Well, I'd like to talk about some junk that I acquired recently, so I can help others with their buying decisions. The big purchase that I got recently was the Indiana Jones DVD box set. Like any other grown-up kid I've been a fan of Indy for a long time. His outlandish adventures and the classic character of Indy himself always provide an outstanding movie experience.
However, being a Lucasfilm entity, I approached the box set with guarded enthusiasm. As everyone knows now, Good Ol' Beardy McBeard is more than willing to change (i.e. ruin) everything people have loved about his movies. Just mention "Greedo shoots first" to any Star Wars fan and check their facial expression to see what I mean. Fortunately, everything more or less remains intact. The picture and sound quality on these DVDs are both dynamite. The movies are sharp and full of details, and Indy's whip never sounded better. So, in that respect, this is the best way you're going to be able to watch the Indy movies short of a movie theater.
Now, on to the special features, a crucial part of the DVD experience. Frankly, I was a little let down on this part-the content is solid, but overall I missed out on the "behind the scenes/insider" feel that makes DVD Special Features so great. What you get is a Full 4th DVD of Special Features, but they are only slickly edited features and documentaries- these are all well done, but make no mistake there is plenty of self-praise involved, and the whole process goes a long way towards making everyone involved looked good.
There are no outtakes, deleted scenes, commentaries, or in-depth interviews- the way that I saw it, nothing that would make Speilberg, Lucas, or the rest of the crew look bad. Maybe I'm too hard on them, but I saw the lack of deleted scenes as a way of almost saying we never made a mistake on these films- a sort of arrogance and hubris and that I've come to dislike increasingly.
So overall, Indy fans should still get these DVDs as the overall presentation and quality of the films stands up over time, although I still have nit-picky complaints about each one (The ending of Raiders, trying to make Temple of Doom a horror film, the lack of risk-taking in Crusade). Just don't expect, like I did, any earth-shattering special features. And yes, I know that this DVD set came out like 9 months ago. Cut me some slack, ok?