cut and adds a few scenes to make up for what is cut out. It is not in HD and does not have a lossless audio track, so it is kind of wasted on Blu-Ray. Then, there is a copy of the Halloween II script.

Disc five: This has the hotly debated Season of the Witch, a sequel in name only that never should have been released under the Halloween name. Had it just been titled Season of the Witch and not Halloween III, I do not think the movie would have received nearly the backlash it received over the years. There are two commentary tracks on the move, one with the director Tommy Lee Wallace, Rob G. from "Icons of Fright," and Horror's Hallowed Grounds' Sean Clark, in which Wallace defends the movie, and one with lead actor Tom Atkins and BD/DVD Producer Michael Felsher. Then there is a 33-minute making-of documentary, another episode of Horror's Hallowed Grounds that visits the various shooting locations, a stills gallery, TV spots, and the trailer.

Disc Six: This disc includes Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, the 1988 movie that basically reset the franchise. It includes a great commentary track with stars Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris and a second commentary with director Dwight H. Little and author Justin Beahm. This disc included an audio glitch (I never noticed it on my player, but it was noticeable on some tracks, so the studio offered a replacement disc). The only other extra on this disc is the theatrical trailer. The rest of the extras specific to this movie are, for some reason, on disc 15.

Disc Seven: This disc includes Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and again has a couple of commentary tracks, one with Don Shanks (who played Michael) and author Justin Beahm, and the second with director Dominique Othenin-Girad and actors Danielle Harris and Jeffrey Landman. Then there is an "on the set" feature, which is just raw behind-the-scenes footage from when the movie was made, a promo for the movie, and the theatrical trailer.

Disc Eight: This disc contains the very controversial Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. This was one of Paul Rudd's first movies and Donald Pleasance's last (he died during production). The movie had a good concept but was just basically a mess and totally screwed up Jamie's story (along with recasting her because Danielle Harris hated the script). This has just the movie's theatrical cut, TV spots, and theatrical trailers.

Disc Nine: This disc included, for the first time officially, the much bootlegged "Producer's Cut" of Halloween 6. The producer's cut does flesh out the story a bit more and fixes some (but not nearly all) of the issues that were present in the theatrical cut. There is a great commentary track with the writer Daniel Farrands and composer Alan Howarth, in which they discuss the differences between the theatrical cut and the producer's cut and why the producer's cut was ultimately not the version released. Then there are several making-of featurettes, some alternate and deleted scenes, archival footage, an interview with Danielle Harris about why she did not return for the movie, with a pretty hilarious quip about her pitch to the producers that she could be topless now that she was over eighteen to entice them to give her a larger role, a short tribute to Donald Pleasance, trailers, and promo reel.

Disc Ten: This has the great Halloween H20: 20 Year Later, which was the movie that I would have been perfectly fine with being the end of the series. It saw Curtis' return to the franchise and a great showdown with Michael. There is a commentary track with Sean Clark, who hosts director Steve Miner and actress Jamie Lee Curtis, an hour-long making-of documentary, scenes with the original score, vintage behind-the-scenes footage, a stills gallery, the trailer, and a TV spot.

Disc Eleven: This has the horrid Halloween Resurrection. It was an awful movie that ruined Halloween H20 in pretty much every way and was a total waste. It has a commentary track with director Rick Rosenthal and editor Robert A. Ferretti, deleted scenes and an alternate ending, a featurette that edits together the webcam videos, a 37-minute making-of documentary, a short set interview with Jamie Lee Curtis, a set tour, storyboard analysis, a stills gallery, tv spots, and the theatrical trailer.

Discs Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen are just the Rob Zombie versions of Halloween and Halloween 2. The same content was included in their Blu-Ray release, including the same commentary tracks, deleted scenes, bloopers, and the 260-minute making-of documentary for the first movie. There was nothing added for this release.

Disc Fifteen: The final disc has basically all of the other extras. There is the 101-minute extended edition of the original movie, a 27-minute archive documentary, an interview with producer Moustapha Akkad, more stills from the first movie, an interview with the Season of the Witch's make-up effects artist, and the rest of the Halloween 4 and 5 extras (making-of-documentaries for each movie, TV Spots, stills galleries, and more Horror's Hallowed Grounds episodes).

If you love the Halloween Franchise and love bonus material, you have a lot. The only thing this set does not have are a couple of extras included in the releases and of course, the new Blumhouse movies. It is not a perfect set, as not everything is in HD, but the plusses definitely outweigh the minuses. It has hours and hours of bonus content to keep you entertained. The only drawback is that you may get sick of watching the movies multiple times to listen to all the commentary tracks (if you want to watch everything quickly). I definitely recommend it for fans of the series.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: 300: Rise of an Empire

 

300: Rise of an Empire is the 2014 sequel to 2006's 300. It is directed by Noam Murro, but Zack Snyder, who directed 300, co-wrote the screenplay and is one of the movie's producers. The main roles are played by Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro. The events in the movie are set partly during the events of the original movie but occur mostly after the stand of King Leonidas. It is centered around Themistocles (played by Sullivan Stapleton, probably best known for the series Blindspot and Strike Back) and tells a fictionalized version of the Battle of Artemisium and the Battle of Salamis, in which the Greek and Persian Navies did battle. The Persian navy is commanded by Artemisia (played by Eva Green of Casino Royale and Penny Dreadful). Lena Headey, Peter Mensah, David Wenham, Andrew Tiernan, Andrew Pleavin, and Rodrigo Santoro all reprise their roles from the first film. Heady, as Queen Gorgo, has a larger role in this movie than she did in 300, and Rodrigo Santoro, as King Xerxes, is more involved in this movie (meaning less of a background character) than he was in the first one.

The Blu-Ray's A/V quality is outstanding. The movie has many CGI effects that really stand out in HD. The Blu-Ray also includes quite a few extras. Those include about 35 minutes worth of making-of material (broken up into four featurettes), a 20-minute documentary on the real historical figures, and a short featurette on the training regimen that the actors went through to prepare for filming the movie.

As the first movie was, this one is very violent, with a lot of over-the-top dismemberment and killing. It uses a lot of slow-motion action, which gets irritating sometimes. There is also quite a bit of sex and nudity, mostly involving Green, who is never shy about nudity (or does not seem to be anyway). Of course, it is not a documentary, so it does take liberty with and embellishes real-life events. So, the movie is not going to give you a true history lesson, nor does it try to. It is just meant to be a blockbuster action movie that is loosely based on something that happened in history. The writing is okay, but the overall story is not as good as it was in the original movie, and the acting is good. Green is really the standout as Artemisia playing her as a ruthless and cunning warrior who counts on men to underestimate her. While I cannot say that everyone, even people who really liked the first movie, will love this, if you are a fan of action movies and do not try to overanalyze it, it is enjoyable.

Blu-Ray Box Set Review: The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King Extended Editions)

 

These are, of course, the movie adaptations of the popular series of novels written by J.J.R. Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson about a group of Hobbits, Elves, and Humans in the fictional realm of Middle-Earth work together to destroy the one ring to rule them all to prevent an evil lord named Sauron from ruling Middle-Earth. The movies starred many recognizable actors and actresses, including Elija Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, Karl Urban, Miranda Otto, Liv Tyler, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Christopher Lee, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, John Noble, and Cate Blanchett, to name a few. The books and movies have been around long enough that I will not do a detailed review of the movies themselves. Still, for those who have not seen them, they are iconic fantasy stories that are a mix of medieval-era kingdoms and magic and were the precursor to Dungeons and Dragons, Game of Thrones, and anything like it.

This set has the extended editions of the movies (which were already long) in which Peter Jackon inserts many of the deleted scenes into the films and extends many existing scenes. And these are not additions that just add a few minutes to the movies. They are substantial additions that add a lot of material (Return of the King gets an additional 50 minutes added to it, making the run time over four hours). On top of that, there are a TON of extras. Each movie has four separate commentary tracks, one that includes Peter Jackson and the writers, one that includes cast members, one that includes members of the production team, and one that includes members of the design team. Then, there are seven different appendices, each containing hours of making-of and behind-the-scenes material that can be played in individual segments or all at once. There are 15 discs in all, and even if you watch each movie once, you are looking at over 11 hours to watch the movies. Then you have hours of the appendices material. So, as my headline says, this is just for someone who is a die-hard fan of the movies (or really loves watching bonus content). If you are just a casual fan of the films or the fantasy genre, this is likely overkill and more than you will ever want to watch. But, if you are a die-hard fan, this is definitely worth getting and devoting multiple days to watching.