History of Nuclear Weapons - The Ultimate Weapons (2-DVD Set)

Description

The Ultimate Weapons DVD set from A2ZCDS is both disturbing and fascinating at the same time. Its historical significance can not be overrated - nor can the quality of these incredibly preserved vintage films from the dawn of the nuclear era. Over the course of the two DVDs you get a full picture of the development of the first nuclear weapons - that would spearhead the end of World War II - up through advanced nuclear testing in the late 1950s.

If you are looking for films of nuclear bombs exploding, you will not be disappointed. You see the effects of the bomb on houses constructed at test sites, and also learn how the government planned to deal with the psychological effects of nuclear weapons. The Bikini Atoll test films are included and there is some exciting footage of the plane that would eventually drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

These films are not for the faint of heart, but they have an overwhelming historical value and should be taken very, very seriously.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing new here.......2007-07-08

I'm glad I didn't buy this set a friend lent me his and I agree with the other critics this is just a rehash of freely available declassified material along with an equal amount of non-relevant filler. Due to the classified nature of the subject material there is a limited amount available to the general public and only a small fraction of this material is available in commercial form (i.e. documentaries) therefore you have a lot of repetition. The director Peter Kuran has made great efforts to release newly declassified material in his recent works he is also one of the few people spearheading efforts to restore, transfer and preserve this declassified material before it is lost to deterioration I would recommend any of his work on the subject. I would only recommend the reviewed product to someone new to the subject for it is a poor "history" indeed.

Chilling Footage.......2006-11-27

Now that the Cold War has ended, many people forget just how chilling and essential the atomic bomb was for two generations of Americans.

From the 1950s until the late 1980s everyone was thinking about the Bomb and the entire world sat at the edge of nuclear war.

Yet, it was hard for people to understand the potential of nuclear bombs at first. They were so much more devestating than any weapon known before - and even the government wasn't really sure about how destructive they could be.

So, in order to document what was happening in the arms race, they filmed many of the atomic tests so that they could be studied and eventually shown to the American people - both as a way of understanding the new weapons and also letting the American people understand the true dangers of letting the Russians have access to nuclear technology.

The films here document that time and place fairly well. They don't use any naration or voice overs - so you are left to come to your own conclusions, which is not a bad thing.

The shots are well filmed for government camera work and you can a real sense of both the destructive power and strange beauty of the early nuclear weapons.

NOT WORTH 25 BUCKS! Also See (R. Laverde comments).......2006-10-21

Basically these dvds contains 6(?) or so declassified government news reels or defense department films put together in an overhyped package. These films are available in rather equal quality,(as far as I feel) at open source sites, such as the Prelinger Archives. Contains almost as much promotional material for their other Dvds as it does actual footage.
I cannot recommend this and feel I wasted 25 bucks on this.

Get the Atomic Bomb collection for truly informative and entertaining content.

You would think you were getting informative, educational discs in a historical context, perhaps with 3rd party narration or involvement. NOPE..... . Basically you get 6 declassified films that you can dl for free elsewhere.

Download these online.

No stars

Good Bikini Atol Footage.......2006-10-12

I really enjoyed most of the footage on this DVD set. For me teh Bikini Atoll shots are by far teh most intersing of the bunch, but I also liked the overall effects shots from the 1950s. The restoration work on the footage is some of teh best I've seen - they really got rid of a lot of the grainyness that you usually see in government films from this era. A good product.

Misleading title.......2006-07-10

Having seen the "Atomic Bomb Movie" collection and the the Atwood-Keeney 15 VHS set entitled "America's Atomic Bomb Tests", this two disk set was rather disappointing. With the exception of the footage of the Able and Baker tests in the short film discussing Operation Crossroads, there was comparatively little that would make me recommend people get this set of about half a dozen short government documantaries from the 1950s. The fact that almost nothing is shown/discussed of the major Pacific tests from the mid-1950s to early 1960s(particularly those in Operations Ivy, Castle, Redwing, Hardtack and Dominic) where some of the most spectacular footage was recorded tells me the title is very misleading. I would highly suggest anybody interested in learning the full history of nuclear weapons and the seeing serious test footage start by viewing "Atomic Cafe", the "Atomic Bomb Movie" collection and "America's Atomic Bomb Tests" series.

Patlabor WXIII - The Movie (Ultimate Edition 3-Disc Set)

Average customer rating:

If you loved Patlabor Movies 1&2, then don't watch!
Patlabor? No way!
Animation?(Yes!) Story?(No!)
A very Sophisticated animated movie
Animated realism

Patlabor WXIII - The Movie (Ultimate Edition 3-Disc Set)
Starring: Katsuhiko Watabiki , Hiroaki Hirata , Atsuko Tanaka , Ryûnosuke Ôbayashi , and Mîna Tominaga
Director: Fumihiko Takayama , and Takuji Endo
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000089UBU
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Amazon.com

Despite its title, this theatrical feature has little to do with the mecha adventures and ensemble comedy of the popular broadcast series Mobile Police Patlabor. Inspector Shin'ichiro Hata of the Tokyo Police is assigned to investigate an unexplained series of violent and grisly deaths. Instead of the rogue mecha the Patlabor team fight, the killer is a weird, amphibious monster, the product of yet another biotech experiment gone wrong. Hata meets the beautiful scientist who created the monster--using cells from the cancer that killed her daughter. The familiar characters Noa Izumi, Isao Ota, and Captain Goto appear in brief cameos when they dispatch the mutant monster in a half-ruined stadium. Director Fumihiko Takayama tries to emulate the look and tone of Hiroyuki Okiura's Jin-Roh, but fails to generate the ominous tension that distinguished The Wolf Brigade. (Rated R: violence, grotesque imagery, profanity, tobacco use) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews:

If you loved Patlabor Movies 1&2, then don't watch!.......2006-10-28

Falling in love with Patlabor 1&2, I expected to see SV2 and the Labors used but in WX13, no such thing. Yes the story does try to take the movie in a different direction, but for the majority of people watching this, already seen this kind of plot. A robot turns into a bio-mechanical robot (BGC2040?), and requires the skill of heroes to stop it. Seriously, I had flashbacks of Bubblegum Crisis on my mind. The fact is, the only real suprise I had was when the monster had "watermelons".
Next time, they should stick to drama and action instead of trying to redo the "robot monster" cliche.

Patlabor? No way!.......2006-09-04

If you expect another great Patlabor installment, please don not watch this movie. Apart from the name, it has absolutely nothing to do with the characters, feeling and storytelling that made the precious two movies as well as the TV and video shows so great. The SV2 characters have almost no screen time, while our new main protagonist completely fail to either impress or make this 100 minutes at least bearable. It is the most boring and meaningless anime I have seen in a long time and I would neither own nor watch this ever again if I weren't such a completionist. It is just another C-grade monster movie with some pseudo-tragic characters in it and it does not deserve to be called Patlabor. Oshii did not make this movie for a very good reason, and only completionist like me or people who want to study how to screw up a franchise should get this movie. Compared to the previous installments this is just a shame. Only Kenji Kawai's soundtrack saves this piece from being a total stinker...

Animation?(Yes!) Story?(No!).......2005-10-23

I had initially been dissuaded from purchasing this movie because of the poor reviews. However, this movie can be excellent, depending on your perspective. The animation in the movie was spectactular. The attention to detail was surprisingly better than Patlabor the Movie 2(my overall favorite of the trio). There were tons of transition scenes(car rides and walks through the city) that make the film more 3-dimensional. There was a scene where the detectives are interviewing a deaf woman and she signs her answers. I was impressed the animators decided to add this bit of detail. I give the animation itself a 5+. I think this one actually raised the bar higher for Japanese animation. The music is also very PatLabor 2-like.

I also like the fact that this movie is more character and less mecha driven. The pace is a lot slower(very few action scenes) than the first two Patlabor movies so each interaction between the characters is significant. There is an underlying tension initially between the two detectives that adds another aspect to the overall story.

Where the movie falls on its face(besides being only loosely related to the PatLabor franchise) is where it goes over very familiar ground. If you have seen the Fly, Species or any of the genetic-experiment-gone-wrong movies from anime, then the story in this one will have nothing to offer you. It is unfortunate that the writing on this flick could not keep up with the dazzling animation. I think if you put the whole monster story into the background, then this film becomes a lot more enjoyable. I would have preferred to have seen a straight-ahead classic detective story instead of a retread of tired themes.

Overall I give the storyline a 2. I wish Amazon would allow people to rate the cinematography/animation separately from the story itself. My final rating in no way should detract from the detail worked that went into making this a gorgeous flick. I'm into high-end animation so I enjoy having this one in my collection.

Finally, if you get the DVD set with the Mini-Pato featurette then you are in for a treat. The featurette is about 35 minutes long and is very clever. It was refreshing to see another example of how the folk at Production I.G. are pushing animation boundaries.

A very Sophisticated animated movie.......2005-10-10

I was lucky enough to see this movie when it first came out in March 2002. It was featured at the 2002 Hong Kong Film Festival before the rest of the world see's it except Japan. Both the director and the writer of the movie came all the way from Japan to introduce and Q/A at the screening hall. How often do you see that?

Animated realism.......2005-09-19

Though I didn`t receive my order from amazon (out of stock)I had already enjoyed this movie in a previous ocasion.

After spending a year and a half living in Japan I`m convinced the japanese character has, as a matter of fact, very little to do with mutant monsters and people sporting giant mechanical armours.

Patlabour The Movie, unusually, choses to spend very little time displaying mutant monsters wreaking utter destruction, even though the plot does involve monsters and squads of mechanical heroes.
From the looks of the main characters (tanned skin color, slanted eyes) to their personality and interactions Patlabour seems to look for a more realistic update of the Japanese character that the typical monster movie has being selling us.
While the pace is somewhat slow and the action scenes tend to be very un-heroic, scenes such as an elderly couple feeding their pet fish, or the two main characters having a very civilized altercation inside a typical Tokyo middle aged bachelor`s apartment, or the same characters slurping icecreams in a Tokyo suburb brings a surprising closeness to the average japanese person day to day.
Don`t expect much excitement from this movie. Instead, enjoy it as a window into the life of contemporary Japan.

Average customer rating:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
Hulk STILL Rules!
best acting ever !
Just Like Pro Wrestling
All I can say is LAME

The Ultimate Weapon
Starring: Hulk Hogan , Carl Marotte , Cynthia Preston , Lynne Adams , and Daniel Pilon
Director: Jon Cassar
Manufacturer: Avalanche
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00004TJLY
Release Date: 2000-07-04

Customer Reviews:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-12-03

This film is a royal treat. It's captivating low budget production, terrible acting, Hogan's stunt double needed for running scenes, and EXPLOSIONS!!! make this film a must have for any 'true' movie fan.

Hulk STILL Rules!.......2004-04-10

"Those guys aren't U.N."
This movie is Hogan's best, and dare I say one of the best "Commando"-esque movies out there! It's a funny movie- it just works. Check it out if you can find it. Good job Hulkster!!

best acting ever !.......2002-01-27

This is quite possibly the most entertaining movie ever made. The terrible acting, hot babes and IRA villains make this a great movie for those nights when you're wasted and hanging out with all of your buddies. Even though Hogan may be an awful actor, he is still funny as hell.

Just Like Pro Wrestling.......2000-06-23

This movie is like professional wrestling - bad acting, lots of action, mindless and also entertaining. Plus it stars the wonderul Cyndy Preston. Check it out if you want a guilty pleasure.

All I can say is LAME.......2000-06-11

This has got to be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It should be regulated to only be allowed to be played on public access channels. I think I became even dumber just from watching this. I guess I should expect that from any movie that Hulk Hogan is in :)

Average customer rating:

Panzer - Germany's Ultimate War Machine
Starring: Panzer-Germany's Ultimate War Machine
Manufacturer: Arts Magic
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000DWN0FW
Release Date: 2006-02-28

Description

During WW2, the need for capable and qualified crewmen to work with and maintain the equipment became vital. In order to keep up with the demands of warfare, soldiers and engineers were educated partly with training films. This program shows footage of the Tiger tanks during Operation Citadel, as well as edited highlights of two German Army training films from late 1943 and mid 1944.

Including two major military productions, the first of these films was produced to show how to convert the Panther tank, allowing it to successfully deal with the extensive Soviet defences like those it encountered at its debut in Kursk. The second film from 1944, made for the benefit of personnel serving in Sdkfz 251 D's and the Panzerjaeger IV, may well be the only footage of this type to survive the war.

Description

Hwang Jung Lee takes on all comers in the first and weapon packed action masterpiece!

Customer Reviews:

Really poor quality DVD ruins pretty good movie.......2005-08-16

Since I am a old school kung fu enthusiast, I am used to grainy images and poor dubbing... however, this quality is very poor. Most of the movie is too dark to be seen and I had to adjust my screen to get a half decent picture. I really wish I could find a better copy because the story and fighting isn't half bad; its sad to see.

My feeling is that this DVD should be in the $4.98 range - you can get much better movies out ther efor 10 bucks... go to "Kung Fu for the Sole" Listmania to find a few of my favorites.

Average customer rating:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
Hulk STILL Rules!
best acting ever !
Just Like Pro Wrestling
All I can say is LAME

The Ultimate Weapon [Region 2]
Starring: Hulk Hogan , Carl Marotte , Cynthia Preston , Lynne Adams , and Daniel Pilon
Director: Jon Cassar
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

( U ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00005V58Z

Customer Reviews:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-12-03

Hulk STILL Rules!.......2004-04-10

best acting ever !.......2002-01-27

Just Like Pro Wrestling.......2000-06-23

This movie is like professional wrestling - bad acting, lots of action, mindless and also entertaining. Plus it stars the wonderul Cyndy Preston. Check it out if you want a guilty pleasure.

All I can say is LAME.......2000-06-11

The Wanderers - El Hazard TV Series - The Ultimate Weapon (Vol. 2)

Average customer rating:

The Wanderers - El Hazard TV Series - The Ultimate Weapon (Vol. 2)
Starring: Wanderers
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005OLB5
Release Date: 2001-12-11

Amazon.com

Stranded on the alternate world of El Hazard, Makoto, Fujisawa, and Nanami follow Princess Rune and Alielle into situations that allow Rune and Makoto moments of romantic longing--to Nanami's annoyance. But their mini-adventures don't really go anywhere: in episode 10, Makoto rescues the shape-shifting cat Ura from a vulpine monster--whose presence is never explained or resolved. The story grows darker when a legendary floating castle appears over Roshtaria. Makoto inadvertently awakens the demon Ifurita, but she's kidnapped by Jinnai and his Bugrom minions. The legends describe Ifurita as the Ultimate Weapon, but she's naive to the point of sappiness, which hinders Jinnai's plans to use her to conquer El Hazard. Director Katsuhito Akiyama can't find a satisfactory balance between the comedy and the adventure, and the story lurches between the two with little sense of a sustained narrative. Rated 13 Up: risqué humor, violence, alcohol use.--Charles Solomon

Description

Wild schemes abound! Nanami, Jinnai's sister, converts the "Sacred Palace of Water" into a leisure resort, while Jinnai plots to conquer El Hazard in an attempt to humiliate Makoto. While most plots implode for Jinai, his ambitions may be realized when he awakens the dreadful entity of destruction - Ifurita! Or not...

Average customer rating:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
Hulk STILL Rules!
best acting ever !
Just Like Pro Wrestling
All I can say is LAME

The Ultimate Weapon
Starring: Hulk Hogan , Carl Marotte , Cynthia Preston , Lynne Adams , and Daniel Pilon
Director: Jon Cassar
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

Thrillers | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( U ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00008G84A
Release Date: 2002-07-30

Customer Reviews:

WOW!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!.......2004-12-03

Hulk STILL Rules!.......2004-04-10

best acting ever !.......2002-01-27

Just Like Pro Wrestling.......2000-06-23

This movie is like professional wrestling - bad acting, lots of action, mindless and also entertaining. Plus it stars the wonderul Cyndy Preston. Check it out if you want a guilty pleasure.

All I can say is LAME.......2000-06-11

DVD:

DVD

DVD