Comedy Item ID: #517The Mel Brooks Collection NOW $0.00
Quantity: In Stock and Ready to Ship! Product Information:Description Specs: Audio: English: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish & French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Disc 1: Widescreen: 2.40:1, Disc 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 9: Widescreen: 1.85:1, Disc 3 & 5: Widescreen: 2.35:1 [...] Item Description
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THE KING OF FARCE GETS BLU!
THE MEL BROOKS COLLECTION
BLU-RAY DISC
Nine-Disc Set Featuring An Exclusive Book About Brooks’ Extraordinary Life
Arrives For The First Time On Blu-ray Disc December 15 From
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
“One of the most gifted comic filmmakers around.”
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (September 25, 2009) – Best known as a creator of broad film farces and uproarious parodies, jack-of-all-trades Mel Brooks has been entertaining audiences for years with his wacky and absurdist humor. Now just in time for the holidays, the king of comedy’s brilliant work is available for the first time in high definition in The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-ray Disc, debuting December 15 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Embark on a hilarious adventure over and over again as the ultimate gift set debuts with some of Brooks’ best films including Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, History Of The World Part I, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Silent Movie, Spaceballs, To Be Or Not To Be, The Twelve Chairs and Young Frankenstein.
The collection also features an exclusive book created in conjunction with Mel Brooks highlighting his remarkable life and unforgettable films. In addition to having three of his films ranked in the Top 20 on the American Film Institute’s list of the Top 100 comedy films of all-time, Brooks is also a member of a short list of creative artists with the distinction of earning multiple award categories, including an Emmy®, Oscar®, Grammy® and Tony®*. Adding to that list, it was recently announced that Brooks will be receive a Kennedy Center Honor 2009 at the 32nd annual national celebration of the arts on Dec. 29.
A perfect gift for the holidays, The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-ray Disc featuring nine hilarious and classic films will be available for the suggested retail price of $139.99 U.S. / $179.99 Canada. Prebook is November 18.
The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-ray Disc Title Synopses:
Blazing Saddles:
Filmmaker, star and paddleball wiz Mel Brooks goes way out west and way out of his mind with a hilarious spoof set in an 1874 Old West where 1974 Hollywood is one soundstage away – and where good-old fun blast prejudices to the high comedy heavens. Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn and more join for horseplay and horselaughs, making Blazing Saddles the #6 choice on the American Film Institute’s Top-100 Comedies.
High Anxiety:
In this outrageous homage to the Hitchcock thriller, Mel Brooks plays renowned Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Richard Thorndyke, a nut-job with a paralyzing fear of heights, who’s just become head of the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very Very Nervous. After the jittery doc learns that his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances, he looks for help from his resentful associate (Harvey Korman) and his evil head nurse (Cloris Leachman) – who, not surprisingly, offer no help. To make matters worse, events take a murderous turn, and Thorndyke is accused of the crime. Co-starring Madeline Kahn, High Anxiety is considered one of Brooks’ best.
History Of The World Part I:
Mel Brooks gives new meaning to the term “revisionist history” with this laugh-filled version of the story of mankind. This far-from-accurate romp teaches the “real” truth behind the Roman Empire (in which Brooks plays a stand-up philosopher at Caesar’s Palace), the French Revolution (where he pops up as King Louis XVI), and the Spanish Inquisition (in which monks and nuns participate in a splashy song-and-dance number). Featuring an all-star cast including Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Gregory Hines and Sid Caesar, History of the World: Part Iproves that nothing, including history, is sacred.
Robin Hood: Men In Tights:
The master of comedy, Mel Brooks, pulls off another serious spoof on a classic with Robin Hood: Men in Tights. The all-star cast includes: Cary Elwes as the head of the merry men, Roger Rees as the evil dyslexic Sheriff of “Rottingham,” Richard Lewis as the seriously neurotic Prince John, Amy Yasbeck as the put-upon Maid Marian, Patrick Stewart as ultrrrra-Scottish King Richard, Tracey Ullman as a much-sought-after soothsayer named Latrine and Dave Chappelle and Isaac Hayes as hilarious characters named Achchoo and Asneeze.
Silent Movie:
Only Mel Brooks would tell his laugh-packed tale about a silent movie–as a silent movie–with one word of dialogue. Joining him in his outrageous, nonstop parade of sight gags are Marty Feldman, Dom Deluise, Sid Caesar, Harold Gould, Bernadette Peters and Ron Carey. As the ruthless conglomerate Engulf and Devour targets a floundering movie studio, has-been director Mel Funn (Brooks) convinces the paranoid studio chief (Caesar) to make a star-studded silent picture. Aided by his sidekicks (DeLuise and Feldman), the devious Funn actually manages to sign some of the biggest names in Hollywood: Paul Newman, Liza Minelli, Burt Reynolds, Anne Bancroft and James Caan. Filled with hilarious spoofs of just about everything that happens in tinseltown, Silent Movie is one of Brooks’ funniest, most original films.
Spaceballs:
The farce is with you in this “uproarious salute to science fiction” (The Hollywood Reporter) that teams comedy legend Mel Brooks with an all-star cast of cutups including John Candy, Rick Moranis and Bill Pullman. When the evil Dark Helmet (Moranis) attempts to steal all the air from planet Druidia, a determined Druish Princess (Daphne Zuniga), a clueless rogue (Pullman) and a half-man/half-dog creature who’s his own best friend (Candy) set out to stop him! But with the forces of darkness closing in on them at ludicrous speed, they’ll need the help of a wise imp named Yogurt (Brooks) and the mystical power of “The Schwatrz” to bring peace – and merchandising rights – to the entire galaxy!
To Be Or Not To Be:
Mel Brooks lets the Nazis have it with both barrels in this hilarious remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy. Brooks stars as Frederick Bronski, the great Polish actor an amazing amount of people have never heard of. Anne Bancroft co-stars as his actress wife, with whom he fights an eternal tug-of-war for center stage. He should only know about her backstage meetings with a handsome fighter pilot…But all that is put aside when the Nazis invade Poland and the entire troupe gets involved in a frenzy of murder, mistaken identities and maniacal improvising to thwart the Gestapo and save the Polish underground. Co-starring Charles Durning as the SS colonel who stands in their way, To Be Or Not To Be will have you on your feet, yelling encore!
The Twelve Chairs:
Set in Russia in 1927, this much-loved, hilarious Mel Brooks comedy classic is the tale of a former aristocrat (Ron Moody) who is now a Russian clerk under the new Soviet regime. When he learns that his dying mother-in-law sewed a fortune of family jewels into one of the twelve dining room chairs, he sets off across Russia to find it–with an opportunist (Frank Langella), a priest (Dom DeLuise) and his former servant (Mel Brooks) all in equal pursuit.
Young Frankenstein:
Mel Brooks’ hilarious tribute to Mary Shelley’s classic makes fun of not just the legend, but also every other Frankenstein movie! Summoned by his late grandfather’s will to a castle in Transylvania, young Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) discovers a step-by-step manual on how to bring a corpse to life. With help from Igor (Marty Feldman), the hunchback who gets upset when people mispronounce his name, and sweet, curvaceous Inga (Teri Garr), Frankenstein makes a creature (Peter Boyle) with a monstrous lust for life – and love! Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars and Gene Hackman co-star in this inspired vision of lunacy.
Blu-Ray Disc Bonus Features:
Disc One:
Blazing Saddles – feature film
Additional Scenes
Scene-Specific Commentary by Mel Brooks
2 Documentaries
Back in the Saddle
Intimate Portrait: Madeline Kahn (Excerpt)
Black Bart: 1975 Pilot Episode Of The Proposed TV Series Spinoff
Theatrical Trailer
Disc Two:
Spaceballs – feature film
Commentary by Mel Brooks
Spaceballs: The Documentary
In Conversation: Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan
John Candy: Comic Spirit
Watch the movie in Ludicrous Speed
Still Galleries
Film Flubs
Storyboards-to-Film Comparison
Disc Three:
Young Frankenstein – feature film
Commentary by Mel Brooks
Inside The Lab: Secret Formulas in the Making of Young Frankenstein
Deleted Scenes
It’s Alive! Creating A Monster Classic
Making FrankenSense of Young Frankenstein
Transylvanian Lullaby: The Music of John Morris
The Franken-Track: A Monstrous Conglomeration of Trivia – Trivia Track
Blucher Button
Outtakes
Isolated Score Track (DTS MA)
Disc Four:
High Anxiety – feature film
Hitchcock and Mel: Spoofing the Master of Suspense
The “Am I Very, Very Nervous?” Test
Dr. Thorndyke’s Ink Blot Test
How Anxious Am I?
Don’t Get Anxious! The Trivia of Hitchcock – Trivia Track
Isolated Score Track (DTS MA)
Disc Five:
History of the World Part 1 – feature film
Musical Mel: Inventing “The Inquisition”
Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World
The Real History of the World – Trivia Track
Isolated Score Track (DTS MA)
Disc Six:
Robin Hood: Men In Tights – feature film
Funny Men In Tights: Three Generations of Comedy
HBO Special: Robin Hood: Men In Tights – “The Legend Had It Coming”
LaserDisc Commentary by Mel Brooks
Isolated Score Track (DTS MA)
Disc Seven:
Silent Movie – feature film
Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of Silent Movie
Speak Up! Historical Hollywood – Trivia Track
Disc Eight:
To Be Or Not To Be – feature film
Brooks and Bancroft: A Perfect Pair
How Serious Can Mel Brooks Really Get?
Profiles of Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning
To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Trivia! – Trivia Track
Isolated Score Track (DTS MA)
Disc Nine:
Twelve Chairs – feature film
The Mel Brooks Collection on Blu-Ray
Street Date: December 15, 2009
Prebook Date: November 18, 2009
Pricing: $139.99 U.S. / $179.99 Canada
Catalog #: 2262794
Screen Format/Rating: Blazing Saddles – Widescreen (2.40:1) / R
Spaceballs – Widescreen (1.85:1) / PG
Young Frankenstein – Widescreen (2.35:1) / PG
High Anxiety – Widescreen (1.85:1) / G
History Of The World Part I – Widescreen (2.35:1) / R
Robin Hood: Men In Tights – Widescreen (1.85:1) / PG-13
Silent Movie – Widescreen (1.85:1) / PG
To Be Or Not To Be – Widescreen (1.85:1) / PG
The Twelve Chairs – Widescreen (1.85:1) / G
Audio: English 5/1 DTS HD Master Audio, Spanish/French 5.1 Dolby Digital, English, French and Spanish Subtitles
Total Run Time: 969 Minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes
*Academy Award – Best Screenplay, The Producers, 1968
Emmy Award – Outstanding Guest Performance in a Comedy Series, “Mad About You,” 1997, 1998, 1999
Grammy Award – Best Long Form Music Video, Recording ‘The Producers’: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks, 2001
Tony Award – Best Musical, Best Book (Musical), Best Original Musical Score, The Producers, 2001
Rating: 5 / 5
This is a nine-disc set of most of the director-writer-actor’s films under the control of MGM/Fox. Six of them – Silent Movie, History Of The World Part 1, High Anxiety, To Be or Not to Be, Twelve Chairs, and Robin Hood: Men with Tights – are making their Blu-ray debut in this set. The other three included films – Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs have already gone Blu. This is exactly the same content as the standard DVD set The Mel Brooks Collection (Blazing Saddles / Young Frankenstein / Silent Movie / Robin Hood: Men in Tights / To Be or Not to Be / History of the World, Part 1 / The Twelve Chairs / High Anxiety) except that Spaceballs is in this Blu set and not in the Standard DVD set.
The discs are housed in a book structure with each disc going bare into a slot on a page – kind of like last year’s Borzage Murnau set? With all of the scratched discs? In other words, this looks like another packaging nightmare from the folks at Fox/MGM who seem to keep doing this to their prestige sets to the great chagrin of consumers.
In summary, the content looks great here, and the price is more than reasonable, but the packaging I’ve seen does scare me at this point. The scary packaging is the only reason I’m subtracting one star at this point.
Rating: 4 / 5
I recently purchased this set and I’m very happy with it… love the movies, and there are featurettes and more NOT on the regular DVD set to boot! Even with a book, and it is a particularly nice one much better than I expected, this takes up less space than this many traditionally packaged DVDs would so that complaint doesn’t seem fair. The worry that many have about scratched DVDs due to their placement in sleeves is also a non-issue for me. NONE of the DVDs were scratched and I’m not clumsy enough to damage them removing them . I also don’t watch the same movie day after day after day so these things are not going to be taken in and out over and over…but you’d really have to try and damage them.
Bottom line…I really enjoy most all of these movies a lot and its a brilliant display package and the book is really truly first class, with loads of quality color pictures and stories about the movies. This is an exceptional collection and I ended up paying less than $10 per movie…I can’t even go see a lousy new movie in a theater for $10 and these can be enjoyed for years…I feel this deserves 5 stars!
Rating: 5 / 5
I love Mel Brooks. When I heard he’s having a collection coming out on Blu Ray, I was excited.
If you’re a Mel Brooks fan, this is a no brainer. Now for the dissappointing aspects.
This box set WILL NOT fit on your DVD rack without there being some major changes to the layout of your entertainment center. The Blu Ray/book/jacket/thing is roughly the same size as a hard bound coffee table book. It’s clunky and it falls apart easily (the binding agents “glue” was weak on my copy. To top it off, you’re sliding Blu Ray discs up against straight up card stock inserts to get them out. It’s more of an annoyance than anything, but if you can see through that, you’re set.
You’ll also notice that there’s some movies missing. I’m not saying that Dracula: Dead and loving it should be wiped clean from human memory, but it’s the completitionist in me that would like to see all his works in something named “Collection”. It’s really not a collection, isn’t it. More like a “greatest hits”, or “The ones we want you to remember him by”. I was somewhat suprised that The Producers wasn’t in this collection either. Was that 10th or 11th movie going to disrupt the balance of the box set and set the world ablaze? probably not, I’m guessing it was those two timing Hollywood lawyers that kept my dream from becoming a reality.
Long story short, Terri Garr was insanely hot and everybody knows that Druish princesses are attacted to money and power, and Darth Helmet has both.
Rating: 3 / 5