Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Once again, you have a new version of the Standard Definition Collection that is very similar to the Clint Eastwood '35 years, 35 films' collection released 2 years ago. After the debacle of that collection, I see no difference. Most of these films were included in the '35 years' collection though there are some new ones included and some were dropped. New films to this collection are: Hereafter Invictus J. Edgar Trouble with the Curve That's only 4 newer films added to the collection, none of which are close to his best films, and, once again, the sister film to Letters from Iwo Jima is left out. As in the previous collection, most all of these films are on two sided discs as there are only 24 discs included in the collection. Extras include a new documentary about Eastwood the Director which I haven't watched. As all these films are standard definition DVDs, you will find only a lossy audio on even the best of them and, while in a space saving book-like container, the packaging does provide an improvement over the horribly packaged '35 years' set. The sleeves open like a book and there are 2 discs to each page. Half of the disc is exposed so that you can get a finger in the center hole so that you will not have to grab both sides of the edge, leaving finger oils on the disc. DVDs for a great many of Clint Eastwoods films, especially the older ones, have not be made from original masters...either that or the original masters had problems. Grain, dropouts and playing issues abound for many of these discs. I really cannot recommend this collection on this basis. Many of the DVDs have problems as you will see if you make this purchase. Audio is just okay but, at least, does not serve up the many issues as does the video imaging. You would do better to buy either the individual DVDs or Blu Rays or Blu Ray collections as double sided discs very often fail to play as I found out with the 35 films 35Years collection which I had to return since so many films stalled out in mid play or would not play at all. In addition the quality of the movies that did play was very poor and were not made from original masters. Grain and dirt were clearly visible in these films so no mastering work was done on any that I could see. All my reviews regard only the quality of the DVDs or Blu Ray transfers and do not attempt to summarize the stories as so many others have already done. I hope this review has been of some help to you in deciding upon your purchase. Forewarned is forearmed. Thanks for reading