The Mel Brooks Collection

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 item. This was given as a gift. Very much enjoyed. As General Brand would say,"I laughed until I stopped." And he laughed a good long time!

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.