Non-Criterion Boutique Home Video Discussion (Kino, Warner Archive, Arrow, Indicator, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, etc.)

Lol

I was looking at the Barney Miller box.

Seeing that Homicide box, and remembering how ridiculously expensive the original season sets were back upon release in the early '00s: $80-$100 apiece (because of the music rights, iirc).

Wow, that is amazingly cheap, even at retail. Did they cut the music or something?

Looks like direct ports of the old discs.

When A&E did their complete series box, IIRC it was like $150-$200.

that
Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea film mentioned upthread fort mentioned in the guardian today in an article about a new (?) streaming service

https://easterneuropeanmovies.com/

which might be a bit off topic (being streaming) but looks interesting

(fuck autocorrect, you get the idea)

That does look great. I grumble about the big streaming services quite a bit but truth be told I could probably spend the rest of my life just watching old movies on stuff like this, the Cinephobe and assorted youtube accounts, without even getting into the Criterion channel.

the russian films are a separate (but related) website

and it has an interesting payment plan - $5 for a day, $15 for a week, $30 for a month, $100 for lifetime

you could probably get the cost per film down to $1 given a week and enough spare time (although probably avoid Satantango in that case!)

that's assuming this service lasts 2 years!

That's a great selection, quite a few I've loved and a good bunch I want to see, maybe someday.

Inspired by this thread I tracked down a complete list of Warner Archive releases, and wow! Need the third season of Young Sheldon on blu with no extras? They got you covered!

Come on, that's on par with dismissing Criterion because they released Armageddon. Every physical media company produces shitty loss leaders. Warner Archive is one of the few things I won't actively give WB shit for these days.

No man I'm not dismissing it, it's just that I mostly knew it as a purveyor of super niche old school Hollywood stuff and was surprised by their branching out.

Also Armageddon is totally Criterion-worthy what are you on about.

The Long Good Friday looks extraordinary in the new Arrow version. They even put together a fancy modern trailer which makes it look the bee's knees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B90zNzyFk-w

Man i'd love to see this print at the movies.

xpost Ah, gotcha. Yeah, more and more they're also using WAC as a repository for tv seasons that otherwise don't get a wide physical release (I think they manufacture these things like 1000 at a time?). Which...I don't even know what tv shows are considered for a wide release anymore, since Targets and other major retail outlets have all but given up on physical media.

bought a cheap 2nd hand blu ray player recently, what are good online shops in UK to buy these kind of boutique releases?
is there a place with an upcoming release schedule?

I extensively use blu-ray.com. This is their new release calendar but you may have to tweak the settings to get UK-specific releases (hint: select yr country in the search bar, do a search, and the site should then rejigger their listings such that they're specific to your region).

Warning: that link is extremely dangerous, as I realize now that I hadn't checked it in a while and now I'm seeing a bunch of stuff that I didn't even know had been released and, well...bye bye, money.

if you put the name of something, (ie Tomorrow I'll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea), in a search engine and hit 'shopping' it'll list a bunch of places with it for sale, most of which are ebay and the rest of which don't look like places that would care about films, just about selling units (one of which even has "SKU" as a sort order in its list)

places like
base.com
hive.co.uk
www.moviesandgamesonline.co.uk
hmv actually have a good selection (and i have tokens)
wh smith

amazon also. and they are quite good for recommendations, just terrible at the details. (for example, the first two reviews say there are no english subtitles because they've merged all the reviews for all the different releases together)

Usually, unless I'm just dying to see a particular thing, I wait until the boutiques offer a sale. Most of them do a couple times a year and the prices are often pretty good, and if you stay on top of things you'll find out about limited releases that are usually dropped during the sales (which I will endeavor to use this thread to hype when they pop up).

ta, blu-ray.com looks dangerously useful. funny seeing what is available and what isn't
I've only used amazon so far, they had a load of Ozu for £6.99 each the other day so grabbed a few

dismissing Criterion because they released Armageddon.

― Chokeslamming A Memory (Old Lunch), Sunday, February 28, 2021 2:18 PM

I missed this shitstorm and all the accompanying death threats

Why tf did Shout price the complete Pee-Wee's Playhouse box set for $35 on DVD and $150 on Blu-ray???

pixels aren't free

I dunno, I was waiting for the blu-ray but just wound up getting the old DVD season sets once I saw their MSRP. I guess there's a bunch of new special features but it wasn't worth the expense to me.

it's $90 on Blu-Ray, the $150 one probably came with bow tie or something

Now a big huge Kino sale (500+ titles, many @ $10 or less, lots of good stuff): https://www.kinolorber.com/list/view/code/march-madness-sale-2021

And then I think the Warner Archive sale starts tomorrow.

Sorry, wallet.

Just in time for the stimmy check

I bought Last Year at Marienbad and Transylvania 6-5000

Limited myself to just 4 because I've actually been going pretty hog-wild on Indicator/Arrow since getting a region-free player for the first time in a decade.

The Mortal Storm
The Best Years of Our Lives
On Dangerous Ground
Waiting for Guffman (I somehow keep losing this one to lendees)

On Dangerous Ground! Keep meaning to buy that one. Maybe this time...

Yup, the site even says Final $4 for $44. Maybe time to get some advance gifts.

SHOPWB15 brings it down to 4 for $37.50 (plus taxes and shipping)

ty!

Definitely snagging a copy of Dead of Night from Kino. Tempted to get the Classics of Yiddish Cinema box as well for $30, if only for the restoration of The Dybbuk, which I've only ever seen in a VHS dub ripped from YouTube years ago with patchy subtitles.

I have but have not yet watched the Yiddish Cinema box, but I would advise checking out some reviews before you buy. They did some weird shit with the subtitles where, in some instances, they subtitled over existing subtitles that I guess were on the actual print. Some people are not crazy about this decision.

Like this:

https://images.static-bluray.com/reviews/22211_28_large.jpg

Oh I should've pointed out too, if you haven't figured it out already, that the 4 for $44 is a bit of a misnomer inasmuch as everything is $11 a pop when you buy four or more.

whoa, thanks for the heads up OL. yeah the print i'm familiar with (that i assume must be the one they restored) had what appeared to be burned-in english subs on about 3/4 of it. odd that they wouldnt just leave those and do the missing sections, but instead box over the existing english subtitles with... other english subtitles? maybe some kind of legal rights regarding the new translation? how odd.

No idea what the situation is with this particular release, but there's also the possibility that they considered the previous translation bad enough that correcting it takes precedence over aesthetics.

I recently watched Behram Beyzai's Downpour, where the only existing copy has burnt in subtitles. The restoration (from Scorsese's world cinema project) left these in, and while from an artistic pov I'm sure it's the best choice, it was still frustrating knowing that the subs were only cpaturing 40% of the dialogue.

Oops, sorry y'all, I missed one. Assuming you still have any money left, there's also an Indicator sale running through tomorrow: https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/collections/sale

Hmm... maybe I should put that stimmy to good use, finally get all-region BR player

It's worth it!

I just got a region free 4K for Xmas and have basically spent the last two months buying stuff I’ve wanted for years.

Yeah it's a perfect (and justified) temptation to do just that. (Signed, guy who picked up the Gormenghast Blu-ray yesterday.)

Note for the interested - 4K discs are all region free, regardless of origin or player. Blurays are obviously still subject to region A/B/C restrictions.

Went with The Yakuza, On Dangerous Ground, The Shop Around the Corner, The Hunger, and Judgment Night on the WB sale. Cut about half of my wishes from the cart to get it down to only those titles.