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

Buy me a drink first.

Australia's Imprint label dropping Blus of The Straight Story and Drugstore Cowboy in August.

https://viavision.com.au/shop/the-straight-story-1999/

https://viavision.com.au/shop/drugstore-cowboy-1989/

I powered through those Three Stooges shorts in the first Indicator Noir box set but I'm now on vol.2 and have decided life is too short.

How are the noir boxes? Not something I'm particularly au fait with.

Do you mean in terms of movies or extras?

Moviewise, Columbia b's aren't like the first thing I'd urge noir neophytes to see - they're certainly not at the level of those old Warner Bros DVD noir boxes - but I'd say the overall level is solid and so far every one of them has had something to distinguish it from the generic cop procedurals that sometimes get pawned off as noir. Biggest highlight on the first box is Drive A Crooked Road, an erotically charged thriller with Mickey Rooney as a sexually frustrated mechanic getting used as a patsy in a gorgeous beach house setting.

Extraswise, Indicator doesn't have the pull to get as much in the way of interviews with actual participants as Warner Bros or even Criterion would be able to, but they're creative in making up for this: a lot of short films by the same directors, mostly non-fiction and public information type stuff. Also every film comes with a Stooges short that is themtically related to the film, a very neat trick even though as I said you can only watch so many of those. This also means commentaries tend to be less by scholars who've written three books on the film and more by enthusiasts and Film Twitter types, which can be good or bad.

Vinegar Syndrome's Halfway to Black Friday sale is live now through Monday. There's a bunch of new releases and most of the rest is all 50% off.

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/

Thanks Daniel, I meant in terms of the films to be honest. It's a genre I've never really got into and was wondering whether I was missing out but sounds like there are better options.

Yeah, I'd def watch Out Of The Past, Asphalt Jungle, The Killers, The Maltese Falcon and Touch Of Evil first before digging into the Columbia vault.

Arrow Video announced various 4K UHD versions of David Lynch's Dune, which are now up for pre-order

Vinegar Syndrome Halfway to Black Friday sale currently live, now through Monday afternoon. Prices on new/limited releases are a little ehhhh but dig in to their older stuff and you'll find some decent deals. Get all the Rudy Ray Moore you can handle!

Just got an email from Kino Now about their Memorial Day sale.

man where has this thread been that I didn't know about, this is my fuckin area even though I almost never find the time to watch the stuff I get. like I got a set of these back in January but by the time the kids turn in I have exactly two hours tops to pursue anything I wanna do before I crash, and by that point a movie will usually put me to sleep

anyway I am hoping that finding this thread will encourage me to watch the cool boutique dvds and blu-rays I have stacked up by the TV

Vinegar Syndrome's subsidiary Fun City Editions is releasing Michael Ritchie's 1975 masterpiece Smile!

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/products/smile-fun-city-editions

MGM's DVD was non-anamorphic and has been OOP for dog's years.

Description makes it sound like a typical horny teen sex comedy. It's not?

It's more a Nashville-esque ensemble social satire about the goings-on in and around a staged event (in this case a statewide teen beauty pageant). Although there is a subplot involving Dern's son trying to spy on the pageant dressing room and get nude Polaroids of the contestants to sell to his friends.

It's also kind of a proto-Christopher Guest entertainment satire, minus the mockumentary elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbdKZQcxKYM

Well this sucks.

pic.twitter.com/MQsJz2SNFV

— INDICATOR (@indicatorseries) June 16, 2021

lol talk about your cursed movies

Years of Lead turned up yesterday and looks pretty amazing,although Arrow have cribbed the Indicator box format for it (which is no bad thing for the buyer).

I also finally got the Bill Rebane set to match the William Grefé one, and Stephen Bissette tells me on FB that he's working on another regional auteur set (presumably also for Arrow in the same format).

The Christopher Lee box by Severin seems great on content but the disc box art is DREADFUL. Their mid-year announcement of Blood For Dracula is very welcome though, as is the offer of the Baker/Lenzi set at half price.

There's one film on the Lee box and half the Baker/Lenzi that are pushing me to finally go for region-free BR.

Two relatively big sales going on right now.

Kino Lorber has 400+ titles on sale through with pretty good discounts through July 14th as part of their June Swoon sale. Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice for $12 and the recent release of Sirk's Battle Hymn for $10 were surprising standouts for me.

https://www.kinolorber.com/list/view/code/june-swoon-2021

At the same time, Severin has launched one of their two big annual sales as Severin Nukes The MID-YEAR SALE 2021, which only runs through the weekend. Most of their stock is 50% retail and there are a bunch of new titles, too; but sadly, none of their 2021 releases are included and their website seems to be having a bunch of problems per the blu-ray.com forums. I'm still likely to try to put in a $100ish order to get free shipping so if anyone has any essential Severin recommendations I'd love to hear them as Cruel Jaws is the only title of theirs I currently own and I have some wiggle room on my current prospective order.

https://severin-films.com/

I was going to hit the Severin sale but the book is USA only and the Baker/Lenzi box was sold out by the time I got there so I'm going to save and buy the Al Adamson set in a couple of months I think.

Did any more rumours come of the Indicator Harryhausen centenary box? They just announced discounts on standard editions so feels unlikely now.

Arrow have a Sam Katzman box announced for September which will be fun.

As for Severins I'd recommend:

Massacre In Dinosaur Valley is full-on fun. Genre hops like crazy, from action adventure to threat of nature to cannibal escape to women in prison without batting an eyelid.

Beyond The Darkness has some great scenes. I'm not sure it holds up that well as a whole but there's probably enough there.

Blackenstein is really something. If you think you might like it you probably will. If you think you won't, you probably won't. It's not going to win you over from your original thoughts when you read the plot.

The documentary about Richard Stanley's Island of Doctor Moreau is essential (but has been on Prime so ymmv whether it's worth more than getting you over the line for free shipping).

I assume you're aware of Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, All The Colours of the Dark, and Blood on Satan's Claw which are essential.

The Beast Must Die is a proper romp, but I'd argue the Indicator edition has better extras (or rather extra extras as nearly everything on the Severin one is on the Indicator one). I'm still debating whether I like it enough to trade up from the one in the Amicus Coffin Box.

And another sale to boot: https://www.shoutfactory.com/sale/hidden-gems-sale

If you like garbage (and god knows I do), this might be the sale for you.

These folks really should coordinate their sales better. There hasn't been anything happening for a couple months and now, as is standard, everything drops at once. I hit Shout! and Kino pretty hard but now I'm looking at my Severin cart and thinking, eh, I can wait for Black Friday.

Arrow sale on
https://arrowfilms.com/shop/camp-arrow-video-part-ii/?pi=1
Battles Without Honour And Humanity bluray boxset is back in stock for £30, great price as it was going for £100+ recently

ooh, two things there that are on the kinema junpo 1995 list i've been working through (Battles Without Honour being one of them, although i plumped for the single dvd not the box)

(it says the box is a pre-order (out monday?) and might be blu-only, rather than the dual format 13-disc thing that's now going for bazillions (£400) on amazon. but there are many formats so it's hard to tell)

Why, this will do:

https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/shawscope-volume-one-limited-edition-blu-ray/FCD2076

https://us.zavvi.com/blu-ray/shawscope-volume-one-limited-edition/13187337.html

After an undisputed reign at the peak of Hong Kong’s film industry in the 1960s, Shaw Brothers (the studio founded by real-life brothers Run Run and Runme Shaw) found their dominance challenged by up-and-coming rivals in the early 1970s. They swiftly responded by producing hundreds of the most iconic action films ever made, revolutionising the genre through the backbreaking work of top-shelf talent on both sides of the camera as well as unbeatable widescreen production value, much of it shot at ‘Movietown’, their huge, privately-owned studio on the outskirts of Hong Kong.

This inaugural collection by Arrow Video presents twelve jewels from the Shaw crown, all released within the 1970s, kicking off in 1972 with Korean director Jeong Chang-hwa’s King Boxer, the film that established kung fu cinema as an international box office powerhouse when it hit Stateside cinemas under the title Five Fingers of Death.

From there we see Chang Cheh (arguably Shaw’s most prolific director) helm the blood-soaked brutality of The Boxer from Shantung and two self-produced films in his ‘Shaolin Cycle’ series, Five Shaolin Masters and its prequel Shaolin Temple, before taking a detour into Ho Meng Hua’s King Kong-inspired Mighty Peking Man, one of the most unmissably insane giant monster films ever made. Chang’s action choreographer Lau Kar-leung then becomes a director in his own right, propelling his adoptive brother Gordon Liu to stardom in Challenge of the Masters and Executioners from Shaolin.

Not to be outdone, Chang introduces some of Shaw’s most famous faces to the screen, including Alexander Fu Sheng fighting on the streets of San Francisco in Chinatown Kid and, of course, the mighty Venom Mob in The Five Venoms and Crippled Avengers. Finally, Lau and Liu successfully meld high kicks with humor in two of their masterworks, Heroes of the East and Dirty Ho, both co-starring fan favorite Hsiao Hou.

From kickass kung fu killers to crazy kaiju knockoffs to culture clash comedies, this carefully curated and gorgeously presented selection of all-time Shaw Brothers classics merely represents the tip of the iceberg of the studio’s rich output, making it both an ideal starting point for newcomers and a treat for hardcore fans alike.

Limited Edition Contents:

High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of King Boxer, The Boxer from Shantung, Five Shaolin Masters, Shaolin Temple, Mighty Peking Man, Challenge of the Masters, Executioners from Shaolin, Chinatown Kid, The Five Venoms, Crippled Avengers, Heroes of the East and Dirty Ho
Brand new 2K restorations by Arrow Films from the original camera negatives of King Boxer, The Boxer from Shantung, Challenge of the Masters, The Five Venoms, Crippled Avengers and Dirty Ho
Brand new 2K master of the longer international cut of Chinatown Kid from original film elements
Original uncompressed Mandarin, Cantonese (where applicable) and English mono audio
Newly translated English subtitles for each film
Hours of bonus features including brand new commentaries and critic appreciations on selected films, new and archive interviews with cast and crew, alternate credit sequences, trailer and image galleries for each film and more to be announced!
60 page book featuring new writing by David Desser, Simon Abrams and Terrence J. Brady, with cast and crew info for each film plus trivia and soundtrack info
New artwork for each film by artists including Matthew Griffin, Chris Malbon, Jacob Phillips, Ilan Sheady, Tony Stella, Darren Wheeling and Jolyon Yates

Coming in 2022...

Shawscope Volume Two, and More!

Yeah, I'll take it!

Speculation on the criterion forums was that it was gonna be all Chang Cheh, but I'm happy to see Mighty Peking Man in there too.

Word is that the movies in that Arrow poliziotteschi set are pretty nasty even by the standards of the genre?

Like Rabid Dogs is absolutely brutal, I'm definitely not sure I've seen worse. Savage Three less so (but has its moments - mouse fight notwithstanding) and the other three are not exceptionally nasty in what's on screen (although the plot in Colt 38 Special Squad is fairly full-on).

Mouse fight censored in the UK release! Which on one hand is kinda weird - not like anyone involved w/ the original production is gonna make much cash off this - but on the other hand, thank you british board of censors for saving me the fast forward.

Except it's uncensored on two of the documentaries - or at least you see several shots that are cut.

Arrow, why do you not like me to have money?

interesting regarding the Shawscope set. most of this stuff is streaming on Amazon Prime and other services, but very nice to see them getting a cool box set

A bit annoyed this all had to be a boxed set that is going to be out of many people's price range and the bluray of Mighty Peking Man wasn't long ago. But I'll probably go for this.

I'll bet it's going to be broken up into smaller sets down the line, Gamera style.

Exciting stuff coming from third window films:

https://www.facebook.com/thirdwindowfilms/photos/a.322092414509345/4476557685729443/?type=3

Synapse sale, for all your horror and sleaze needs: https://mvdshop.com/collections/synapse21

Warner Archive just announced Blus of One Crazy Summer and Prince of The City.

Interesting

I'm pretty sure I have no need of a Mae West box but this is your opportunity to tell me I'm wrong for thinking that.

Indicator LE of Corruption put back two weeks at very late notice i.e was supposed to be out this coming Monday.

Did anybody spot any further gossip about this mega Harryhausen set that was rumoured?

I'm watching the Blu of One Crazy Summer right now! the commentary track is fantastic... Steve Holland, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Curtis Armstrong making fun of John Cusack

Warner Archive September: The Naked Spur; A Night At The Opera; The Window; and Straight Time!

Straight Time might feature my favorite Hoffman performance.

An amazing movie. And it led me to read every one of Edward Bunker's books, which are excellent.

Naked Spur, nice. Hopefully the restoration is good.

Warner finally issuing their OOP Marx Bros movies! About time!

So help me, I'm really enjoying the Andy Milligan box.

i bought alien from l.a. from vinegar syndrome recently and it's such a lovely presentation of a cursed movie that i love