I'd Buy That DVD for...Somewhere in the Neighborhood of $5

4/$10 (used):

Cyrus
Man on the Moon
The Thin Red Line
Crash (two discs--the stodgy one nobody likes)

2/$10

Sunset Boulevard
Battle of the Bulge
Taxi to the Dark Side
Christmas in Connecticut/A Christmas Carol/The Shop Around the Corner/It Happened on 5th Avenue (TCM)

Barnes & Noble, $5:

Reds (2-disc)

They've got a bunch of vintage Paramount stuff in their $5 bin now: the 70s Great Gatsby, collector's edition Chinatown, Ordinary People, Murder on the Orient Express...

Big Lots, normally $3 each except I broke down and "Buzz Club Rewards" card for 20% off, so now they are $2.40 apiece:

The Devil's Rejects "Two-Disc Director's Cut"
Ronin "Collector's Edition" (2-disc)
King Rat
Midnight Cowboy "Collector's Edition" (2-disc)
The Crook "English Subtitles"
Invasion of The Body Snatchers (Kaufman) "Collector's Edition" (2-disc)
The Major and The Minor
The Stranger (Welles) Non-PD edition from MGM/Fox
National Lampoon's Vacation new edition from a couple years ago
Amazon Women on The Moon

I've got the Midnight Cowboy two-disc; didn't know there was one for Body Snatchers. What does "non-PD edition" mean?

$3: Hidden Agenda and Oldboy.
$5: One False Move, A Small Circle of Friends, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Criterion). I doubt I'll ever watch the latter--had zero interest for me when it came out.

It probably means public domain.

Yeah, Public Domain. On the back cover the original copyright is credited not to a studio but to "The Haig Corp." Welles' The Stranger used to pop up in bargain sets with other PD titles like the original DOA, ...Martha Ivers etc., but apparently MGM re-copywrited it in 2007 and put out a bare-bones disc under the "Film Noir" banner.

As for the Invasion... CE, it came out about 10 years after the original disc to grease the wheels for the Kidman/Craig remake. It ports over the Kaufman commentary and adds some technical featurettes ("The Special Effects Pod", "The Cinematography Pod" etc.) plus a new anamorphic widesceen transfer (the old disc was a Pan & Scan/4:3 Letterbox Widescreen flipper).

Well, as part of my shopping experience yesterday, I received a "one-day only" 20% voucher whose one good day was today. So once again I suckle at Big Lot's proverbial teat/crack pipe of cheap dvds. (different location tho)

$2.40 each:

Me & Orson Welles
A Little Help (starring Jenna "Pam from The Office" Fischer and...Dion DiMucci?!)
The Front Page (Billy Wilder version)
Strange Brew
Greenberg
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
I Know Who Killed Me (films like this single-handily justify the existence of bargain bins everywhere) (also includes the special feature "Extended Strip Dance Scene"--did Sony know their audience or what?)

$4:

Wild Things trilogy (that there are two more of these films--albeit barely related direct to dvd jobs--is as much news to me as you)

Saw your post and decided to take my 20% off coupon to my local BL (didn't need it, they were ringing up everybody's stuff at %20 off). Got:

Reno 911: Miami
It's All True (Orson Welles' "lost" movie)
Oleana
Greenburg
Orgazmo

$2.40 each. Had Hostel in hand for $4, but decided I didn't need to see it again.

For some reason, this one discount store in the area that's usually a wasted trip had some good stuff from Universal:

$3: Slaughterhouse-Five, Trick Baby, Your Friends & Neighbors
$5: This Gun for Hire, Black Angel (never heard of it, but there's a quote from Sarris on the back), Marnie, and the American The Man Who Knew Too Much

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, a two-disc Memoirs of a Geisha for $5.

3/$5: American Buffalo, Addicted to Plastic, Alfie (remake)

$3: Light Sleeper, The Lost Room, High Roller, Best Seller. Got through 15 minutes of High Roller before shutting it off. I remembered Best Seller as passable junk--same guy who directed Tarantino favourites Rolling Thunder and The Outfit--but it wasn't all that passable.

$5: Fort Apache, They Were Expendable, The Howling

I only buy DVDs for my kids these days, because they're the only ones who are going to watch them enough to make them worth owning. $5 is my cut-off for them, too, with occasional exceptions. Some recent $5-and-under scores: Coraline, The Iron Giant, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal.

I remembered Best Seller as passable junk--same guy who directed Tarantino favourites Rolling Thunder and The Outfit--but it wasn't all that passable.

I think John Fylnn might have been a two-film wonder. Those two films both deserve the high praise tho.

Big Lots, where I combed the picked over racks to seemingly no avail. "Is this the end of me and cheap dvds?"* I thought, before finally landing on the following:

$5: Eight Men Out "20th Anniversary Edition"

$2.88: Charley Varrick (which is full-frame, and probably the only way I'll get to see it until both the film and I go blu someday)

*I found a copy of Jesus' Son for $9. I've never seen a single film that expensive there. It's only about 90 cents more direct from Amazon.

At my local swap meet last Sunday, for $37 (didn't try to bargain):

I'm Not There (that Bob Dylan thing, 2 discs)
The Shiver of the Vampires (Jean Rollin film from 1970)
Altman's Nashville
Helter Skelter (apparently a director's cut of a TV production)
A History Lesson (doc on LA punk in 1984 - Meat Puppets, Redd Kros, Minutemen, Twisted Roots)
The Tomorrow Show Punk and New Wave (2 disc comp of shows from 1977-81)
National Geographic's Taboo season 1

Jesus' Son is a wonderful movie.

That A History Lesson, though... was really disappointed by that.

H-E-B (for the unhip, a Texas grocery store chain) $3.99 each:

The Quiller Memorandum
Halls of Montezuma
The Magus
The Seven-Ups
No Way Out (the Poitier/Widmark/Darnell noir)
The Omen "Collector's Edition" (2 discs in a steelbook)

The price sticker's claim that these are all "previously viewed", but methinks these are really remainders offloaded by Fox and mixed by the store in a dumpbin with a bunch of genuine retired rentals.

BTW if anyone cares, I watched that Charley Varrick disc that evening, and I wonder if it's just open-matte instead of pan'n'scan. IMDB sez it was shot 1.37:1 but protected for 1.85:1 which was the projection AR. It didn't seen very pan'n'scanny with some scenes having major head room.

Something excellent for $5 yesterday: a new copy of Payday, the '72 film with Rip Torn as a washed-up country singer. "36 hours in the life of a madman," according to the cover.

Also, $7 each for new copies: two-disc Howl and Hour of the Wolf.

Payday's a good'un. There's a passage in Guralnick's I Feel Like Going Home wehere he mentions that on separate occasions Waylon Jennings, Johnny Paycheck, and IIRC, either David Allen Coe or Merle Haggard assured him that the film was based on their life and no others.

Over the last several months, at several different Big Lots, pretty much because of this thread:

$5
There Will Be Blood - feature only
A Fish Called Wanda - 2-Disc Collector's Edition

$3
The Graduate
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Brick
Ronin - 2-Disc Collector's Edition
The Big Red One - 2-Disc Special Edition
Wolf Creek
Get Shorty - 2-Disc Collector's Edition
National Lampoon's Vacation
Sweet and Lowdown
Roxanne
True Stories
Species - 2-Disc Collector's Edition
Strange Brew (first thing I saw when I got to the kiosk…)
A Mighty Wind (…last thing I found after twice digging through the dross)
King Kong (Peter Jackson) - 3-Disc Deluxe Extended Edition (<<<< LOL)
AC/DC: Let There Be Rock
Burn After Reading
Do The Right Thing
The Right Stuff
10

$5: An American in Paris, Fort Worth/Colt .45/Tall Man Riding (Randolph Scott), Lost in a Harem/Abbott & Costello in Hollywood

$3: A World Apart, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Sentinel, Antony and Cleopatra (1972)

$2: Dangerous Liaisons, Barton Fink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CNyzdmXhe0

$3

After Hours
Casualties of War
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Carrie - "1970s Decades Collection" (includes a CD with eight 70s tunes on it wtf???)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (!!!!!)

Thanksgiving-

Big Lots, $3.75 each (that day's sale price/promotion):

Mad Max "Special Edition"
All The Right Moves

Toys R Us, $1.00:

Funny Bones

Black Friday evening @ a different Big Lots-

$1.88:

Experiment In Terror (perhaps the find of the evening--disc must have been sitting in some wherehouse, has been OOP for ages and goes for $25+ on Amazon)
Heartbeeps
La Chamade ("Heartbeat") (late 60s Francoise Sagan adaptation w/Deneuve & Piccoli)
The Long Goodbye (already have, will be stocking stuffer for friend tbd)
Kiss Me, Stupid
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Rebecca
"Don Knotts: Reluctant Hero Pack" (bundle of The Love God?, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut and his sought after Bresson collaboration The Shakiest Gun In The West)

$3:

Raggedy Man (fullframe--boo!)
Volver
When Did You Last See Your Father?
"Mission Hill: The Complete Series" (animated series w/Wallace Langham, Brian Posehn, and Jane Wiedlin that ran for 5 minutes on the WB back in '99-2000. been meaning to pick it up for yoinks, so this was the other find of the night)

$5:

Alice (Woody Allen)

Between this, my HEB trip the other week, and the B & N Criterion sale, I finally may have crossed the threshold of having too many fucking movies.

A Don Knotts box set for $1.88: truly a Thanksgiving to remember. (Absence of The Incredible Mr. Limpet notwithstanding.)

Saw a couple at a thrift store on Sunday but didn't get em - Sick (the Bob Flanagan doc), and God Told me To... which is about a serial killer and has Andy Kaufman and the late Deborah Raffin in it. Anyone know if these are any good?

Both of those are amazing

Will have to stop by again soon, they were 3 or 4 bucks each.

A Don Knotts box set for $1.88: truly a Thanksgiving to remember. (Absence of The Incredible Mr. Limpet notwithstanding.)

They actually had several copies of that one separately for $3 (It's a WB title, while the box is from Universal), so I passed for the time being. But Knottsfever may lead me back...

"Don Knotts: Reluctant Hero Pack" amazing

Sick (the Bob Flanagan doc) is p amazing but keep the blindfold handy for the hammer scene.

Saw a couple at a thrift store on Sunday but didn't get em - Sick (the Bob Flanagan doc), and God Told Me To... which is about a serial killer and has Andy Kaufman and the late Deborah Raffin in it. Anyone know if these are any good?

― nickn, Monday, November 26, 2012

Finally went back last Sunday, Sick was gone but I did get the other one for $3.

I rolled the dice on the Mayan thing and have been stocking up on cheap DVDs. Well played, me.

$5: Cujo, Purple Noon, Joyride, The Host, Dead Man, Crash (the comatose one film critics like...some, anyway)

3/$10: North by Northwest, The Agronomist, Adoration, Dead Alive, Naked Lunch

$3: Joe, Capricorn One, The End of Violence, Paraíso Travel, Dr T and the Women, Thirst, Back to Bataan, Extract, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Born into Brothels, Volver, Candyman, Horsemen (watched this--HOF awful performance from Dennis Quaid), Monkey Shines, Airplane, Fun with Dick & Jane ('70s), Deep Cover, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.

Also a Bob Hope box with seven films for $15. I'm occasionally seeing Big Lots stickers on some of this stuff, so, as suspected, it all comes from the same warehouse.

we are in a golden age of cheap, overwhelmingly plentiful entertainment. some good finds in there.

Momus Man of Letters for $1. It's actually a 36-minute VHS tape, but I'm including it cause it's Momus.

I picked up Mel Brooks's "To Be or Not To Be" at a flea market for about $5 this summer. Good fun.

Heartbeeps is weird, like in a "This must have been greenlit between regimes" way.

H-E-B, $3.99:

The Great White Hope
Warlock (the Widmark/Fonda/Quinn western)
Casino Royale "Collector's Edition" (the '67 version, reissued to tie in with Quantum of Solace; doesn't come with the 50s version, which I think other editions of this do)

Another thrift store haul, they were having a 99 cent sale:

Dead Ringer (Bette Davis movie from 1964)
Play Misty For Me
South Pacific (2-disk "Collector's Edition")
Volver
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
History Channel doc on the 1906 SF earthquake

See Thread Revive on phone while running errands, remember there's a Big Lots not 5 minutes from where I stand, bargain sirens begin to sing...

$3:

Beautiful Creatures
The Gingerbread Man (Altman once claimed this was the biggest time he ever got screwed by a studio)
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (Knottsfever did indeed bring me back)
Compulsion
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid

$5:

"Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1" (2-disc comp featuring a bunch of Warner holdings with the odd notice on the back cover "[this collection] is intended for the Adult Collector and is Not Suitable for Children", which leads me to believe it contains the long-anticipated "Wilma Flintstone & Betty Rubble lezz it up" cartoon)

$3: March of the Penguins, L.A. Story (Kael's last-ever review, I think), Storytelling, Get Shorty, The Green Berets

$5: Don't Bother to Knock, The Accidental Tourist, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Manhattan, Annie Hall

H-E-B, $3.99:

The Newton Boys

Big Lots, $3:

The Border
Panic In The Streets (I wish I could find more of the Fox noirs this way)

PS, I watched the "Flintstones" ep on that Saturday Morning set. There was no hot Wilma on Betty action to be had.

All Fred and Barney, eh?

Worse--Fred and...Dino.

3/$10: The Limey, Land of Plenty (Wenders--looks bad), Interview with the Assassin (looks gimmicky)

$5: Take Shelter, Assault on Precinct 13 (original), Red Hook Summer, Basquiat, Rollover (early-'80s Pakula film I'd forgotten)

$10: Elizabeth Taylor Turner/MGM Collection (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8, Father of the Bride, The Sandpiper)

$20: Hepburn/Tracy box with all nine films + documentary (thought this was incredibly lucky, but I see it's on Amazon for even less)

Uh-Oh, Big Lot's is having a 20% sale on everything for rewards members for part of this weekend.

I started browsing through this online catalogue the other day, and it seemed like everything you and I are buying from these cutout bins was there:

http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Products/?Media=DVD

Ah, that's not as fun as digging through stacks of discs flanked by discontinued lawn furntiture and nearly expired Little Debbie's.

Big Lots 20% Weekend

$2.40:

Brando-Rama w/ The Teahouse of The August Moon, The Formula, Mutiny On The Bounty (two-disc "Special Edition") & A Countess From Hong Kong.
She's Gotta Have It
Moon Over Parador
Cold Comfort Farm
Hilary and Jackie
The Baxter

$4:

Village of The Damned/Children of The Damned "Horror Double Feature"
On Her Majesty's Secret Service "Special Edition" (from 2000--the first SE of this title)
Xanadu "Magical Edition"
The Thrill of It All! (Doris Day/James Garner advertising satire from '63. Script by Carl Reiner, direction by Norman Jewison. Watched last night and is amsuing in very Kennedy-era way. Wonder if the "Mad Men" creatives ever saw it?)

was pretty happy to find Slap Shot for $4.99 at a gas station in Forest, Mississippi

$4:

Village of The Damned/Children of The Damned "Horror Double Feature"

Every time I see this, I want to buy it all over again--great deal. A (somewhat annoying) former VJ here, Kim Clarke Champniss, was in one or both of them when he was a kid.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_jL30Z1R09Y/0.jpg

Hmm, didn't know that.

On a somewhat related note, Big Lots has started carrying a fair amount of cds. It looks like they've struck deals w/Concord Music Group (found a bunch of their Jazz reissues and some Stax stuff in the bin) and Wal-Mart (several copies of Kiss' Sonic Boom and AC/DC's Black Ice alongside discarded copies of the latter's back catalog--I got the Columbia High Voltage for $4 sale price).

I also found a copy of Chinese Democracy.