This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
The soundtrack for Disney's Sleeping Beauty is based on a ballet of the same name composed by the illustrious Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky. For the movie, the score from the ballet was adapted to the movie.
The score has the sound and feel of a full orchestra and is a perfect complement to the Disney movie. One of the finest scores ever produced for any motion picture.
The adaptation was phenomenal. The musical elements created by Tchaikovsky fit the movie perfectly from comic scenes, to romantic scenes to the exciting finale battle between the good and evil. I have heard the original Tchaikovsky scoe in its entirety and this soundtrack is faithful to the spirit of the original work.
I think Tchaikovsky would have been proud to know that his music has inspired such a fantastic work. If you like the movie or classical music, this CD is essential.
What's great about it: Excellent soundtrack based on Tchaikovsky
Fifty years after he first attacked Tokyo, Godzilla is back on the rampage -- and this time he's brought reinforcements -- in this monster opus from Toho Studios. After numerous rounds of combat with Japan's most furious monsters, the robotic beast Mechagodzilla is in for some much needed repairs when a handful of sprites appear before the scientists putting the machine back in fighting shape. The enchanted ones warn the scientists that their actions could have grave consequences, but it isn't long before a strange series of natural disasters brings the most fearsome of all monsters, Godzilla, back to life. What's more, Godzilla is joined by Mothra for a reign of terror that threatens to devastate the island. With few alternatives, Japan's leaders pit the repaired Mechagodzilla against Godzilla and Mothra, but it quickly becomes unclear if the robot will obey its human creators or join forces with the flesh-and-blood monsters.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
Tokyo S.O.S begins with a warning from Mothra (a giant moth) to the people of Japan. 'Do not use Mecha-Godzilla!'. What follows is an exciting sci-fi action movie that leads up to a great battle in Tokyo involving Godzilla, Mothra and Mecha-Godzilla.
Tokyo S.O.S boast a fine array of visual effects and some well-designed monsters. The monsters and the Tokyo sets look realistic. Masaki Tezuka (who also directed 'Godzilla against Mecha-Godzilla') proves to be an excellent director. He ranks with Ishiro Honda (who directed the first Godzilla movie) as one of the best directors of the Godzilla movies.
The English dub is not up to the standard of the original Japanese dialogue, but the DVD has the Japanese dialogue.
I recommend this to any fan of sci-fi or Japanese movies. Godzilla truly is the King of the Monsters!
What's great about it: Nice visual effects and exciting battle scenes
This 1954 Disney version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea represented the studio's costliest and most elaborate American-filmed effort to date. Kirk Douglas plays a trouble-shooting 19th century seaman, trying to discover why so many whaling ships have been disappearing of late. Teaming with scientist Paul Lukas and diver Peter Lorre, Douglas sets sail to investigate--and is promptly captured by the megalomaniac Captain Nemo (James Mason), who skippers a lavish, scientifically advanced submarine. The film's special effects, including a giant squid, were impressive enough in 1954 to win an Academy Award.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
20,000 Leauges Under the Sea ranks as one of my all-time favortie movies.
This was Disney's first live-action film and is also the best screen adaptation a Jules Verne novel has ever recieved. While the movie does not follow ever event in the novel, it stays true to the spirit of the original novel.
Set in the late 19th Century, two scientists and a harpooner are taken prisoner by Captain Nemo, a man waging his own private war against a tyrannical regime. Much of the movie takes place on the Nautilis, an atomic submarine.
James Mason turns in an extraordinary performance as Captain Nemo, we can truly feel the inner turmoil that defines one of literatures most enduring anti-heroes. Kirk Douglas is great as Ned Land, the harpooner and provides some very nice comic moments both on his own and with his sea lion sidekick.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has some exciting and dramatic action sequences in the best swashbuckling tradition highlighted by great visual effects. The visual effects were state of the art in the 50's and they still hold up today. The design of the Nautilis was well-thought out and brilliantly realized. It looks almost exactly like Jules Verne's concept of the Nautilis.
The extras include documentraies on the making of the film, theatrical trailers and a gallery of promotional materials and a Donald Duck cartoon.
This movie has a g rating and that is exactly the rating it warrants. The movie is exciting but non-violent. It is a great movie for children and is also the type of movie adults can enjoy as well making it the perfect family film.
This is truly a movie I can recommend to anyone. A brilliant adventure movie and a great family film in one.
What's great about it: Top-notch filmmaking all the way
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
This series follows the plot of the Sakura Wars video game (a game made for the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast in Japan but never released in the US).
Sakura Wars follows a team of elite mecha pilots who work in secret to defend Japan against invasion by demonic forces. In thier secret identities, they form a theatrical company. As in the game, the TV series focuses more on how the team comes together than on just combat. But there are plenty of action scenes. The pasts of most of the characters is explored through the course of the series and is told in a nice pace. As the series progresses, the team evelves from a group of strangers to group of frineds and comrades-in-arms.
The interactions between the characters ranges from the heart-wrenching to the comic, one comic sequence involves the misspelling of a name that changes the meaning of the name. A more dramatic one involves one character having to rescue her wounded comrade. Ecxellent blend of comedy and drama.
The animation is good by TV standards, but where the anime really shines is its music. Sakura Wars boast some of the best songs ever sung in anime (mostly in their stage performances). The opening is one of my favorite anime songs and each character has at least one song for that character.
Watch the ORIGINAL JAPANESE version. Sakura Wars has one of the most talented casts in anime and the English dub does not do the series justice.
For a unique mecha anime, check out Sakura Wars.
What's great about it: Great story, great music, great characters
A monstrous prehistoric reptile squares off against an equally huge mechanical creature in this Japanese monster opus, which has been given a straightforward presentation for its North American DVD release. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla has been transferred to disc in letterboxed format at the widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which has also been enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1; viewers may choose between the original Japanese-language soundtrack and a dubbed version in English, while optional subtitles in English and French have also been included. No additional bonus materials have been included for this release.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
This is one of my favorite Godzilla movies and is the best of the movies where Godzilla fights his robot double Mecha-Godzilla.
In this version, Mecha-Godzilla is built by the Japan Self-Defense Force to defend against Godzilla. Mecha-Godzilla looks very cool and projects the image that it really could take on Godzilla one-on-one. The duels between Godzilla and Mecha-Godzilla are exciting to watch and boast some great visual effects. A nice blend of CG and miniatures.
The music, by Michiru Oshima, is worthy of the likes of John Williams and original Godzilla composer Akira Ifukube. At turns the music is exciting and stirring.
The beautiful Yumiko Shaku does a great job as Akane Yashiro, Mecha-Godzilla's pilot and there are other great characters as well. Particularly a scientist on the Mecha-Godzilla team and his young daughter.
Godzilla against Mecha-Godzilla features everything you know and love about the Godzilla movies, lots of action, scary monsters and more than one big throwdown with Godzilla.
This DVD includes the original Japanese dialogue version, which I wish was included on every Toho DVD release.
Godzilla shows once again why his is called 'King of the Monsters'. If you are a Godzilla fan, then you must see 'Godzilla against Mecha-Godzilla'.
What's great about it: Visual effects, action, music
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
As I long-time Godzilla fan I was very excited about this DVD release, I was not disappointed at all. This DVD has the first (and arguably the best) Godzilla movie, both the Original Japanese movie and the heavily editied English version.
The Japanese version of Godzilla (original title 'Gojira') is a well-thought out and very dramatic movie boasting many exciting actions scenes. The sequence of Godzilla destroying Tokyo has many thrilling and a few terrifying moments. Yes it is a man in a monster suit crushing a miniature set, but the suit looks great and the set looks realistic. The sequence of a prayer for peace sung by a children's choir is positively heart rending.
It is not just action that makes this movie great, the acting is superb, as is the music. The movie also gives a nice expaination of how Godzilla came to life (a mutated dinosaur awakened by atomic testing), and in the context of the movie it makes perfect sense!
What could have been a forgetable B-movie is instead a masterpiece thanks to the work for four men: Tomoyuki Tanaka the creator and producer of Godzilla, Ishiro Honda the director of the movie, Akira Ifukube the composer and Eiji Tsuburaya the director of visual effects. It is thanks to them that Godzilla has remained popular for over fifty years.
The DVD restoration is one of the best I've seen. It looks almost as clear and fresh as a new movie with only one or two scenes where the age of the material is clear.
I am very happy this DVD includes the Original Japanese version, the US edit softened the movie's dramatic impact too much. The Original version is riveting but the English version does not grab you as much, and the scenes with Raymond Burr are obviously tacked on.
The original 'Gojira' is truly a highlight of Japanese cinema. If you are a sci-fi fan or a fan of Japanese cinema, then this movie is essential for you collection.
Godzilla Forever!
What's great about it: A classic that became a legend
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
The Sakura Wars series (which has not gotten the recognition it deserves in the US) has always featured an excellent symphonic score by brilliant composer Kohei Tanaka and this CD features some fine symphonic tracks.
The series follows an elite secret team of mecha pilots who are members of a theatrical company when they are not batlling the forces of evil. There are some great battle themes that make the action scenes more exciting and some nice motifs for the movie's diverse cast of characters. Sakura Wars also has a history of great songs by the series voice cast and this CD has two superb songs. The first song 'Kiseki no Kane' (MIracle Bell) is a moving song by the main vocal cast sung for a Christmas show and there is a passionate duet by Chisa Yokoyama and Akiko Kuno that was also part of one of thier plays.
Sakura Wars boasts one of the most talented casts of voice actors in anime and I would have liked to have had a few more songs on this CD by the vocal cast (particularly by Chisa Yokoyama and Ai Orikasa). Still, this is one of the best anime soundtracks around. I recommend this to anyone who likes symphonic scores or anyone who wants to expand thier collection of anime soundtracks.
Top notch music!
What's great about it: Great music from a fantastic series
What's not so great: I would have liked more vocals
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
Ever since I the first GI Joe miniseries on TV back in the mid-80's I've been wanting GI Joe in my video collection, now the series is on DVD and looking very good.
This DVD collection includes the first two GI Joe miniseries (A Real American Hero and The Revenge of Cobra) as well as the first twelve episodes of the daily series.
GI Joe follows the efforts of an elite Special Forces team as they fight to stop the terrorist organiztion Cobra from conquering the world. The series features a huge cast of characters (based on the action figures) and each character has his or her own personality and distinctive look. From Duke, the all-American hero, to the beautiful counter-intelligence agent Scarlett to the mysterious commando/ninja Snake Eyes.
Each episode has more action packed into a half-hour than many two-hour movies and the show runs at a fast clip. There's lots of cool characters and some very cool weapons and vehicles. There is also a good amount of humor from the character interactions and some great dialogue.
There are a few isolated scenes with sound and image problems, but these problems are not persistent. Shout Factory did an excellent job on the restoration, but there are a few places where the material shows its age. For fun and excitement, GI Joe can't be beat! GI Joe is action-packed but not violent, so it is a good series for children.
Now you know. And knowing is half the battle.
What's great about it: Lots of action and lots of fun
What's not so great: A few minor source material issues
This big box set contains every episode from the seven-season run of Star Trek: Voyager. Each episode is presented in the original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. English soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1. Each season comes loaded with extra features, predominantly behind-the-scenes featurettes that cover various aspects of the show's production.
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
This series follows the Starship Voyager as it makes its way from the other side of the Galaxy, 70,00 light years away, to home. Star Trek: Voyager does an excellent job of showing what you do against incredible odds, you do what you need to do to get the job done. It starts of with a Starfleet crew and a crew of rengades having to work together to overcome almost insurmountable odds. As things progress, the tension between the crews dimishes and they work together more comfortable, this theme of redemption continues throughout the series.
Voyager also boasts more action than most Trek series. There are more space battles and more action scenes than in Voyager's illustrious pre-decessors. Most of the adversaries are new alien races, but the Borg shows up in later seasons. All of the action scenes are exciting to watch thanks to Voyager's fine visual effects.
In the latter seasons, Voyager tells some of the best stories in the history of Star Trek, but the first couple seasons are hit and miss. There are a lot of good episodes in all seasons, but the first two seasons also have a few not so good episodes. But once Voyager hits its stride, it goes at warp speed!
Cool visual effects, lots of action, a new cast of alien races and some very well-thought out character development makes for an outstanding series. You'll be glad you signed on for this Voyage.
What's great about it: The whole series in one set
What's not so great: The first season or two are kinda hit and miss
This reviewer is a member of the Best Buy Tech Insider Network Program. This invitation-only program provides BestBuy.com reviewers with manufacturer-supplied products for the purpose of writing honest, unbiased and usage-based reviews. Outside of receiving products to test and review, Best Buy Tech Insider Network Reviewers are not compensated in any other way.
I have been waiting for this one since before the first live-action movie hit theaters!
In this series, you see Optimus Prime, Megatron and the rest of the Transformers cast in thier original forms. And the focus on this series is more on the Transformers themselves than on the Human characters. Each episode moves at a fast and furious pace and features more than enough action and transformations to satisfy any Transformers fan. This series even features characters that have yet to appear in the live-action movies. Most notably the Dinobots, Autobots who transform into dinosaurs!
This is a great, and essential, addition to any Transformers fan's video library. If you watched the original cartoon (like I did), you can relive all the excitment of the original series. Transformers has lots of action, but it is not a violent series, so if you're thinking this is a good gift for children, you're thinking right!
There are a few issues with picture quality in a some scenes, owing to the age and quality of the source material. But overall the restoration staff did an exemplary job on bringing this back to original broadcast quality. This is probably the best quality we're ever going to see for this series.
Highly recommended!
What's great about it: See the Transformers that started it all
Relive the unforgettable moments and experience the spectacular adventure of STAR WARS the Complete Saga in a way only Blu-ray can deliver. This incredible collection unites all six Episodes together for the first time in stunning high definition with the purest digital sound in the galaxy. With over 40 hours of thrilling special features, including all-new content created exclusively for this , you can journey deeper into the Star Wars universe and discover more than ever before. Feel the Force of STAR WARS the Complete Saga on Blu-ray!
Overall3 out of 5
Bad disc - TWICE
ByQuoteMefromLos Angeles, CA
About an hour into Episode II, the disc freezes a bit and seems to skip. Returned to store for a hassle free exchange. The same problem with the new disc at the exact same spot!!!! Haven't had a chance to view all the other discs but what a disappiontment. Question is do I exchange again or simply ask for a refund???? Anyone else have similar problem?
Lots of talk with the First Class movie not working with Sony. It would not work with my Sony BDP S350. Which is NOT 3D. I had to disable the internet connection "Do not allow disc to access internet" or some such. Then I had to delete the data file the Xmen movie had already installed when I tried to watch it the first time. This isn't easy either as it normally doesn't display the stored data in the setup menu. I had to do this by inserting an invalid disc. In this case the digital copy. Then I got the menu to delete the First Class data file. What a pain, I'm watching this now and it BETTER be good, lol. If your not up to this then get the DVD. Hope this helps someone.
Relive the unforgettable moments and experience the spectacular adventure of STAR WARS the Complete Saga in a way only Blu-ray can deliver. This incredible collection unites all six Episodes together for the first time in stunning high definition with the purest digital sound in the galaxy. With over 40 hours of thrilling special features, including all-new content created exclusively for this , you can journey deeper into the Star Wars universe and discover more than ever before. Feel the Force of STAR WARS the Complete Saga on Blu-ray!
Overall4 out of 5
Good value for the money. One BRD issue.
ByburrisdfromFredericksburg, VA
As a Star Wars fan I find this a good value for the money. I have a problem with the blu-ray discs, which is in no way a fault of Best Buy. Every single disc seems to enter a pause mode during the movie and then speeds up without audio. I have to stop playing the disc and restart it again. This happens regardless of which blu-ray player I use. Other than that, I would recommend this product.