Re: The Official Vinegar Syndrome Thread
 

I guess I'll be waiting until the new year for my Death Wish 2 copy. :shrug:

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Still no shipping confirmation for my three items. Kinda disappointing, since one was from the half way sale and they said those would ship out after subscribers but before everyone else. Yet I’m seeing other non-subscribers say they got their stuff already, even though it’s titles that were released on BF, not the half way sale.

Re: The Official Vinegar Syndrome Thread
 

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Yes, I can read. I’m saying folks who seemingly only bought BF titles got them already while folks who ordered during the half way sale are still waiting, despite being told those orders would be given priority, as has been the case for at least a few years now.
Its mildly disappointing, not the end of the world.

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I just checked my order status and it's still not even confirmed yet.

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My copy of the Prophecy films was delivere today in case any of you have been waiting in front of your screens waiting on an update.

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What do you mean "from the half-way sale"? That's in May, and those orders most definitely have shipped out by now.

The pecking order is subscribers first, then those who pre-ordered the Black Friday items, then those who ordered Black Friday stuff that weekend. Last is those who ordered catalog titles only, which is what it sounds like you did.

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I was mixing up the name of the “half way to BF” sale with the “BF pre-order” sale, which take place in different months, however I did indeed order stuff during the BF pre-order a few months ago.
Anyway, as I said, it’s not a big deal. I’ll survive.

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My "half-way to BF" preorder is due for delivery today (which includes a title I added during the BF sale).

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Just got the shipping email from VS about my Death Wish 2 4K copy.

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My Death Wish 2 4K copy just arrived. Took 4 days after I got the shipping notice. 23 days after I ordered it during BF weekend. It wasn't a horrible turnaround overall.

Maybe I'll order from them again in the future when there is a really good sale. But, not anytime soon.

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My 4K copy of Existenz arrived yesterday.

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In the lead up to Christmas I'm determined to watch all of my Vinegar Syndrome Christmas movies. I've already watched Jack Frost. I'm watching Blood Beat for the very first time and will watch "Don't Open Til Christmas" either today or tomorrow.

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I thought I'd give an update from my previous post. I really dug Blood Beat as I thought it was just a bizarre supernatural horror flick. A family in rural Wisconsin is about to celebrate Christmas and the Mom has these premonitions that the girlfriend of the son is somehow a killer in a samurai suit. It was cool enough and something different for a Christmas movie. I didn't like "Don't Open Til Christmas" that much. I thought it was kind of boring for a slasher with not a lot of kills and too much talking between the detectives doing nothing. The way it was shot and produced was very sleazy. I felt like I needed to take a shower after watching it.

Re: The Official Vinegar Syndrome Thread
 

The VS website is back open at 11:01am CST for the start of "Subscribers Week" and the reveal of the January New releases.

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It looks like we’ll be seeing January reveals throughout the next week.

In about 20 minutes, we’ll see 3 VS titles, 1 VSU, and 13 partner label releases.

Tue - 1 Cinematographe
Wed - 1 VSL
Fri - 1 VSP
Sat - 1 VSU
Sun - 1 Cinematographe

Re: The Official Vinegar Syndrome Thread
 

Southern Comfort (UHD)
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (UHD)
Forgotten Gialli: Vol. 6
Santet / Santet 2

As for what the rest of the year holds:

...and with Corpse Mania, that suggests that Vinegar Syndrome has a Shaw Bros. deal. They don't really do one-off licenses, so presumably there'll be a bunch of stuff. As long as someone gives me Super Inframan, I'll be happy! I'm hoping for Hong Kong Godfather, which is definitely more Vinegar Syndrome-y.

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Glad to see what seems like an increase in Hong Kong titles despite the fact that previous releases haven’t exactly seemed like huge sellers. CORPSE MANIA is a really fun one, but I can’t say I’m keen on being forced to buy the pricier 4K combo to get the Blu-ray when the latter would’ve been just fine as an upgrade from the older Eastern Masters and Celestial DVDs. Would’ve been awesome to see a VS HK Shaw horror box along the lines of the martial arts sets from Shout or Arrow, but I’m betting they’ll milk that licence for as many singles as the can. But hey, if it finally gets us more non-martial arts Shaw stuff at last, more power to them.

I’m tempted by a lot of those discounted slip editions, but likewise tempted to wait in case the non-slip versions (several of which seem to have sold in greater numbers based on quantities posted) get discounted in a later sale for even less. After all, there’s some dodgy stuff there. :lol: Decisions, decisions . . .

EDIT: Interesting mix of Partner additions (plus a small whack of Film Movement titles, which I assume is under OCN now?)
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...label-releases

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On the VS website its says it's a new VSA title that will be announced on Saturday.

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I wonder how well Phase IV holds up.

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Tempted to subscribe again (I did the halfway one last year) but IDK. There were quite a few last time I did like and anything I didn't, I sold on ebay, so I could recoup a small amount of the $850 cost for the full year deal.

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I’ve always found it worth revisiting despite its flaws. That was one of countless Olive Films blu-rays that deserved more than the barebones treatment it got from them, so hopefully VS will do it right.

Also, I noted earlier that it would’ve been nice if VS did a Shaw horror (or other non-MA genre) box set, rather than doling them out piecemeal with 4K discs they arguably don’t need, but I overlooked the unnamed “horror box set” they have listed for November, so maybe there’s something there. Can’t think of too many ‘franchise’ series that haven’t already been done to death on physical media, but who knows!

I find the longer you hold off listing them, the better the return once they go OOP, which is inevitable. For those of us with mountains of unwatched discs on the backburner, that’s an easy task sometimes. I don’t subscribe as there’s just too many that don’t hold interest, but the temptation is always there, briefly. :)

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I finally saw Southern Comfort for the first time a couple of weeks ago, when it aired on the HDNet Movies channel. As a Walter Hill fan, I've been wanting to see it for a while. In a lot of ways, it's The Warriors on the Bayou. Could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I might get it in November when it finally goes to 50% off.

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Sorry. So I guess Southern Comfort was the thriller.

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Ordered Southern Comfort and Air Doll (for $15 from today's daily sale). I would have gone for Iceman Cometh but already own it.

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Flesh for Frankenstein is on the current deals page for $30. That's a pretty good deal and probably the cheapest the movie has ever been since the MSRP is $79.99. Very nice box set if anyone here hasn't bought it yet.

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Plus it includes the 3D version. I checked my orders and see that I paid $52.99 -eek- for it in the Black Friday 2021 sale, so $30 has me tempted to get one for resale since it’s always pretty pricey on Amazon Marketplace up here.

Also tempted by the Camille Keaton set at that price, but my interest in those films is so low it’s tough to pull the trigger.

- - - - -

Weird to see Bleeding Skull with their own label, but I suppose the partnership with AGFA for their previous releases was bound to require two separate lines eventually, because boutiques!
:lol:

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I've watched 2/3 of the set: Tragic Ceremony (good) and Sex of the Witch (meh). But I'll openly admit I bought it because I found Keaton so beautiful in I Spit on Your Grave, and I wanted to see her do nude scenes where she wasn't being raped.

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Decided to subscribe as this is something I'm almost positive I won't be able to do this time next year and I've been purging my collection and making decent coin on a few things to at least partially cover the cost.

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Sell to buy! 😉

I do that too.

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lol

But I have Blu-rays and DVDs I don't need to own, though out of that there's only a 100 or so that are worth selling. The others I'm donating. Goodwill will love me once I give the 500+ movies :p

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FINALLY, a Hong Kong release where they include all the movies! :lol: Well, ok, it’s just two movies, but VS’s new release of BLACK CAT I + II makes up for 88 Films’ greedy move of releasing only the first one a few years ago. This set, not surprisingly has an alternate mix of extras (single commentary by someone who’s not really a Hong Kong expert, new Jade Leung and Benz Kong interviews, other stuff), so I guess as always I need to keep both. Still, great to see anything HK-related that qualifies as a complete set.

Now I’ve just got to remond myself that I don’t really need to order it right now, even though using up points for it it so tempting. :lol:

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti.../black-cat-1-2

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Was just coming here to post about that. I've only seen the first one, and on laserdisc, but it's a fave. And yes, it IS a Hong Kong version of La Femme Nikita, no matter how much they're trying to say it's "different". But hey, it's a good story and they do a good job with it. I'm considering the pre-order too, B.

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All in all, it’s a pretty solid remake of NIKITA. The second one isn’t quite in the same league, but it’s still a really decent action picture that deserves to be paired with the original. It expands the scope considerably, and was filmed largely in English on a much larger budget as I recall. As it was made with international distribution in mind, it plays out on a larger geopolitical canvas (the actual title is BLACK CAT II: THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT YELTSIN; imagine a HK film trying that today with Xi’s buddy Putin!), which kinda put it in good company with Ringo Lam’s UNDECLARED WAR around the same time. Its climactic action sequence is lifted wholesale from James Glickenhaus’s awesome SHAKEDOWN, which is fine by me. It also had an ‘introducing’ credit for Robin Shou, even though he’d been around a few years already in Hong Kong pictures. I suspect that might have got him noticed for MORTAL KOMBAT a couple years later.

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I'm starting to lean in the more-likely-than-not with the Black Cat pre-order. It's listing at $50, but $32.99 with the pre. It'll probably never go for less than $25, and not until November at the earliest. Do I want to wait that long just to save another 8 bucks??

Re: The Official Vinegar Syndrome Thread
 

Stop tempting me, dammit! I’ve also got $10 in points from today’s order (which likewise used up $10 in points from yesterday’s order, and so on), so that would bring it down to $22.99. I know I’ll cave . . . :lol:

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I love that VS is getting more into Kung Fu movies. I did a blind buy on Undefeatable and that was a blast from start to finish.

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I've often said that my two favorite eras of film are the "grittiest" in cinema history: Movies set and filmed in NYC in the early-to-mid 70s, and Hong Kong films from the early 90s.

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Likewise, but I also love films set in L.A./California in the same era. You can just smell the piss on the streets from those days.

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Popped down to the Vinegar Syndrome store here today, my fourth visit since they opened. I was in there for a good couple of hours, touching everything aa usual, and noticed they’ve still got a steady stream of people coming in and making purchases, which is a really good sign for physical media. A lot of noobs came in too — it’s in a trendy neighbourhood — and at latest two different people asked “so, like, what are you guys?” after being overwhelmed by all the weird shit on the shelves. The owner and the other guy do a pretty good rundown for the uninitiated.

Normally I just browse quietly, and figure I’ll leave just as quietly, but then this is the kind of place where mentioning anything movie-related to the owner or staff instantly gets a decent conversation going. I said I’d been stocking up all week at the site sale, and so only really needed three used discs that I laid on the counter: the VS edition of DEAR DEAD DELILAH for $15, the Shameless yellow-case UK edition of FOUR FLIES ON BLACK VELVET for $20, and a TerrorVision double-feature set of SOV crap called VIDEO VIOLENCE for only $5.

So what’s he do? He pushes VIDEO VIOLENCE back, winces a bit (which I totally understood) and says “I’ll give you that one for free.” Then he marks down DELILAH to six bucks, and charges me sticker for FOUR FLIES. Very cool.

So we kept chatting and I’m asking a bunch of behind-the-scenes questions about VS, and the subject turns to the ANGEL movies perched on a shelf nearby. I bitched about missing out on the box set back in the day, thinking it would last until a sale and losing out when it didn’t. So he says he’s got some “misprinted” empty boxes in the storeroom, and kindly gives me one for free! The misprint is just a slight misalignment on the Angel title — on one side only — when you close the box. Now I just gotta wait for a sale on the single editions to fill it.

This place just gets cooler every time. :thumbsup: