DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection (1 Viewer)

[PaulP]

Thank god. I thought I was the only one.

 

[David Dias]

Amazon has it on sale for $83.99 with free shipping for anyone that's interested.

 

[Patrick H.]

My concern with those overlapping digipack types is that often discs in them are scratched up right out of the box. The big Matrix collection used this same sort of design, and four out of the ten discs in mine were scratched or scuffed to one degree or another. Fortunately they all played.

 

[Rob Lutter]

I strongly disagree with your rating of the packaging.

I honestly don't understand why people hate overlapping digipacks. Honestly, it's one more motion to take out the top disc and replace it as the bottom one. While it would've been nicer to include 15 thinpacks inside the box, for the $66 I paid for the boxset (that wherehouse.com coupon was sweeeet), I feel like the packaging is damn classy on the outside and gets the job done space-wise while also providing additional artwork inside the clear digipack with international posters for the films resting inside each digipack.

And given that I probably only watch these films once a year, it seems kind of silly to create some silly half-ass DIY artwork. But to each his own.

 

[Craig Beam]

If you'd seen some of the brilliant custom cover art being done these days, I doubt you'd be so rudely dismissive.

 

[Mark_TS]

Someone once posted here some VERY professional cover art for LEGEND, as an example-since it came housed in a rather awkward plastic case,

When inserted into a double-slim Keepcase, you wouldnt have known that it was NOT done by Universal...

So it can be done, and quite well...

I look forward to slim-pak art for the Hitches...

 

[StevenFC]

Ain't no way in the world I'm buying a set with two stinking pieces of crapola like "The Birds" and "Rope". Imo, Hitchcock is not the kind of director who's movies constitute a blind buy.

 

[Robert Crawford]

That's fine which means there is no reason for you to post in this thread again.

I finished "Vertigo" and after some comparisons with the 1998 dvd, I found this latest release very pleasing to my satisfaction.






Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Harris]

For the unitiated, Rope is not only brilliant Hitchcock, but brilliant experiment filmmaking.

The experiement of long takes... literally a full camera load of 1000', with nearly seamless (or at least well thought out) joins, is one of the delights for the cinema enthusiast.

Imagine shooting a scene, with a moving camera, for almost ten minutes with camera, set pieces and actors being forced to moved or positioned with perfection...

or you begin again.

Take 47.

RAH

 

[george kaplan]

While packaging has never stopped me from buying a dvd I want, these overlapping discs come the closest. It's not that there's an extra motion involved, it's the increased risk of accidently scratching or warping the discs. It's very hard to gently remove the top dvd without touching the bottom one.

I always move dvds out of such pathetic packaging. In the case of Hitchcock, they've been placed into the dvd cases for the earlier versions of the films. In the case of Home Improvement (the only other dvds I have the use this horrible packaging), I acutally had to stick one of the dvds into a separate blank case. It looks ugly on my shelf, but it's better than having to deal with those overlapping discs.

I honestly don't understand why anyone wouldn't hate overlapping digipacks. They serve no purpose whatsoever, there's nothing good about them, and there are far superior packaging solutions, including ones that take up no more space.

 

[george kaplan]

Rope also has a fantastic trailer, best viewed after watching the movie, in which the victim is actually seen. Many of Hitchcock's trailers are well worth watching.

 

[PaulP]

I think it has more to do with your printing abilities, as opposed to the actual custom art. I wouldn't be able to print a professional-grade cover, for example, as most people who either have color inkjets or b&w laser printers.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

To my mind the overlapping digipaks are just a narrow step above the Insta-scratch Polydor drawer cases from the dawn of DVD. Snappers never bothered me at all, but these are the spawn of hell.

 

[StevenFC]

Pardon??

I'm not allowed to comment on Hitchcock movies that I do like? I didn't think what I said was all that shocking. Maybe I could've said it differently, but it's an honestly held opinion. I do agree with what Robert said about the style of "Rope", but for me that's all it has going for it. I didn't buy it for a minute. Only Jimmy Stewart makes it bearable. And wow, what was he thinking when he made "The Birds"? And yes I know what he was going for, in both films. I'm not a dolt. But please, I can't believe I'm the only one that thinks this is one dumb movie. In fact I know a couple of people that saw it when it first came out, and they demanded a refund.

But if you tell me honest opinion is not welcome at HTF, I'll refrain from further participation. Life's too short.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

The review for Vertigo is up, after much tweaking. (To my TV, to the review, to the formatting--you name it.)


Sounds like a good topic for discussion over on the Movies forum. I will say this--I did not buy all of the original releases of these movies because I thought they were too expensive, not because I felt they were unworthy of a place on my shelves.

I've not even seen five of the movies included in this set (gasp!) Yet.

The March 2001 Best of Alfred Hitchcock Volumes 1 and 2 were $150 each, and included 7 of the movies along wiht a disc of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. It was from that wave I purchased Family Plot, which is actually my personal favorite film from the Master.

What with the seasons sets of AHP coming out, and this current collection being a fraction of the original release cost, we live in happy times.

- Steve

 

[Robert Crawford]

As long as it's in the appropriate thread. This is a dvd review thread, if you want to discuss the lack of merits in regard to any of these films or even Hitchcock for that matter then feel free to start a thread in Movies for that purpose.

If you want to discuss this further then contact me off-line.







Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

Yes, it is.





Crawdaddy

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just got through "Psycho", I have the feeling that some of us will be disappointed in the video presentation due to excessive film grain. From my perspective, I'm happy with it.






Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick McCart]

In Power DVD, I manipulated the frame to simulate a non-anamorphic DVD and it ended up looking a lot like the old DVD, except sharper. I really think the old edition hid a lot of the grain and opticals artifacts by its lower-res nature (not to mention that I suspect it had a light amount of DVNR applied).

 

[Kevin M]

The old version on Psycho had a fair amount of grain as well though, it is very noticeable?

I actually don't mind a bit of grain, that's film after all, however if it looks like a swarm of gnats is flying all over the place...well that's a little different, but I doubt that is the case here.