E Unit

Funny how Cloak & Dagger sold for ridiculous prices on EBay. Tad bit of patience and they didn’t have to, and VS now has their regular stuff back including this movie which still have over 1000 copies available.

dsa_shea

Jack Be Nimble slipcover is already sold out and the standard version is heading that way. However, after initially considering a blind purchase, I remembered to not fall into the trap of a quick sale. I looked at the screencaps and couldn't help but think that the male character is some weird amalgamation of Ben Stiller's Zoolander character and Jerry Seinfeld.

OldBoy

one i saw went for $100. many around $70-80. that's cuckoo talk.

Brian T

Likewise impressed with the extras on RIGHTING WRONGS. The 88 Films version looks tempting, but until I know what's on it I'd prefer to stick with the North American release. Really hoping they don't sucker me into getting both.

I likewise owned the LD of BEST OF THE MARTIAL ARTS FILMS. Fantastic overview for its time, especially for 'introducing' top HK action stars other than Bruce and Jackie, who was in it a bit too much, frankly (along with the China O'Brien clippage). Transferred it to a DVD-R in early era of DVD in order to unload it, but have always hoped it would resurface some day.

The price increases frustrating but not surprising. Like everything, printing costs have gone up considerably in the last year, along with ongoing scarcities of certain paper stocks at any given time, and surely these affect the boutique Blu-ray labels as well thanks to their excessive packaging, and only enhance my weariness with them for routinely trying to convince us that every margin-dwelling B-movie is somehow an undiscovered and important cultural artifact because hey slipcovers and boxes and posters!

Thus I feel like there's at least some truth to the 'bleeding a few more dollars' line of thought. We've never really needed spot-laminated hard-shell boxes, soft-touch slipcovers with newly-commissioned artwork, lobby card repros, single- and double-sided mini-posters, stickers and perfect bound books (the contents of which could just as easily be organized into text essays and still galleries on the discs). The boutiques have fostered a culture FOMO addicts, and surely part of their m.o. really has become about bleeding a few more dollars from loyal customers, especially newer and/or younger customers who can be easily convinced of the "importance" of just about any film based on how much "cool" packaging surrounds it. And now with the drastic increase in printing costs of this largely unnecessary bumpf, they're forced to pass the cost on to us. Sure, we can wait for the standard editions down the road (assuming they release them) – and those are often good enough considering the disc-bound supplements they dig up or create from scratch. But you just know if you want a truly complete package, you pretty much have to pony up early and dig deep.

- - -

EDIT: just saw the trailer for 88 Films RIGHTING WRONGS in that thread and it does seem like there will be differences. They mention 'rare alternative media' but don't specify what that is, so I guess we have to wait and see whether VS has the same stuff. 88's 'new' cuts and ending "randomizer" sound pretty silly, but I suppose they might give viewers an idea of just how compromised many HK films were for other markets.

Paff

Quoting for truth. While VS has indeed uncovered some hidden gems over the years (I'll pimp the hell out of the amazing Deadline anytime and anywhere), there's a lot of cheap straight-to-video shlock that went straight-to-video for a damn good reason. Over the long weekend I watched Walking the Edge (technically a Fun City release, not VS) and it was a generic Regular Guy-takes-on-the-criminals entry, only moderately watchable because of a strong outing from Robert Forster. But everyone else phones it in. Had this been a Netflix rental, I'd give it 2-and-a-half stars and probably never watch it again.

Bluelitespecial

I have a confession. I've had the Drafthouse bluray Miami Connection in my collection for years and I never watched it the whole way through until this past weekend. Now I can't stop watching it and just bought the VS release last night. This movie is on the same level of greatness as Road House and Stone Cold.

Bluelitespecial

I finally got my shipping notice for Righting Wrongs and Miami Connection!! I hope I'll get my order by early next week.

Toddarino

Saturday I did a triple feature with some friends of mine. Miami Connection, New York Ninja and No Retreat No Surrender.
MC was great as always. It was their first time watching.
NYN was a bit of a letdown, but still enjoyable. I can’t wait to watch the bonus stuff.
NRNS was pretty bad. Like barely good bad. We laughed a few times, but it won’t be rewatched anytime soon.

Brian T

Just avoid the commentary. Easily one of the worst of all time, and I say that as an avid, borderline-compulsive, listener of commentaries. The director should never have been allowed to do it solo. He's all over the place from beginning to end, barely finishing thoughts let alone sentences. I finished it (playing in the background), but you'll learn a lot more in the interviews and docs.

Paff

I could never do a triple feature like that. I'm okay with the occasional bit of cheese here and there, been to some midnight screenings of The Room, but 4-5 hours of that would just kill me. I'd need a good movie dropped in at some point.

Bluelitespecial

Well I got my copy of Miami Connection and Righting Wrongs. The Improved picture on Miami Connection is great but I didn't like they left off the Manson International Logo at the beginning. The alternate cut features all the deleted scenes from the Drafthouse bluray but the downer of an ending just doesn't work for the tone of the movie and you can see why it was replaced. I haven't gotten very far watching the Righting Wrongs set but started to watch the Best of Martial Arts documentary and can see why its praised here because its very good. The August releases from Vinegar Syndrome are announced tomorrow at Noon Eastern Time.

Adam Tyner

The new Forgotten Gialli set looks fantastic. I'll get an order in if it looks like it'll run out before the September titles go up. Faults is a possibility. There's a time when I would've been more excited about The Incredible Melting Man getting the UHD treatment, but...eh. Maybe during the next sale, but probably not.

I missed that there'll be a Paul Naschy film in UHD in October! That's pretty exciting, especially since it'll apparently be one of at least four UHD releases from VS that month (Texas Chainsaw Massacre II being another).

Brian T

Ditto this. Shout's Blu-ray was fine. I've said elsewhere that these labels are just gouging now, slathering on faux 'cultural significance' to films that really aren't that important. I guess they think they have to do something to justify re-issuing stuff -- previous versions simply being OOP isn't enough -- so out comes the 4K disc and a slightly more in-depth interview. I've always had a, cough, soft spot for MELTING MAN, but with a list price of $53 that means even in a half-price sale it would still be $26.50. Bit steep.

The FORGOTTEN GIALLI set does look interesting, but then I said that about the first two (three?) when I picked them up (all in sales, thankfully) and so far those haven't exactly been loaded with keepers. Still interesting to see them, albeit not at full price, and considering the Italians cranked out these things with abandon back then, we're sure to get many more boxes to come, whether or not the films are worthy. Kinda glad these three don't have commentaries, but instead opt for interviews and audio essays. I find the latter are often good enough at encompassing all the points one could glean from a full commentary by the same people.

Had to snicker at the copy calling BIRDS II "notorious" and a "jaw dropping animal attack spectacle". Not how I recall it. Who writes this stuff? The "Don't Remake Hitchcock Movies" featurette sounds intriguing, though!

Adam Tyner

It seems like the pattern in the first three sets was one movie I really like, one that's pretty alright, and one that's why-did-I-do-this-to-myself painful. Nothing in volume 4 worked for me, and the higher price point definitely stings as well.

I'm not familiar with any of the movies in vol. 5, but the giallo crowd seems to be pretty excited about these choices -- more than any other volume to date -- so I'm hopeful.

Paff

I'm sure you'll be able to wait for Forgotten Gialli 5 to go to the half price sale (where it will still be damn expensive). Vols 3 and 4 are still at over 1000 on the limited edition box, and it's been over a year since release. Well, Volume 3 at least, but you know what I mean.

Adam Tyner

I haven't really looked at this before, but vol. 5 is listed as being a limited edition of 6,000 copies, but the inventory (if you look at the HTML source code) says there are 6,335 copies remaining, and that's beyond any orders that've already been made, copies set aside for subscribers, etc.

Waiting for a sale probably makes sense, especially since this one isn't moving all that quickly so far. Will I do something that makes sense, though? Jury's out.

Bluelitespecial

It looks like there's another sale coming up.

Adam Tyner

...though the wording makes it sound like these might be movies that are on the verge of being remastered and reissued, so better versions might be on the way soon.

Toddarino

There’s two new partner releases I wanna grab. I’ve had a number of whiskies. I better go to bed before I add Cloak & Dagger for free shipping.

E Unit

Yeah, throw Cloak & Dagger into that cart, then go to bed.

E Unit

Ooh, I have 3 items in my cart. Might as well wait until then to buy.

Bluelitespecial

I don't think Cloak and Dagger would be on sale yet as it's still a newer release. I was planning to make a VS purchase this month and I'm definitely waiting for the sale.

Adam Tyner

Vinegar Syndrome on the October release slate:

OldBoy

is there a 90min documentary narrated by John Saxon with the Righting Wrongs set? i saw a review that says it's there, but in the extras section it's not listed. thanks in advance.

dex14

"THE BEST OF MARTIAL ARTS FILMS (1990)" (91min) - feature-length documentary hosted by John Saxon and including footage and interviews with Cynthia Rothrock, Yuen Biao, Karen Sheperd, Jackie Chan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bruce Lee and many more!
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...ighting-wrongs