5/5 Rating - Predator - Arnold Schwarzenegger at his best! A must for Sci-Fi fans!
Movie Reviews
Big Disappointment.
M. W. Shanahan | Sunnyvale, California | 07/07/2006
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I actually ordered this set from another provider, and was so disappointed that the advertised "anamorphic widescreens" were not. After two sets from that provider were the same, I was checking Amazon. Now I am afraid there is no hope. I don't understand how this can be! The MAIN BOX and EACH INDIVIDUAL BOX are marked as ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (Enhanced for 16x9), but True Lies and Commando are not. The WORST is that Predator is PAN AND SCAN... not any form of widescreen! I already own these movies in the old style widescreen. I can't figure out how this could occur."
True Lies indeed - a total ripoff
Jeffamerica | Mtn. View, CA | 01/02/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"The other review is intirely correct. I wish I had kept the receipt for this.
Not only are none of them anamorphic, Predator is indeed pan-and-scan. When you start the movie, it even give you the "This filmo has been modified to fit your TV screen" disclaimer. It then goes in to be one of the worst looking DVD transfers I've seen.
there should seriously be a class action lawsuit for this release, because all of the DVD packaging says "Anamorphic Widescreen" on each disc. Not only is is not Anamorphic, Predator is not even Letterboxed! Not that that would make me happy.
These movies are simply not watchable on a widescreen television, and a waste of money.
This is false advertising, plain and simple, and someone should be held responsible."
You don't get what you think you're paying for.
Empty the brainpan and just enjoy! | Globetrotting | 02/13/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"True to the other reviews listed here--NONE of these movies are anamorphic. It says they are on the outer box, and each printed label for each movie inside the box swears they are anamorphic as well. I've tried six (!!) different versions of this box set--all have been the same, so it's not just a case of a bad run or two slipping past QC. I even wrote Fox directly and they simply said "we aren't aware of any widespread problems with these titles"...which means they've pretty well washed their hands of fixing this rather glaring error. Beware if you were looking to upgrade your existing non-anamorphic transfers of True Lies and Commando--neither are here, and Predator is even worse with a shoddy FS transfer!"
Old Prints, Not Anamorphic
M. Parker | 07/06/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"It's been said before, but this is so egregious an error it deserves another strike against it.
All films are advertised clearly and individually on the box as well as on each of their individual cases as being "Anamorphic Widescreen", but only one actually is.
- True Lies is the existing 4:3 letterbox print. - Predator is the grainy old (pre-Collector's Edition) print, but it *is* anamorphic. - Commando is the existing 4:3 letterbox print.
So, I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know from the other reviews, but just so it's clear, you're getting absolutely nothing new here. Which is entirely fine for the price, and for tube TV'ers, but not for those that have been dying for anamorphic releases of True Lies and Commando for years, and were duped by the idiocy/blatant deception of the packaging. Myself included.
For those that *are* looking for quality prints of these movies, Commando (Director's Cut) is due September 18th, Predator (Collector's Edition) is in print right now, and True Lies used to have a Special Edition in the works until September 11th, at which point it was shelved indefinitely, but I'd expect to see that soon as well."
Not what you expected...
T. Sveen | Chicago, IL USA | 04/04/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"As others have noted, all 3 movies are labeled "Anamorphic Widescreen" on the main cover. I found that my experience differs somewhat from the others, as in my version, I get letterbox True Lies, letterbox Commando, and what looks like anamorphic widescreen for Predator. I'm saying this based on opening it in a window on the computer, and the actual movie seems to have the 16:9 ratio (with no additional black bars on top and bottom). My only explanation is that perhaps they got so much criticism for the first batch that had the P&S version, they fixed that. Unfortunately, True Lies and Commando are still simply letterbox.
I also bought the action pack that includes 6th day and last action hero, where last action hero is P&S. For some reason, it seems these collection packs are very unreliable. The covers are misleading, and I also find it interesting how they are mastered. 6th day for instance had p&s menus, but when you start the movie it is actually anamorphic widescreen (relief..). There were similar issues in this celebrity pack. (Menu's etc different format than main title).
However, I still give it 3 stars since it does not look like you could get True Lies and Command in Anamorphic anywhere else either, plus I paid 9.95... True Lies is also in my opinion a real 'classic' in the action adventure category. Hope it gets released on bluray/hddvd... (looks like it exists on d-vhs for those few that have a player of that type..)