The Mel Brooks Collection

I was originally looking to only replace one DVD movie. However when I went looking on Amazon I saw that the collection was on a Timed Deal on Amazon. 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

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

Great selection, arrived early This was a gift; they are delighted! Thank you so much! 🐶

I am already a fan of Mel Brooks, but I am biased that way, and I think that this is a great set and has some movies I had yet to see. Below is a list of the movies with a letter ranking and brief thoughts. Blazing Saddles A + This is one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen! You will never see another movie liek this made today. The ending is especially hilarious Young Frankenstein A + Very funny and in some instances, a melodramatic movie. Some of my friends don't think its funny enough, but the difference is that the comedy is more subtle than broad. It works as both a homage and a parody. One of my favorites! Silent Movie A I love this movie! I have always been a big fan of silent movies and this is one of the best. Much better than the Artist which was overrated in my opinion. Great cameos by many stars of the day, and the most hilarious of which was Marcel Marceau. Robin Hood: Men in Tights C I used to love this movie as a kid, and but after watching this for the first time after a while, I didn't like it as much. It is still a dent movie and I love the story of Robin Hood, however the pacing is different from what I remember and I thought it was very uneven. At any rate, I really enjoyed it still, but it was not what I remembered. To Be or Not to Be B+ Quite possibly the most underrated of Mel Brooks' films. While the original movie that this movie is remade from is better, this is very faithful to it and even adds some Brooksian elements, some of which work and others that don't. Its a bit uneven but it quite possibly ranks as one of my favorites. History of the World, Part 1 B- Very uneven film, but its a sketch film so thats to be expected. There are several great sketches, particularly during the first 40 minutes, after that it gets a little dicey. My favorite sketches were in the beginning, middle and end, including the Caveman material as well as the Spanish Inquisition song. The Twelve Chairs D- Not a very good movie, but well worth a look if you are a Brooks completist. I was able to sit through the whole thing, but I found it dull, with exception of Brooks' performance. The worst movie of the bunch. High Anxiety C Not the best of Brooks' films, but its a lot of fun and very funny. Alfred Hitchcock himself wrote this film with Brooks, and its an effective parody/homage like Young Frankenstein. It could have benefitted from a better plot and more interesting gags. Overall, this set is great! I enjoy these films and it was a good buy at under 50 dollars!

Each one of these movies has been beautifully remastered for Blu-ray and none of them have ever looked this good. I am a huge fan of these movies, and I was very pleased, to say the least, with the picture quality of this set. I won't go into Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles as they have been available on Blu-ray already. I did not have a chance yet to check out Blazing Saddles but since it has a Warner label on it I am going to assume that the release is the same as the Warner. Too bad, at least if Fox had done it, it would have had loss less instead of the Dolby Surround lossy of the Warner edition. The rest of the movies sparkle and it is evident that much work was done on these transfers, they actually exceeded my expectations. Beautiful visuals. The sound is another story. Since many of these were released in the 70's, when sound seems to be at a poor point for films, each movie has very different audio. Silent Movie is in full stereo, which I am grateful for since I love the John Morris score, one of his best. The quality is good, not like today's tracks, mind you, but for sure a step up from the DVD in quality. Unfortunately, High Anxiety and History of the World are basically still mono. Now I am a big advocate of providing the original soundtrack, but these 2 films would have been great in stereo, and since Fox provides the isolated music score from the music stems (yes you can hear John Morris Q'ing the music), would it have been that hard to remix the films for stereo, at least the scores, since they provided a DTS MA 5.1 track? The sound on these score tracks is stunning, and it saddened me that Fox didn't go one extra step and remix the movies that were mono for stereo (while proving the original mono alongside). What is provided here for the 5.1 DTS MA is a simulated stereo. It's better than the mono track in fidelity, but certainly not as good as stereo would have been. The Inquisition would have been great in full stereo, as would much of the music in High Anxiety. Most of the other films are true stereo and the later films have the better soundtracks. Still, all of these movies sound better than they ever did due in part to the lossless audio. I guess the lack of true separated stereo music on the earlier films was the only downer for me with this set, but it certainly by no means indicates any problem because these films (High Anxiety, Young Frankenstein and History of the World) were never presented in stereo to begin with. There are extras on every disc, and while I have not yet viewed them all, they are good 15-25 minute interviews and the like. I do wish there were a few more extras, but we do get 5 isolated music scores, something I love about many of Fox's releases. There is nothing that should stop any fan of good comedy and of course fans of Mel Brooks from buying this set, it's wonderful, and to get all of these films at one time rather than wait for individual releases (like we did on DVD) is fantastic! I love the beautiful book included with stills behind-the-scenes I have never seen. A great addition. One problem-the section that holds the discs themselves does not stay securely glued to the backing. It's no problem, nothing tears or anything but something a little more sturdy would have been nice for that section. Buy this-the hours of laughs are priceless as is the quality.

Mel Brooks skewers just about every type of film imaginable, and can still generate laughs, even in a generation like we're in today. This is a wonderful collection, EXCEPT that "The Producers" is missing from it, and the reason I knocked it down a star. Don't know that I'd pay $150 for it though.

This incredible 8 movie collection of Mel Brooks best films (most of them anyway) is still available, I purchased it about 11 years ago and it has been in regular rotation in our viewing preferences ever since. The only movie sadly left out was The Producers which I purchased separately, and thankfully the forgettable Spaceballs was also left off the list. Life Stinks and Dracula Dead & Loving It both date from the Robin Hood Men In Tights era but neither can hold a candle to Robin Hood, one of his absolute best. So with four mainstays missing, you still have the overwhelming major titles worthy of repeated viewings (get The Producers to augment this collection, it deserved to be included). As others have noted, The 12 Chairs is one of his best and most underrated/underappreciated films, often forgotten by being overshadowed under Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles which followed it with blockbuster status. Having purchased the initial DVD release of this collection before Bluray (my favorite format now) came into my house (2006 and just now getting around to reviewing), I need to emphasize the beauty of film transfer and the terrific sound engineering which did go into all of these discs, there are bonus features aplenty and films which had been early on not anamorphic herein are! The picture clarity on my 50 inch flatscreen has no issues and I cannot applaud the sound enough, whether I use straight DTS or one of the enhancements on my AV Receiver. I cannot speak to the Bluray release of this set but the bonus features on most of the films are standard which came with the individual DVD movie packages, some of them are awesome, some are normal fare, and a few (like Young Frankenstein featurettes) are Abby Normal. The Blazing Saddles featurettes are unfortunately not the multitude found on the 2004 Anniversary issue. I have read that The Producers (as well as Spaceballs) were left out due to legal constraints, which would have made this box set a Decalogue but of course one of the stone tablets was dropped so... If you are looking for the very best of Mel Brooks filmography gathered together, purchase this box in either DVD or BR and pick up The Producers separately, it is really all you need for the finest comedy entertainment ever set to film.

Curiously I know many people who don't like Mel Brooks, or claim not to. Maybe they just don't want to admit it or haven't seen his films because they are often considered to be Basic humour. After all, the most famous scene in Blazing Saddles is the beans eating scene, nothing more than a carefully Coreographed fart joke. Personally I think Mel Brooks is a comic genius and these films prove it. It's not a complete set. The most glaring omission is The Producers. Life Stinks and Dracula, Dead And Loving It are also absent. The 9 films that are included are all worth watching. The 12 Chairs and To Be Or Not To Be are both remakes so not typical Mel Brooks fare but good nonetheless. I confess I have not seen the originals of either so can't say how they compare but these remakes work for me. The rest are classic Mel Brooks and take the Mickey out of various Hollywood genres, which may be why his output does not meet with universal approval. It certainly helps if you are acquainted with what is being satirized but it's not vital. You just might miss the odd joke here and there if you don't know the references. These films often work on 2 levels. You can take them at face value and just watch and laugh off you can look for something a little deeper and probably find it. Blazing Saddles for example has a strong message regarding how badly freed slaves were treated in the old west. Even the citizens of the town terrorized by the bad guys are depicted as racists. These films are not as superficial as they first seem and can be watched over again to catch things you missed first time. Sometimes jokes are recycled but they are good jokes. Great stuff. Lots of extras too.

I love Mel Brooks. I know his humour is cheesy at times and may not appeal to everyone but it’s one of those movies that you can just put it on and just zone out. Love it

Pas mal de choix (plaisant au vu du prix), je n'ai pas encore tout vu mais ce sont d'excellents films.

Great collection at a decent price. UK buyers beware that Blazing Saddles is locked to region A. All other discs are region free.

Toda la genialidad de Mel Brooks en 9 maravillosas películas, vale la pena esta colección y de verdad te vas a divertir muchísimo con todas las ocurrencias de este gran director-comediante.

Great!