Good? Yes. Essential? No.
919397
My theory is that Metallica was infected with the disease of Selling out as soon as Cliff died, and AFJA proves this, I don't think this is a bad album, nor do I think it's essential. With Cliff Burton's death and a new Bassist, namely Jason Newsted, they began a new era.

THE GOOD:
-Jason is actually a good basist, and whilst sucking compared to Cliff, he's still good.
-One is basically the "Stairway to Heaven" of metal, it rocks.
-Actually a bit longer than most of their old albums, this one is 9 tracks.
-One has one of the best guitar solos ever!
-Kirk's guitar playing has grown better over the years.

THE BAD:
-The album is BADLY produced. I nearly cried when I heard the production, it was awful. I wish that it was remixed...
-...which brings us to our next con: SO WE CAN HEAR JASON'S BASS PLAYING. The album's so quiet you can hardly hear the bass!!
-All the songs are structured out in the same way. I like the songs, but they all sound the same.
-Some songs drag on for way too long, and some are even repetative. Eye of the Beholder is good for about 3 minutes, but then just repeats itself.

So this is not a bad album, just not essential, is all. Only buy it if you are just getting into 'Tallica.
2403266
Over a decade I've owned some six of these portable DVD gizmos, for home use only and daily screenings of mint-condition DVDs and CDs. Planned obsolescence seems to be engineered in; all brands--save Sony--quite predictably fail on schedule in the seventeenth month of the standard eighteen-month warranty period. Panasonic is marginally acceptable but will ultimately break down. Sylvania players were marginally acceptable but current production models balk at playing brand-new DVDs. RCA players are a regrettable joke, shoddily manufactured and barely functional.

Some thought has gone into the engineering of Sony players, although the AC power cord is ridiculously short and may necessitate some furniture jockeying in your viewing area as it did in mine. Sony is committed to delivering, with its big crisp pixels, exactly what is inscribed on the disc, and that means Original Aspect Ratio. If you insist on "full frame" presentation (a tragic marketing misnomer if ever there was one), look elsewhere. Sony delivers--if the DVD distributors have been doing their element restoration and print sourcing correctly--precisely what the director and cinematographer intended for us to experience, nothing more nothing less.

The sound quality is adequate and much improved by using headphones (not supplied by Sony), the picture quality superb: bright, sharp, excellent resolution. The touchpad controls are sleek and very responsive if not ideally viewer-friendly. The unit is sturdily constructed (cf. RCA) and fits comfortably in the viewer's lap, short power cord notwithstanding.

The Sony is very fairly priced and represents good value in an offshore manufacture. It is clearly superior to its would-be competitors and will outlast them. If you appreciate Original Aspect Ratio and crisp visual imagery, the Sony player is the most reliable way to get visual authenticity out of your DVD library. Inexplicably a major big-box retailer based in Chicago which used to feature this brand can no longer do so, and I worry that the portable DVD player may become obsolete hardware (along with our cherished DVD software). Fortunately, Amazon and its third-party vendors continue to market the ideal Sony player fairly widely, and we must hope Sony sees fit to keep it in production since it fulfills a real need admirably and affordably.
220496
This is a lot more that you want to know about morning TV, particularly given the vacuousness of the product under discussion. The writing is adequate, but not especially good.  The most clever turn of phrase employed is to describe a show host of short tenure (and therefore obscure) as not having her own Wikipedia entry.
4519740
Before you see the 3 stars here and click "Not helpful", hear me out:

This album was released in 1974 with this lineup in 1974. I understand that. But the argument that the record label wanted to preserve the "integrity" of an old compilation lineup is a straw man to say the least. This is the age of 80 minutes per CD and they could EASILY have made a good definitive single disc of that length.

If you want all of the best C,S,N (and Y sometimes) material on one disc, you're out of luck. Both this one and the newer GREATEST HITS are missing essential tracks. This one sacrifices latter day material, while GREATEST HITS sacrifices any material contributed by Neil (meaning no "Ohio") as well as "Woodstock", which absolutely is one of the defining tunes of the 60s. (Who cares if Joni Mitchell wrote it..it's CSNY that everyone remembers.) "Deja Vu" is also MIA on that release. There IS a 2CD disc import (CARRY ON) but the tracklisting there goes quite a bit beyond their "essential" material. (There's a lot of solo stuff added to it to pad length.)

PROS:
Despite my carping about what's NOT here, the music found on this disc is pretty inarguable. There's nothing here that I consider to be "skip over" material. If you have this CD, you'll get a pretty good idea of what the band was about.

CONS:
Too much of their finest work is missing. Without "Carry On","Long Time Gone","Just a Song Before I Go","Wasted on the Way" and "Southern Cross" it isn't the comprehensive single disc it should be. I'd also like to see Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" on there if length allowed.

BOTTOM LINE:
While still incomplete, the newer GREATEST HITS (ASIN B0002NUTSI) is the better buy.
4754822
It is necessary for sub-par geeks like me.
2061094
Though my opinion of the music on this album is quite high, much has been said of it by others already. As such I feel that my time would be better spent defining the differences between this and the slightly older Elektra release of the Album and reviewing them.

The difference is: "Not much at all," and my review is: " Since this is replacing the Elektra version entirely, that's arguably a good thing."

Let's face it; few things are more annoying than buying a movie or a CD at full retail price, and then having a new edition released that is cheaper, shinier, or (in some cases) having the level of quality and content that the one you originally purchased SHOULD have had to begin with. Fortunately for those feeling that way, when Metallica bought the rights to their older material off Elektra and went independent under the "Blackened Records" label, they elected to take a less-is-more approach to reissuing their classic albums.

So this edition doesn't boast expanded track lists, or "remastered" works; in fact they are Identical to their Elektra counterparts in every way. After all what really needs to be changed? The album is a classic and the recording snafus that have been part of it since release are a piece of its legacy and icon.

It even comes complete with the classic (or "Cheap" if you're a cynic) black-ridged CD case so it'll fit right in next to that old copy of "Master of Puppets" on your shelf if you're buying the physical copy.

So what HAS changed? Well, there's now a little "Blackened Records" logo where "Elektra" was once emblazoned and (possibly) there has been some color correction to the album cover, though I don't have an Elektra copy sitting around to compare.

Oh, its MSRP is also slightly cheaper than the Elektra version was, which is always a plus.

While I'm sure some people will lament that Metallica didn't take this opportunity to attempt restoring Newstead's largely muted bass track, or conjuring up the lost ambient mic recordings from Ulrich's drumming, one can't help but wonder if these songs might not sound strange with these things added in. (At least in the case of Newstead's Bass, there's an unfortunate technical reason it's not in full force on the master recordings, or so I've read...)

So, Long Story Short: If you haven't yet added "Justice" to your CD collection this is a great time to do so at a more reasonable and modern CD price. (And if you're weird like me, you'll like that the case will match any older versions of Metallica's Albums that you might already have.)

If you already own it? You don't have to fear that you've missed out on anything. Win-Win, I say.
942473
It was good, not great, but good. What more can I say?
3526583
"Good Life" features some great tracks, including a couple of rare soundtrack joints, but its simply not sufficient for true fans, since it is merely culled material from their two albums and EP.  Purchase the albums instead and indulge...rather than gratify the record label by buying this instead.

  For the uninitiated however, a definite and accurate estimation of the greatness of Pete Rock and CL Smooth.
4291117
Beautiful presentation, but it wasn't essential as I'd already bought two of the stories as individual L&K issues when they came out years ago. The third story, which I'd never seen, initially excited me the most, but it turned out to be something of a one-off joke. And where was "Small World?" I'm glad I have "Open the Moon" in a hardcover edition, but I wish they'd waited for the long-promised "Golden Age" collection to make this new book truly essential.
2820884
The radio installs just fine and was totally functional.  The sound quality from all sources is equivalent to an alarm clock radio: tinny and thin.  The MP3 dock is nice, and the CD player is basic.  The battery backup keeps your settings, which is important in a kitchen with few outlets.

The sound quality was not acceptable.  Looking inside, I see that the sound is from two small, cheap speakers.  To improve the sound, I disconnected the stock speakers and ran wires to external speakers.  This is not easily done (unless you know your way around the guts of a radio), so don't expect this to be a quick fix.

Good:
Thin profile does not take up much space.
MP3 dock.
Installs fairly easily.
FM reception in town with antenna unfurled is OK.

Bad:
Sound quality equivalent to cheap alarm clock.
Display not readable to tall people.
Slow response to eject button on CD player.
AM reception can pick up interference too easily.

Useless:
Clock
Kitchen timer
667319
Underwhelming, meh, "ok", etc.  It might be better than some, but it's not as good as it could be.  However, at this price point it is exactly what I expected.  Cheap mediocre crap that will sorta cut some stuff...

lol
22943
The review has nothing to do with the actual music, which is great. Rather, it's the "best of" collection status. It's really a redundant waste. Just buy In the Flat Fields and The Mask, and you have all that's on this "Volume 1" and more. Maybe at the time, they weren't available on CD, but they are now. GET THE COOL ORIGINALS!
1134376
Maybe I expect too much. I'm not sure.

Since every Nikon (and Canon, Sony, Pentax, etc) comes with a manual explaining the camera's settings, buttons, menus and switches, I expected a 'how-to' sort of book. Something that said, here's the setting and here's what it does. Maybe throw in "and here's what happens with every other setting". Like I said, maybe I expect too much.

Along with the manual, there's a slew of books on every model made. Another glut of books on technique. Yet another on digital and film and every format of each. Still more on how to do post processing. So I'm not sure where the author felt this book fit. As the reader, I'm not sure.

Look, read the manual. Buy a model specific book for the how-to. And if you're new to photography, digital photography or post-processing, get something from Kelby. If you need some ideas, get one of McNally's books.

Oh, if you want to pay for a book outlining the current crop of Nikon DSLRs, get this one. I'm not sure WHY you'd want to do that, but then, neither is the author.
4381975
Full disclosure:

I know nothing about computers, tablets, smart phones et. al.  Nearly EVERYONE who posts a review is better informed about them.  The only purpose in my doing so is for the dwindling herd of old school retros who want to know if this tablet would suffice for their limited needs: definitely.

--It would never occur to me to watch a movie or tv program on an 8" screen, nor do I care what's on YouTube so whether I have 16GB or 32GB is pretty irrelevant.
--I do listen to music on my commute to work and the speakers are pretty mediocre.  Disappointing. My iPhone is much much better.
--I do use it for emails, books, magazines etc and the size is perfect. Not shlepping a laptop is no small advantage.
--It was simple to set up (i.e., I could manage it without calling a teenager.

So if you have a limited use/purpose in mind this might be fine.  To all those who will say "why not have all the other things even if you don't use them?", I say "great point."
2924827
I too bought this due to some early 'rave' reviews, and after viewing it all can only think "it's not too bad...at least it didn't cost a lot".  The disc  basically has a narrator/host telling you the storyline of the Lord of the Rings interspersed with bland re-enactments, computer-generated geographic locations(nothing too complex or awe-inspiring), and interviews with 'experts'.  This stuff is ok, but nothing really insightful or extremely interesting(well, the story is...but you can/should read the books for that right?).  The two main selling points are some clips of the author and the art gallery.  The clips are, as many pointed out, a little hard to hear but it's good to see them nonetheless.  The big issue I have is with the Brothers Hildebrandt gallery.  When you try to view these in its 'extras' section, you get small versions of them...as if they were framed and mounted on the screen at a distance.  What moron decided to do this?  You get big full-screen versions of the artwork(most?) in the actual documentary(so i guess you can pause them then to enjoy the detail), but you'd have to sit/fast foward through the feature everytime just to do that.  The point of having a stills gallery is to access them all conveniently, but that's ruined by the artwork's small dimensions on the screen.  Anyway, I wouldn't recommended this unless you're a completist with money to spare, or a beginner who wants the 'cliff notes' on the books.  Not essential by any means due to its dissapointingly executed presentation, but not an entirely bad dvd either.
1949924
Besides all of my fingers, I'd need a couple of my toes to take a complete count of all the desktops, laptops and notebooks I've owned over the years. And while they had varied degrees of speed, RAM, storage space and other technical attributes - they all shared one common quality. Or non-quality. Their built-in audio speakers stink. And while some have great names like Dolby and Virtual Surround Sound, it's of no matter and no difference. They all sound like crap. Albeit very quiet, tinny, nearly non-existent crap. The GOGroove SonaVERSE clip-on soundbar has at least given my laptops a voice. Granted, nothing like sitting in Carnegie Hall but heads and decibels above the norm. Nicely designed, compact and sturdy, a simple, pretty effective add-on. A good buy for a better listening computer experience.
3872585
It worked! Nothing great per say, but alright I guess.