2/5 An absolute RIPOFF at this price!!
  by Brian T (Canada)
I'll say it again: this set is an absolute ripoff if you pay more than about $10-15.

Warner Brothers is gouging people with their pricing on this entry in their budget-priced line of repackagings called the Four Film Favourites collection. Most of these retail for about ten to fifteen dollars. All contain two discs, two movies per disc, one movie per side. Nearly all of them port over any extras available on the previous editions. In this case, you get the special edition versions of the first three Vacation movies (commentaries, bonus features, etc.), and the regular version of Vegas Vacation. HOWEVER, content-wise, this "Ultimate Vacation" edition is actually a Four Film Favourites edition, only you'd never know it because Warner has squeezed the amaray into a deceptive cardboard slip sleeve that obscures both the actual sleeve art underneath as well as the bonus features and criteria for each film available in the set. Thus, holding this set in your hands in a store, for example, you couldn't tell if the films within are widescreen, which they are. And the only way to know that is to buy find the set WITHOUT the sleeve, which seems impossible in the U.S. at the time of writing. You'll know the cheaper collection if you do see it because the artwork looks just like the other sets in the series (Ocean's Collection, Nightmare on Elm Street Collections, Matrix Collection, Stallone Collection etc.), only with blue borders as opposed to the standard black. One saving grace of the listing for this set here at Amazon: the product images contain a shot of the back of the amaray case insert sleeve (which you can't see if you hold the actual set in your hands), which reveals that it's patterned after the Four Film Favourites releases.

Again, I warn you: if you buy this "Ultimate Vacation" collection at $36 (as I write this), you're getting an even bigger shaft, either from Warner or Amazon (I wonder what the wholesale price is on these?) or perhaps both. I purchased this off the shelf at a Canadian record store for about thirteen dollars, which is what it should be everywhere.

Actually, you'll still get ripped off, because the Four Film Favourites are nearly HALF the price in the U.S., but this is Canada, and we're used to taking it in the shorts. Frankly, it's wise to shop around no matter where you live.

By the way, the set itself is fantastic. Four films that take up the space of one, and all but one porting over the extant special editions. Highly recommended, provided you can find it considerably cheaper than $[...] My two-star rating is largely in response to the deceptive marketing being used, presumably by Warner, to gouge customers for something that is part of a much larger, and much cheaper, series of four-film DVD sets.

(Please not I also wrote the "Kids Review" that appears with this title, but must have neglected to click on the age specification, so was asked by Amazon to resubmit this. Hopefully this time they haven't removed the references to prices that I've included in the review, as they did in the other review, which seems very suspect to me.

2/5 An absolute RIPOFF at this price!!
  by
I'll say it again: this set is an absolute ripoff.

This collection is actually part of the "4 Film Favourites" series, only priced obscenely higher and with a deceptive sleeve.

Warner Brothers is RIPPING PEOPLE OFF with this entry in their budget-priced line of repackagings called the Four Film Favourites collection. Most of these retail for about $[...] All contain two discs, two movies per disc, one movie per side. Nearly all of them port over any extras available on the previous editions. In this case, you get the special edition versions of the first three Vacation movies (commentaries, bonus features, etc.), and the regular version of Vegas Vacation. HOWEVER, content-wise, this "Ultimate Vacation" edition is actually a Four Film Favourites edition, only you'd never know it because Warner has squeezed the amaray into a deceptive cardboard slip sleeve that obscures both the actual sleeve art underneath as well as the bonus features and criteria for each film available in the set. Thus, holding this set in your hands in a store, for example, you couldn't tell if the films within are widescreen, which they are. And the only way to know that is to buy find the set WITHOUT the sleeve, which seems impossible in the U.S. at the time of writing. You'll know the cheaper collection if you do see it because the artwork looks just like the other sets in the series (Ocean's Collection, Nightmare on Elm Street Collections, Matrix Collection, Stallone Collection etc.), only with blue borders as opposed to the standard black. One saving grace of the listing for this set here at Amazon: the product images contain a shot of the back of the amaray case insert sleeve (which you can't see if you hold the actual set in your hands), which reveals that it's patterned after the Four Film Favourites releases. [....]

Again, I warn you: if you buy this "Ultimate Vacation" collection at $36 (as I write this), you're getting an even bigger shaft, either from Warner or Amazon (I wonder what the wholesale price is on these?) or perhaps both. I purchased this off the shelf at a Canadian record store for [...], which is what it should be everywhere.

Actually, you'll still get ripped off, because the Four Film Favourites are nearly HALF the price in the U.S., but this is Canada, and we're used to taking it in the shorts. Frankly, it's wise to shop around no matter where you live.

By the way, the set itself is fantastic. Four films that take up the space of one, and all but one porting over the extant special editions. Highly recommended, provided you can find it considerably cheaper than $[...] My two-star rating is largely in response to the deceptive marketing being used, presumably by Warner, to gouge customers for something that is part of a much larger, and much cheaper, series of four-film DVD sets.