Inhumans99

Ordered the In The Line Of Duty set from Amazon. Blind buys for me, but it sounds like I will really enjoy these films.

Brian T

In light of the announcement that the ITLOD set will have a 100-page booklet, this is probably a good opportunity to revisit something 'rocket1312' mentioned earlier about the writing in 88's books being hit and miss. Having read the books that accompanied the 88 Films boxed sets for ON THE RUN and RIGHTING WRONGS, I have to say that they really need to either get better and more experienced writers, or experienced print editors to vet the writers they do hire. The content of both books was clearly padded to fill a pre-determined page count so the booklet would fit comfortably beside a Blu-ray case inside a hard-shell box of pre-determinate size. The writer, Matthew Edwards, despite name-dropping various 'publications' in his bio, is a barely-average writer, technically speaking. The text in at least one essay (can't remember which) is essentially an endless synopsis with fawning fist-pumps for every fight scene. Actually, maybe both were like that, can't remember. Grammatical errors were noticeable throughout. In the interviews, the quotes from the subjects are usually presented like 'pull-quotes', but that's more of a visual design thing than an editorial thing. The index page for the ON THE RUN book lists interviews with "actor Albert Cheung" and "director Pat Ha". And no one caught that in the proofing stage? In comparison, the book that accompanies Vinegar Syndrome's limited edition of RIGHTING WRONGS has three essays by people with extensive knowledge of not just the film, but also the industry and culture that produced it circa 1986, so their essays aren't just barely-disguised, internet-worthy reviews but actual explorations of the bigger picture, and detail-rich. They also have writing skills (and probably training) outside of reviews or Hong Kong fandom, especially Grady Hendrix. The only beef I have with the VS book is that two of the writers are uncredited on the title pages of their own essays, including Hendrix. If you know his writing style, you can sort it out pretty quick, but it's a sloppy oversight. Nonetheless, I've seen more criticisms overall of 88's books, so hopefully they'll take that to heart with such a large piece for the ITLOD box. Fingers crossed.

DJariya

I just saw the In the Line of Duty box set is $80.

Seems like a good set of these classic 80s HK police movies. But, it's still over 5 months away. I'm interested, but I don't think I want to pre-order this early.

Inhumans99

So I was checking on my Amazon preorder of the ITLOD set, and sure enough my purchase price has already been adjusted to reflect the lower price, but the real shocker is that I glimpsed a listing for a 4K edition of Dragonslayer coming out in a few months.

Holy carp, Dragonslayer is a long overdue film to get the HD treatment.

Anyway, I have derailed the thread enough and will stop now.

Brian T

$61.99 at Grindhouse Video. They do charge shipping – $5.73 for me (not sure if it varies by state), so $67.72 total. However, they do offer free shipping over $100, so I'm debating adding a few 'needs' from the Synapse sale (which I missed at MVD) to get me there. The only drawback is pre-orders can't be canceled like at Amazon, but if Amazon doesn't match this price, well . . . tough call.
https://grindhousevideo.com/products...dition-blu-ray

$64.99 at Diabolik. $5.00 flat rate shipping. No free shipping as far as I know (tested two of these in my cart and still $5.00)
https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/...-ray-preorder/

RocShemp

Are Supercop and Dragons Forever ever gonna be released? It seems every time Amazon sends me an update on either of them is to say the release date has been pushed back.

dex14

The dates moved up to next Tuesday again.

Brian T

I've gotten multiple 'delivery estimate' updates for both of those, plus GORGEOUS and MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS. Wonder what the deal is -- issues with 88's supply chain?

rocket1312

I know they mentioned in the past that they underestimated the lead time needed for UHD replication. With fewer and fewer manufacturing facilities devoted to physical media, I think it's becoming more and more competitive to get factory time. No idea if this is the case here, or if it applies to standard Blu-rays as well, but I assume it does.

LorenzoL

Amazon Canada has Dragon Forever for next week, January 10th. Supercop for March 14th and Gorgeous for March 28th.

RocShemp

Here's hoping those are the final dates. I've been looking forward to revisiting them.

I know we're getting closer to the sad day when physical media dies, but when that day comes, I hope we get more services like Kaleidescape (no matter how unlikely/impossible that may seem), since they are the only suitable replacement in terms of quality. Even the best of streaming isn't good enough. And I'd rather own what I pay for.

Brian T

Amazon US now has all four titles releasing January 10 (Blu-ray editions in my case). It's like whack-a-mole with these release dates. While it would be great to have all four (finally) ship at the same time, I probably shouldn't hold my breath as the estimated ship dates on my actual orders are still all over the map.

flansered

I received my copy of Dragons Forever earlier today. I wasn't expecting it to be in a slipbox like Arrow usually does, but it is a nice set. I am hoping Magnificent Warriors will be shipping soon since I have seen pictures of people posting their copies of it, but Amazon is saying my copy will arrive Jan 25-26 with a release date of Feb 21, so it's up in the air.

ETA - Just got an email from Amazon pushing MW back to Feb 24, which I kind of figured would happen.

Brian T

I got three 'delivery estimate updates' this morning for MAGNIFICENT WARRIORS, GORGEOUS and POLICE STORY 3, all more or less in the same ballpark they've been in for ages now. Guess the mystery Jan. 10 release date for those plus DRAGONS was just wishful thinking.

Regarding the slipbox on DRAGONS, for months the only promotional image that showed a hard box seemed to be for the 4K set, which made me think only that came with the box, book, etc. So I held off ordering the Blu-ray edition until I knew for sure it was in a similar case. Saw that edition on a shelf in a mall movie store in London (Ontario, during a road trip) about two weeks ago -- way early -- and saw the box first hand, which prompted me to order it when I got home. When I googled the sets, I only found one image showing both boxes. Made me wonder if Arrow was deliberately trying to move people toward the 4K box.

I'm assuming Arrow's Blu-ray edition of POLICE STORY 3 will also be in a hard box like the 4K counterpart favoured in promo pics. Don't know about the other two, but I doubt they warrant the treatment.

DJariya

Was Supercop 4K delayed? The listing says out of stock on Amazon, but the 88 films site says it's coming soon. Amazon initially listed it as coming out this month. It's a little expensive at $30, but just curious if anyone ordered it.

dex14

March 14th is the current date. They could move it up again if their production issues get worked out.

RocShemp

Supposedly my copy of Dragons Forever is arriving on Thursday. After all this waiting, I hope the movie lives up to my warm fuzzy memories.

dex14

Some teases for 2023... Magic Crystal and also Dragon Fist and To Kill With Intrigue re-releases.

I also got my Dragons Forever UHD. It looks great.

RocShemp

Amazon just emailed me an update on the release date of Supercop, stating
​​​​​

DJariya

It was postponed until March 14th as dex said above.

RocShemp

Given the email from Amazon, I thought that date had been changed as well.

RocShemp

Just got another update from Amazon, regarding Supercop.

EDIT: My copy of Dragons Forever arrived today.

dex14

rocket1312

So with the Dragon Fist and To Kill with Intrigue teases, that's all of 88's early Jackie titles that needed do-overs, right? So glad I avoided those at the time.

Now we just need proper releases of Magnificent Bodyguards, Island of Fire, Twin Dragons, Thunderbolt, First Strike and Who Am I to complete Jackie's entire pre-Hollywood star period. I never thought I'd see the day. (I know there's a few random oddities sprinkled in there like Fantasy Mission Force and Fearless Hyena 2, but I'm not going to hold my breath).

dex14

I think the oddities you mentioned like Fantasy Mission Force and Fearless Hyena 2 are more likely from the boutique labels.

Thunderbolt and First Strike are with Warner... so we need to hope WB Archive will do it. And throw in an uncut Rumble in the Bronx while they're at it. But their release of DMII isn't as good as it could've been.

Who Am I? seems to be in some weird limbo where nobody knows who owns the rights. WB says its not them and some have said Sony doesn't anymore either. So who knows... I'd like to have a nice edition of that.