Has Blood Simple really been cancelled? Michael's Movie Mayhem says so, but the pre-order page is still up on Amazon with a release date of 8/3/10.

Releaselists said it was delayed indefinitely a while ago.

I'd love to order Escape from New York but I need some reviews!

Me too!

I hope its not just the horrible UK version regurgitated (like the upcoming Time Bandits / Withnail and I).

And what is the story with extras??

Why in the world would they cancel Blood Simple? That better be false information... I recently sold my DVD in anticipation of this.

No extras at all. Blu-ray and double sided dvd(first mgm pressing) of the movie.

It isn't. I've read it's been delayed as well.

Wow, that is heinous. Pass for me then.

That's how MGM rolls.

Me too. I understand they're in financial trouble and couldn't spend a lot of money producing extras for the Blu-Ray, but there is that SE DVD from a few years ago. They couldn't have just thrown the extras from that on the Blu-Ray?

*Crosses it off the list*

What makes it really sad is that Special Edition DVD Collector's Set is one of the most thoughtful, fan-focused releases in my collection.

If there aren't any extras from the Special Edition of Escape from New York we might as well all pass on the Blu-ray then. This is unfortunate news, and really, it should be completely unacceptable for them to do this to fans when bonus material that good has already been established.

I'm going to assume ROTLD and Invasion of the Body Snatchers will have similar releases, meaning you'll have to watch the DVD in order to listen to the commentary track, as well as view any extras.

If they're going to put out a bare-bones like this, lacking even the commentary tracks, make it $9 on release week, not $20. I'd trow down $9 to upgrade the PQ/AQ, but I'll be damned if I'm paying $20 for bare bones with a DVD I don't need.

I wouldn't even mind that as much as the Escape from NY situation. From the sounds of it, they threw in the original flipper disc (with the Fullscreen version on one side). In that case, the only extra in the set would be the trailer.

*I just remembered. ROTLD has all the extras on one DVD. So if they threw in the DVD, atleast all the extras would be accounted for in some form. With Body Snatchers, the extras are on the second disc. So throwing in the DVD would only give you the commentary.*

That costs money. Creating a menu, artwork, authoring a disc etc. These are cash grabs from MGM. And I'd rather have cashgrabs then no BD release.

Wait, you mean this disc just appears out of thin air? If they are releasing a Blu Ray, they are already having to create menus, artwork and author the disc....

Unless you are implying that this barebones disc was already made far in advance, which in that case, I wasn't aware MGM still had some Blu-Rays in reserve like that.

I am shocked by your reaction though. Its much more positive than I expected.

Since I already own the CE DVDs for all these releases, I'll just keep those alongside the new BD. Lame? Yes, but it is an alternative, at least.

Doesn't Fox handle all of MGM's home video stuff? Shouldn't y'all be berating them instead?

As far as I know, Fox just handles distribution.

I was dissapointed to find out I couldn't listen to the commentary on To Live and Die in L.A. while watching the blu-ray. Having the SD extras on a separate dvd is understandable, but not including an existing audio track on the BD is a real bummer.

I'll still get Escape From New York if it's a quality HD presentation. I love the movie, and I already have the 2-disc.

^ +1 ... I need to complete my Carpenter/Russell 80's trilogy (also consisting of The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China)!

So what, MGM handles everything in-house and then sends it over to Fox for pressing and distribution? How are they able to keep working on this stuff if they're so deep in debt, then?

Could it be possible that Escape From New York was meant to be one of MGM's initial BD releases that was just sitting on a shelf for years and is finally making it out now? MGM said 50-75 titles were going to be ready initially after they announced doing Blu-ray releases (under Sony at the time), so this could just be a master that's been collecting dust for the past 3-4 years.

MGM's releases through Fox have been a real crapshoot. We get either terrible BD masters meant for a 2006/2007 release or we get brand new MPEG-4 codecs (Child's Play).