Living Deadpan

I ventured to Best Buy for the $4.99 bin. First it took me forever to find the damned bin, they have it one of the least browsable locations: by the checkout cashiers, hidden from view! It took me forever to find it, then it took me forever to dig through the damned thing to find the Cult Horror "4 Movie Marathon". They really don't seem to care if people buy this. During checkout I politely suggested "you guys should have these on display!" after the cashier asked if I was into scary movies.

From the bin I also bought His Name Is Jason, Johnny Suede & The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.

Some $4.99 titles I remember digging past, for anyone interested (some of them are the same price at bestbuy.com): Romancing The Stone, Shoot 'Em Up, The Happening (also $5 at Target), Dragon Wars, Ghost World, Shaft (Samuel L Jackson), The Score, Misery, Raising Arizona, Die Another Day & The World Is Not Enough, Best of Twilight Zone Vol 1 (Universal single-disc), Clash of the Titans (original).

And, on the actual shelves instead of the bin, Moon is currently $4.99.

But, anyone going to Best Buy for the Universal "4 Film Marathon" DVDs, I would suggest you order it online for in-store pickup. That way you'll be forcing them to dig to the bottom of the damned bins & it will save you lots of time. I gave up trying to find the Black Comedy set. I would've had to knock the damned bin over & sort through the DVDs on the floor. Cult Horror's what I went there for anyway.

indy81

I bought these discs via in-stock pickup, and got an email that my order was ready. But when I went to Best Buy, the discs weren't behind the counter. I waited for a full half-hour while three employees scoured the DVD shelves for the discs. (I didn't know about the $5 barrel, and apparently neither did they!) All the time I was thinking, "is this worth it?"

NYCMan

Good thing - it ain't in the bin. $8.99.

Yeah, they keep that bloody bin well hidden at every location across the country, apparently.

Living Deadpan

Okay, I take back my suggestion! I guess I was horribly wrong in assuming that Best Buy's in-store pickup would be as tidy as Barnes & Noble's in-store pickup (which I have used and was pleased with).

I remember several years ago, Best Buy had the bin in a visible place. Beside the actual DVD shelves, where it belongs!

When I was digging through the bin, I actually gathered some of the 4-Movie-Marathons and placed them at the top of the pile, hoping perhaps I was doing a favor to a future customer who was looking for them. But all the time I was digging through the bin, not a single customer that walked by exhibited the slightest interest in these DVDs. I wanted to scream "Are you mad?!" Then it occurred to me that maybe they wanted to avoid my dark presence.

I'd like to think I helped a future customer find the 4 Movie Marathons, but it's just as likely that the next asshole digging through that bin sent the Cult Horrors back towards the bottom.

Slightly OT, but I discovered that some of these MGM sale DVDs, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, have been gathered by Fox into new movie packs:



You may have noticed they also started combining the MGM Midnite Movies into Quadruple Features. I found out about all of these on the Foxconnect site. You'll see various other set combinations in the "You May Also Like" bar.

http://www.foxconnect.com/swamp-thin...idescreen.html

Doesn't it seem like a lot of DVD companies are phasing out their individual film DVDs in favor of these combined sets?

Steve

those fox packs look interesting, but VERY expensive to me!! $18?? $13? yikes!

Living Deadpan

I just found that Amazon has some of these Fox combos on sale for Today's Deals.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=amb_link_355998982_6?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A2445403011&page=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-2&pf_rd_r=0KGTP7CV8E4JS1TCMKSB&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1294330962&pf_rd_i=130#/ref=sr_st?qid=1303461908&rh=n%3A130%2Cn%3A!2334112011%2Cn%3A!2334174011%2Cn%3A12917411%2Cn%3A2445403011&sort=-releasedate

That horror 6-pack pictured in my previous post is $11.99. They list it as having 6 discs, but I doubt it.

JoeDoakes

Actually, I think that this is true. My sense is that the way Fox and MGM operate is to press a number of disks and package them as needed. Most of these multi-disk sets being released this way are composed of titles that didn't sell well, and what is happening is that left over disks are being put into a single package and sold that way.

Alan Smithee

I'm extremely annoyed that those sets don't indicate the screen formats on the cover. Ideally they'd all be 16x9, with titles that previously weren't re-done that way, but that'd probably be a wrong assumption.

ProfessorEcho

What's with the USED prices on this?

80s10pack

NYCMan

Bought the MGM 6 Teen Comedies set two weeks ago at Target for $8.99 and all but 'Losin' It' are WS (1.85 - though it's listed on Amazon as 2.35). Anamorphic doubtful.

NYCMan

^See my last post^. They're flippers, one movie on each side. Amazon lies like a rug.

That'sAllFolks

these are also at Wal-Mart in the 5.00 bin and on the racks for 5.00 (different titles different places)

BigShemp

This thread is a lifesaver. I've been waiting since 1997 for an anamorphic FIERCE CREATURES. No 16x9, no thanks.

Manzana

I've been wanting it too for that long. However, I bought it in spite of knowing it wasn't 16x9 because it still looks a lot better than my old laserdisc even using zoomed in mode on my TV. The only downside is that you lose the subtitles if you zoom in (because they are so low on the screen), but I don't need subtitles.

I do sometimes wish we could find out who makes brilliant decisions like these and smack them upside the head... same with directors/cameramen who shake the camera too much (i.e. shakycam and sloppycam) and ruin what would otherwise be a good movie or show. Oh well. Sadly we can't.

I wonder if there would be a way of extracting Fierce Creatures, cropping the video to the picture frame, and re-encoding it in anamorphic. Of course I have no idea how to do that or if the results would be better or worse. It's sad the studios won't make a proper anamorphic release, and I doubt this one will be revisited any time soon (you have to wonder if it makes it on Blu-Ray in a few years if it will still be 4:3 encoded). The studios have no respect for some movies. Maybe it's because they have to make 20% profit. Why do they need 20% profit? Because they do. Could we explore that thinking a little? No.

Kguy1326

I want that Swamp Thing/Squirm/Return of living dead pack. Especially for those last two, don't care for Swamp Thing. Squirm is a favorite of mine. I love the MST3K episode where they watchjed it, very funny episode. Hope they release that episode soon.

Living Deadpan

After purchasing them, I must update & rectify these miserable products I introduced.
Despite the artwork that hints otherwise, these contain the earliest, barest DVDs of Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Return of the Living Dead. Don't buy the latter expecting the "Gruesome Edition". No features, nadda. At least the original release of Return of the Living Dead had some bonus features (including, I believe, a featurette that wasn't ported over to the Special Edition?).

Child's Play: bare bones.

So, of the sets pictured that I bought, it's not as big an issue with the first one (since Swamp Thing, Bucket of Blood & Frogs never had special editions). Still, the covers they use for ROTLD and TCM2 misleadingly resemble the covers adorning the newer special editions. Another of these quadruple horror sets contains Last House on the Left, and I'm sure it's the earlier transfer.

Long story short: it's my duty to point out: don't buy any of these expecting features from the newer special editions.

Also, an important point: That's right. Not only are they flippers, but the discs are mislabeled as to what's on side A & side B!

The old Squirm DVD does have director commentary. As long as you're not hoping for the 2007 Special Edition of Return of the Living Dead.

Well, I'm off to Best Buy to pick up a "Gruesome Edition" while the $4.99 bin still has them.

Jtnguyen12

Cult Horror Collection $3.49 free shipping with PRIME
http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Fun...9943294&sr=1-1

Kal Varnsen

Wish I had Amazon Prime, that's a good deal.

ProfessorEcho

Living Deadpan do you happen to know if the MIDNITE MOVIES quadruples are bare bones? Some of these had a minimum of extras in their original releases. Also are the sets one DVD 18 with two movies per side? That would be bad.

Living Deadpan

I think it's the whatever was on the original releases, so if there were extras on the first pressing... these are basically just copies of the original releases. I also discovered that the original Dolls had audio commentaries, so the Dolls in the set isn't bare-bones either.

But for titles like Last House House on the Left, Pumpkinhead, Child's Play, TCM 2, Return of the Living Dead, etc... you're getting whatever was on the original MGM pressings, not the special editions released in 2007-2008. So any original Midnite Movie DVD that had commentary, that would most likely get ported over to the 4-movie set; so I would expect, for instance, the commentary for Strange Invaders would be included (but don't take my word for it!).

(Slightly more OT) And as unappealing as this sounds, it looks like Image Entertainment is reissuing some of the Corman/Price films, and if their recent DVDs of former Anchor Bay titles are any indication, I wouldn't count on Image even having the courtesy of porting over any bonus features.

11/22: The Raven/Pit & The Pendulum/Tales of Terror

Alan Smithee

I don't care about lack of extras for such a low price, but I DO mind getting stuck with a 4x3 transfer of any widescreen film.

ProfessorEcho

Thanks for the additional info, Deadpan.

I always want at least the trailer as an extra and am not fond of re-releases that drop it as the Universal four packs did. I still would like to know if rhe MGM four packs are one or more discs?

Also I wonder if those new Price/Poe packs will all be anamorphic? Some of the originals from MGM were not.

Gibush

Yeah, could someone chime in with information about this? Are all those movies like Pumpkinhead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and so on, in widescreen?

Living Deadpan

Well, the 4-Movie ones are 2 discs (flippers, 1 movie on each side). I'd assume the 6-movie ones are 3 discs. I don't know about the 3-movie ones.

Sorry, when I checked the discs I only looked at the menus.

It's frustrating that the cases don't list anything about these on the back. Content-wise, though, they're more similar to the WB 4 Film Favorites than the Universal ones. If you look at whatever the original disc release was, that's the copy in these sets. I find DVD Empire useful for researching OOP old editions.

A few examples:
Pumpkinhead: Standard 1.33:1 Color
Dolls: Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Child's Play: Standard 1.33:1 Color

Always assume the least.