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

Has anybody seen it yet?

I dived in. It was only $6 to ship to the UK, which had it been more would have been the point I changed my mind. Screenshots actually look pretty clean.

They're using kunaki, a pretty well established dvd/blu/vinyl on demand service so it's probably sketchy as fuck with no rights obtained and they're hoping to fly under the radar.

Yeah, I leapt as well. Been wanting a physical copy forever and it was always gonna be grey market so whatever.

Warner Archive's November slate includes Some Came Running, The Last of Sheila, Nick Ray's Party Girl, and Lang's Fury.

Plus pre-code Stanwyck and a Thin Man (late-period, but still). It's a good slate. Fears of their imminent demise seem to have been unfounded.

I think they're gradually releasing each Thin Man.

Turkish Star Wars has shipped, so it's passed the point of cancellation over rights.

Ridiculously huge Kino sale in progress: https://www.kinolorber.com/list/view/code/roctober-sale-2021

There's always too much to look through. Maybe I'll put some recommendations in later tonight.

their Marienbad has a better transfer than the Criterion version.

My random recommendation from that sale would be Mädchen in Uniform, a German LGBTQ coming of age film from 1931. One of the absolute best films I've seen this year. In several years, even.

yeah thats a stunner

think i'm gonna go for the Lionel Rogosin set for $9.99. ive seen Morbius fave On the Bowery but none of the other stuff

I know I've recommended it before but And Soon The Darkness is excellent. I watched it again last night and the end still wrong-footed me.

I've got the Masters of Cinema/Eureka version of that Holy Mountain disc and it's great.

The Apple is far, far better than the Cannon haters make out it is. Well worth it for cheap.

The Apple is amazing and yes, get it if you haven't yet.

Yeah, love The Apple. So bonkers.
Babylon is really good.
Black Sabbath a classicm though I'm confused by the two different versions here.
Just noticed they put out Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker / "Night Warning" which was also silly and nuts.

Any thoughts on:

Death Rides a Horse
Slayground
Straight to Hell
Spetters
Thousand Pieces of Gold
Any Jess Franco they have, which is a lot

The two versions of Black Sabbath are the original Italian language print and the Americanized AIP cut. They also split Black Sunday into two different releases for some reason, but all of the other Bavas with more than one cut are packaged on single discs.

The Italian and American versions of Black Sabbath place the three stories in different order as well.

Death Rides a Horse (1967) is a very good spaghetti western that was a big hit in Italy (stars Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law)

Nightmares Come at Night (1970)
A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1971)
Female Vampire (1974)

are all classic Jess Franco, the first starring Soledad Miranda, the last starring Lina Romay - Franco's two main muses

Didn't like Death Rides A Horse, mainly because John Philip Law is a vacuum of charisma. Much prefer Day Of Anger for my Van Cleef spaghetti fix.

If Straight To Hell is the Alex Cox movie, well, it's him and a buncha 80's rock stars playing spaghettin western, super disposable but if you're a fan of the ppl involved it's good fun.

much thanks for the input folx

Who is gonna step up and release SMALL AXE on a decent format? Or ATLANTA? I’m not buying a fucking DVD in 2021.

DVDs are apparently still the highest-selling physical media format in 2021. With VHS presumably coming in a close second.

Cheapest format in still being the most popular SHOCKAH!

Of course part of the continuing popularity of DVDs is mass sales to libraries, and also bargain bin catalogue titles and multi-film combo packs at big box stores.

Hey, I still buy lots of DVDs (because cheap)! It's more weird to me because physical media in general is on the wane and is being largely phased out in a lot of retail outlets so it seems like less and less of an impulse purchase for general consumers and increasingly the realm of collectors. And a lot of collectors bitch if something doesn't get a 4k release these days.

I must have every grain of film from poverty-row exploitation classics shown down to the tiniest pixel known to earth or else.

If Straight To Hell is the Alex Cox movie, well, it's him and a buncha 80's rock stars playing spaghettin western, super disposable but if you're a fan of the ppl involved it's good fun.

Be warned, Cox went back and fucked with Straight To Hell, adding digital blood to all the gunfights and some weird Tim Burton-esque animated sequences, and that's the version Kino Lorber put out. If you want the original theatrical version you have to seek out the old Anchor Bay DVD.

xp In fairness - you might as well get the best version that's available? The jump in quality from DVD to Blu-ray can be pretty immense, if not always. And most collectors end up rebuying the same films over and over and over again anyway...

Even the shittiest, grimiest low-budget film from the '70s on BR can be astounding to see after decades of crappy TV and home video transfers, and there's more companies out there now than ever doing great restoration work.

Speaking of, the Ask Any Buddy podcast, which has rapidly become a favorite of mine, has a new episode up that features one of the cofounders of Vinegar Syndrome. Haven't listened yet but the description sounds v. relevant to yer points raised:

https://www.ask-any-buddy.com/podcast/special-bonus-episode-j-c-crickets-sex-demon-1975-with-joe-rubin

I spring for the Blu-ray more often than not, but I also admittedly watch a lot of total garbage that either hasn't made its way to Blu-ray or isn't worth more than buying a '10 movies for 10 bucks' set to see. And on the rare occasion when I'm impressed enough by trash, I do upgrade.

Resisting 4K upgrades with every fiber of my being, though.

My take on 4K is: if I never had it or I only had it on DVD, especially if it's a very early DVD, I'll spring for it. If I already had it on Blu-ray, I'm good.

I'm entirely ambivalent about 4K, although I could probably be persuaded were anyone to make the case.

I would have thought supermarkets had a big part in the surge of dvd sales, especially when people were reluctant to go anywhere else

I've resisted 4K so far, but right now it feels like you need a really solid theater setup, like 55" screen, appropriate viewing distance, etc. which makes it tougher to justify the investment. I'll get a PS5 someday, though.

I’m not too fussed about 4K (despite owning a 4K setup) but here in PAL land, most DVDs use a 25fps speedup rather than the 3:2 pulldown that NTSC discs have. Blu rays use 24fps and my setup shows them at 24. Combining that and the near-double resolution, it’s not even close.
I’ll happily buy and watch a $2 DVD from a flea market but haven’t bought a new DVD in years except when forced to by lack of alternative.

Indicator to launch US branch in January '22

https://www.mediaplaynews.com/distribution-solutions-inks-distribution-deal-with-powerhouse-films-label/

Ha, missed that the thread was updated, was just coming to post that.

GIVE US HARRYHAUSEN

^^^^ THIS

BUT ALSO GIVE US YOUR "BIGGEST EVER ANNOUNCEMENT"

So looks like the Indicator exciting news was the Sinbad re-release (which I am obviously all over and have ordered already).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/29/archive-reviving-mexican-popular-cinema-permanencia-voluntaria

Amazing news which shows where Indicator are going next.

Wow, yes. This is excellent news! Kino announced and subsequently cancelled a slate of Santo films a while back, so I'd been curious to see where they would end up.

Now to anticipate the Arrow-esque frustration of seeing which releases Indicator will grace the US with and which they will not.

Will WB actually allow Batwoman to be released?

Ahem, I believe you may be confusing Batwoman with La Murcielaga. Certainly no relation there that I can see.

(There are already a couple 'Batwoman' releases floating around out there (including a recent Blu-ray which is unfortunately dubbed-only), so people seem to be getting away with it.)

Talking of getting away with it, my Turkish Star Wars turned up. Yet to find out how it looks.

Mine too, and me neither. It exists, though, which is something!

I watched it, all the soundtrack cues are there and the picture is....as good as could possible be expected.

Now to anticipate the Arrow-esque frustration of seeing which releases Indicator will grace the US with and which they will not.

Surely the demand for Mexican genre cinema will be superior in the US so they'll make sure to include all of those? Unless there's rights issues...

Coming Soon on 4KUHD!
BRAND NEW Dolby Vision HDR Restoration to be Supervised by Brian De Palma!
From a 16-Bit 4K Scan of the OCN!

Dressed to Kill (1980) Starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon & Dennis Franz – Written & Directed by Brian De Palma pic.twitter.com/VSdClqZLWJ

— KLStudioClassics (@KLStudioClassic) October 31, 2021

Totally take back what I was saying about underwhelming selection of japanese releases, there's a lot of good coming out. Very curious about Sailor Suit And Machine Gun

That Yokai box set is good fun.

On the third Indicator noir set and boy the batting average with these is not great, so many films that are neither good nor noir. I understand they didn't just put all the obvious greats in one set because they wanted multiple volumes but jeez, it's like an average of one truly good movie per set. For completists only (which I guess I am).

Like so far the third set is:

Johnny O' Clock - Silly crime movie with Dick Powell, was surprised to find out it's not based on a radio serial because that's what it feels like. Marginally noir, endearing three star effort.

The Dark Past - Overcooked home invasion film with Lee J. Cobb as a psychologist and William Holden as the least convincing gangster of all time. Campy psychobabble. Not noir unless you think anything focusing on Freudianism is.

Convicted - Adaptation of a play that had already been filmed as The Criminal Code, dir: Howard Hawks, and there is zero reason for you to see this if you've seen that version (also on Indicator). Noir? Do you think a movie about a good boy getting redeemed by a prison warden is gonna be noir?