Karate Kid Collection - 2/1/2005 (1 Viewer)

[Aaron Silverman]

Tamlyn Tomita's not much younger than Ralph Macchio, is she?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The whole set is under $26 at Amazon (and other places might be cheaper). Have you paid over $13 for a disc lately? Not to mention the fact that you could trade in or sell the disc with III and IV on it to reduce the price even more (there's your trip to Blockbuster!).

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm going to try to be honorable and true starting right now! *



* - For some reason, this makes me think of the old milk commercial.

"Who's that?!"

"That's Jeffrey Geyser!"



This is, though, the male version of that, obviously.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Aaron no, but I won't pay $26 just to get the original, either.

Glenn

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Fair enough!

Just wait for it to hit the pre-viewed racks at Blockbuster and Hollywood. They'll sell the discs individually. (But you'd better be quick on the draw for this one!)

 

[Steve K.H.]

Decisions... decisions...

Wonder what episodes 2, 3, and 4 will go for, unopened, on eBay?

Heck, it no wonder so many people (not me) are illegally copying movies.

 

[MikeEckman]

According to Best Buy's website this set is $24.99 which probably means thats that they'll sell it for at the store, so I think I'll just get it there. I checked with Amazon and its $25.50 or something but then you have to get their 5-9 day shipping. So I figure I'll pay the extra dollar for tax and get it the day it comes out rather than wait a week to get it.

 

[Mike_Richardson]

You'd better hurry before word gets out about the box set and those prices drop WAY down.

What might be $25 this week could be zip next week since they're all being re-issued.

 

[Adam_WM]

Funny story. My friend wants nothing to do with owning the NEXT KARATE KID. So he joked, "I'll just buy the set and throw away the Next Karate Kid." However, he saw it in the back room at work the other day and sure enough, Pt. 3 and NEXT KARATE KID are on the same disc. He says, "Well, maybe I'll just scratch up on side of the disc!"

 

[jason:g]

Hilary Swank went from The Next Karate Kid to Million Dollar Baby. She sure can fight.

 

[Harold Wazzu]

Was reading the review over at dvdtalk.com and found some interesting things:

About KK1 - "First thing I noticed was the video bitrate, which averaged a very low 4Mbps. I've read that Columbia/Tri-Star has done this in the past to avoid using dual-layer DVDs, which is beyond disappointing. Going cheap on disc space is a crime against DVD. Though the bitrates are low, the quality doesn't seem to suffer greatly because of it."

What a shame, could we see a superbit release in the future?


About KK1 - "The movie could look better, especially for a film remastered in high-definition, but it's definitely looked worse, as one peek at the film's trailer illustrates clearly."

I never knew these were going to be remastered at all.


"Overall, Columbia/Tri-Star has put together a decent package, finally giving the first film the special-edition treatment it deserves. Unfortunately, the low video bitrate and a low-tech sound mix make for a presentation that's less than hoped for."

When are studios going to get it right???!!!

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I hate to say it, but given the price tag I'm not surprised. I will likely pick this up for $25. If it would have had a list for $50 or so maybe it would have been better quality, but then again a marginal fan like me might not want to spend $35-$40 at retail for it.

Seems like they're going for the impulse buyers on this one.

 

[Louis C]

Can someone verify that KK1 is anamorphic widescreen with this set?

I pulled the product description from DeepDiscountDVD and it says:

"Region 1
4-Disc Set - Keep Case
Disc 1: THE KARATE KID
Full Frame - 1.33
Additional Release Material:
Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Features:
Scene Selection"

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Yes, all four films are anamorphic widescreen.

Yes, the bitrate is very low for the most part. (Most of the recent Sony discs I've reviewed have actually had rather high bitrates.)

No, it's not that noticeable, because there is a large amount of inherent film grain that mostly hides the compression artifacts if you aren't looking really closely.

Yes, the audio is unspectacular.

On the other hand, it's a great movie and the extra features are actually quite good.

My full review should be up tonight -- I'm still working on the extraneous parts (namely, II, III, and Next. ).

 

[danak]

Can anyone clarify if The Karate Kid Part 2 is simply a re-release? And are there any extras on it? Thanks

Dana

 

[Britton]

There is a review up on dvdtalk.com and it includes screen captures of the menus for all 4 movies. The menus for the sequels are identical to the ones from the 2001 release of the flicks, so I think it's a safe bet to assume they are re-releases.

Is the first movie on a dual layered disc or did they cram the movie and all the special features on a single layered disc? Or is it a flipper with the features on one side and the movie on the other?

 

[CraigL]

They're all single layered.

Columbia is a HUGE fan of the single layered discs.

They must also be a huge fan of DVD copiers as well lol.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Are you sure about that? The first movie is 126 minutes (with multiple audio tracks) and has over 75 minutes of extra features. My guess is that the film is on one layer and the extras are on another. (It's not a flipper.)

 

[Greg_S_H]

Jeepers. I'll still get it, since it's the Karate Kid in anamorphic widescreen, but couldn't they have done it right? Even dual-layered, there's little excuse for cramming over an hour of extras on the same side as the movie. Sony understands this, having their own vaunted Superbit line, but here they're doing it anyway. No wonder the bit rate is so low and the image quality has suffered.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Everyone intending to trade off Parts III and IV at Blockbuster (not a bad idea, I agree) be forewarned, they're not going to be able to take them because the individual discs don't feature UPC barcodes with which to scan the titles into Blockbuster's systems...you'll have to just pawn the discs off at some Mom and Pop store that takes used DVDs...