IMPORTANT NOTE: The “child’s review” above was written by me, but I accidentally chose the wrong attributes when I submitted it and Amazon tells me they cannot delete it. I reposted it under my own name almost immediately after submitting it, which is why this review is so similar.

Warner Brothers (or possibly this site) appears to be gouging people with their pricing on this entry in their budget-priced line of repackagings called the 4 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 wouldn’t be able to 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 (or pink for the romance 4-film sets). 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 4 Film Favourites releases.

Again, I warn you: if you buy this “Ultimate Vacation” collection at $36, you are not getting a fair price. I purchased this off the shelf at a Canadian record store for about thirteen dollars, and have since seen it in Wal-marts up here for $9.83 alongside others in the 4 Film Favorites line. Not sure why this set is taking so long to price-drop in the U.S.

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 the average going rate here and elsewhere. My three-star rating is largely in response to the pricing discrepancies 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. Otherwise, this set would rate at least 4 stars, possibly 5.

I am so happy with the service I got! It came earlier than expected and just in time for me to wrap it and give to my Dad for Christmas!!!!

what could be better, all the vacations in one convenient pack. a must have for any national lampoon fan.