In the Adobe shop in Europe it is more than 1000 Euros (including tax). So it is way more than 1000 Dollars as well. There is no official version for 299. Even an upgrade is more expensive than that. But there is an "Elements" edition for less than 100 available.
Cutting and fading is available in every editing software for 50 or 100 $. So there is really no need to buy something for 1000.
Sometimes they even have professional features for low prices like this one (blue/green screen, channels and much more):
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/overview_en_US.htmlIf you type "review video editing software" into google you will find much better results than asking in a game dev forum, e.g.:
http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/You will see the power director on first place. Adobe Premiere Elements follows on place 3. I saw similar test results in magazines.
