United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection

The other reviews here seem to be about some individual movie. I'm reviewing the United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set.

Warner Home Video has put out these giant megasets before, and now United Artists is doing the same thing. However, United Artists has less boxed sets on the market than Warner does, so your chances of double dipping are less in this collection. However, there is some danger of double dips. In particular United Artists has best picture collections, musical collections, Woody Allen collections, and James Bond collections that all duplicate movies in this bunch. On the bright side, for the films that have double disc editions, that is what they are offering, also the total price works out to a little under six dollars per disc, which is not bad. Do remember though, in single disc editions, United Artists/MGM seldom put any extras in with their movies. The highlights of this collection are:
1. 5 James Bond films - On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye, Dr. No
2. Best Picture winners - Marty (1955), The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (Widescreen, 2-Disc) 1961, In the Heat of the Night (1967), Midnight Cowboy - 2-Disc (1969), Rocky- 2 Disc Edition (1976), Annie Hall (1977), Rain Man (1988)
3. Some classic Spencer Tracy performances - "Judgement at Nuremburg", "Inherit the Wind", "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World"
4. Some classic noir in "Woman in the Window", "The Killing", and "Night of the Hunter".
5. Many other classic films such as "The Defiant Ones", "The Miracle Worker", "Good, Bad, and the Ugly" 2 Disc edition, "Birdman of Alcatraz", "Elmer Gantry", and "I Want To Live" among others.

There is some junk hiding among the classics -
"The Man in the Iron Mask" - Not DiCaprio's finest hour and obviously made just to capitalize on his power to draw teenage girls to the box office shortly after his Titanic fame.
"Road House" - 1989 film that is the stuff adolescent male dreams are made of - beautiful girls that fall for drifters and a chance to be macho and get paid for it.
"Heaven's Gate" - A long expensive boring 1980 western that led United Artists into bankruptcy. For a studio to start with Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin and to end up here...oh the agony.

Overall this package consists largely of both old and modern classics with just a few junk movies thrown in. You have to expect that, how else is United Artists going to get anyone to buy the last three films I mentioned? Overall, a very good buy if you can afford it and if you haven't double-dipped too much in other collections already.

Of the four movies we've watched so far, two DVD's were defective. The two DVD's stuttered, stopped, or went black. It's frustrating to return the set and await a replacement. The product is well packaged. The majority of the movies are top notch (some rif-raf, but not many). I hoped for better quality from UA.

I have been looking all over the web for this set and everyone is out of stock.

I am a movie buff and have been a huge fan of United Artists releases for decades. When I found out about this gift set containing 90 movies on 110 DVD's I was blown away. Just look at the list of contained movies, they are nearly all classics and some great newer titles as well. I have spent the last few weeks looking for the set for myself and a close friend for a Xmas gift who I used to watch many of these titles with. My search is finally over!
If you are looking for a fantastic holiday gift for the movie buff on your list, look no further. I just hope they have enough for everyone interested.
3 thumbs up!

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