Yeah. I did get check discs on occasion in my nearly quarter-century of reviewing -- mostly in the DVD-era; I think Arrow was the only one who routinely sent check discs on Blu-ray, and they'd always follow with a retail edition a little later -- but it was nearly always final retail packaging with a punched bar code or "for promotional use only" sticker. I was never asked to send anything back. I do remember getting a couple of stray titles with what looked like final retail discs but no packaging.

I think Sonic the Hedgehog is the only thing I was asked to review with a streaming link (and it was watermarked with my name or something similar), but I didn't present it as a DVD/Blu-ray review. Mildly annoyed that I wasn't sent a physical edition afterwards.

My father wrote for an industry publication for a bit in the VHS era, and we definitely had our share of watermarked videos.

Shows the difference between the VHS era and the DVD era for sure! I’ve long assumed a lot of online reviewers’ collections are heavily weighted with freebies. And hey, at least you reviewed them, or most of them I assume. The real bottom feeders – yes, strictly in my opinion – are the YouTuber types who basically get stacks of free products every week and do nothing more than show off their treasure in ‘new release haul’ videos. If anything shows how little it costs the bigger home video labels to give free retail discs to influencers who barely if ever review the actual content, it’s these guys. They’re just happy to be used for their subscribers with little effort in return.


I guess I was thinking more of the still plentiful (but rarely discussed here, or reviewed anywhere except maybe on Amazon) smaller companies that put newer but lesser-known (and often no less worthy) movies out on DVDs and maybe Blu-ray, but usually with few or no special features: Wellgo, Capelight, VVS Films, Gravitas Ventures, lesser Magnolia/Magnet titles, Greenwich Entertainment, Highland, Unobstructed View (Canada), Decal, Virgil Films, Darkstar, Trinity Creative, Synergetic Distribution, FilmHub, Breaking Glass, Viva, Giant Pictures, Freestyle Digital Media, Sphere, RLJE, Cleopatra Entertainment, Level 33, Indie Rights, Brainstorm Media, and many others. Frankly, I don’t know how some of these companies survive, but time and again I stumble on their DVDs (and somewhat less frequently, Blu-rays) at Amazon, Deep Discount, etc., and even at my local library. In fact, that list I posted was about 70% compiled by looking at a stack of library DVDs (and two Blu-rays) on the couch beside me; the remaining logos were on some purchased discs nearby. (I tend to think companies like these are contributing in their own small way to DVD continuing to outsell Blu and 4K. In so many cases, the DVD is more than good enough to enjoy movies you might otherwise not care to spend big dollars on a tricked-out deluxe edition - there’s really only so much time in life).

There are a ton of movies from these labels – including many that were popular on the festival circuit, as my box of TIFF ticket mementos often reminds me – that are roundly ignored by virtually all the physical media review sites in favour, largely, of the more packed releases from our favourite boutiques who can easily afford to provide them. Admittedly, a lot of these indie label DVDs might include a trailer, maybe one of those superficial silly three-minute ‘making of’ things, and a couple of previews. But often they have nothing but a play button. I can’t imagine they’d be sending out too many screener discs since the presentations are basically locked-in, the films being recent enough that there isn’t any restoration work going on.

I’ve been out of the game too long, so I wouldn’t even begin to know how smaller outfits like these promote their releases, but since there isn’t much ‘content’ on the DVDs – thus making them far less of a collector thing – I wouldn’t be surprised if reviewers calling them for screeners are simply given a code for a stream. In other words, when you get outside the ‘cult boutiques’ niche, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff that very likely is the same thing whether you watch a disc (especially a DVD) or a stream.

Titles like those were never my specialty, and if screeners were available for them, I wouldn't have selected them. But there were usually other people on staff who loved that kind of stuff. In terms of physical media review sites "ignoring" such content, it may simply be that those smaller distributors never sent screeners, either because they couldn't afford to or they felt it wasn't an effective way of reaching their core audience.

If the outlets I worked for didn't receive a screener, the title was very unlikely to get reviewed. I might occasionally buy something at retail for review if it was a high-interest title or something I personally cared about enough to do so, but for the most part, the volume of content released every week was tremendous, and it was difficult enough just to get through the backlog of screeners.

If I received a disc for free, I felt a personal responsibility to make time to review it. On the rare occasions I just couldn't find time for one, I always felt bad about it and would typically set it aside in a special stack of "I'll get to it someday" discs. And indeed, some of those discs I did eventually cover after-the-fact when I was doing a daily blog at High-Def Digest.

But yes, I fully understand what you're saying about those annoying social media influencers who collect free swag only for the sake of showing it off and bragging about it, but never actually watch or "review" anything they get.

"Reviews" nowadays are short YouTube clips by social media channels.

Don't worry. Soon even those guys will be out of a job.

"ChatGPT, write a review about this zombie movie and why I didn't like it" or better yet, "ChatGPT, make a video about this zombie movie and tell the audience it sucks and why."

AI layoffs start hitting a wide swath of Corporate America

That OR an article summarizing a youtube review (or sometimes pulling quotes from Reddit users to write a review).

Great clip. It's what I love about the Closet videos, when people aren't in just for the free stuff, but to talk about things they love and why. They're not just in there for the free stuff, but to talk about their passions.

I’ve stumbled across a few text versions of these from IMDb users in recent months, as if many of the user-submitted reviews weren’t atrocious and amateurish enough as it is. Now, folks who can’t articulate a ten word sentence in a coherent state can just type in the prompt you mentioned and post it, probably without reading how characterless and flavourless it is. I almost miss the general sloppiness of older reviews there. Almost. At least those tend to be signs of human input amounting to more than a one-sentence request. For the moment, they stick out in relief against all the usual dreck one finds there, but I’m sure the AI will keep get better, more casual, less rote, I don’t know. But yeah, it won’t be long before YouTubers figure out ways to have AI do the work for them. Who knows, though, maybe they can use the time saved to actually watch more of the stuff they’re given for free.

The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years | The Criterion Collection

Purchase Options

Coming soon, available Sep 30, 2025
4K+Blu-ray20 Discs$399.96SRP: $499.95

DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWENTY-DISC 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES

• New 4K digital masters of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
• Ten 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and ten Blu-rays with the films and special features
• Over twenty-five hours of special features, including audio commentaries, interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, auditions, short films, home movies, commercials, storyboards, animation tests, archival recordings, still photography, discussions/analyses, and visual essays
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: Essays by Richard Brody, James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, Martin Scorsese, and Erica Wagner

I am ALL OVER that in October! Or whenever Criterions next 50% off flash sale is.

Man, particularly for a Wes Anderson fan, that set looks absolutely exquisite.

I didn’t realize The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun was the film’s actual title.

There's also going to be solo 4k/blu releases of Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch.

I really hope they break out the others at some point as well. Although, Royal Tenenbaums is probably the only one I NEED.

Honestly a little surprised they didn’t delay it a few months, include both Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme, and call it a 30 year set. It’s not like his latest hasn’t been in the works for a while. Would have made the set another +$100 MSRP, though…

Still… I’m probably going to buy this during the next B&N 50% off sale. I’ve held off on even buying the blu-ray versions of some of his films, anticipating individual 4K releases. So getting them all at once is a bigger hit to the wallet, but well worth it.

Neither did I. It seems that's the way it was written out in the film's poster and opening titles, but it's always just been called "The French Dispatch" popularly. I think it would be interesting to see what the copyright notice in the end credits actually has it listed as.

Criterion also insists on calling Lynch's Mulholland Drive "Mulholland Dr." because the poster only showed the title as a street sign, but the official copyright in the end credits spells it out as "MULHOLLAND DRIVE."

A bigger name, a smaller name. I do like that Zauner (whose excellent book ‘Crying In H Mart’ had its film adaptation stalled, sadly), unlike many of the celebs who visit, actually picks some movies that she’s only heard about or that have been recommended to her but she hasn’t seen yet, and actually seems genuinely intent on and capable of watching the discs (she also grabs a decent cross-section of Asian titles )

So sorry to hear the adaptation of Crying in H Mart is stalled. Great selection of films she chose, including on of my favorite semi-obscure choices, The Spirit of the Beehive.

I love Spirit of the Beehive. It's definitely in the top 3 on my Criterion dvd upgrade wishlist along with The 49th Parallel and The Last Wave.

In the world of "If I ran Criterion" - I'd release Victor Erice's Close Your Eyes, and upgrade The Spirit of the Beehive. Such brilliant films, made 50 years apart.

Oh wow. I totally forgot Close Your Eyes existed. I still need to see that one.

September 2025 titles:

Isle of Dogs, Flow and a reissue of Spinal Tap!!!!!! What a freakin month!

Spinal Tap. Finally.

My only concern is that he trailer for this summer's theatrical rerelease had some altered dialogue in the scene where Marty DiBergi is discussing some of their old reviews. Instead of "treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality" he says "tasteless sexuality".

I'm really hoping that the line in question was only changed for the trailer and not a permanent change. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but I've seen this movie a hundred times and the dialogue is seared into my brain. When even something that small is changed it sounds completely wrong and pulls me right out of the movie.

Embarrassing announcement: I have not seen This Is Spinal Tap in its entirety, just bits and pieces here and there. I will pick up the 4K UHD out of penance.

I am so excited for this. I brought the whole family to see this one in the theater and they didn't want to go because they'd never heard of it. I said, I'm asking you to trust my judgment. Needless to say, it was one of our top movies of the year and we watched the Oscar race between this and The Wild Robot (all 5 nominees were great, actually) with lots of interest.

My honest question: I would usually wait for the Barnes & Noble 50% off sale. And, I so very appreciate the work of this little Latvian animation studio that could. If I were to contemplate paying full price, who does that benefit? Criterion? Barnes & Noble? Gints Zilbalodis and Dream Well Studios? I know it's just an extra $20-$25, but for the first time in a long time, I'm wondering this sort of question. Anybody have any insight into this?