Rant- SPECIAL EDITION

So I'm in this record store, trading CDs and looking to pick some stuff up. I come across a Rocky DVD- cool, I love this movie- but wait, it's $30. Why so much? Because it's the SPECIAL EDITION, with 2 DVDs!

Is it me or is it silly to pay that much for Sylvester Stallone mumbling and punching? And, for what, a bonus disc where they talk about how great everyone was to work with, blah blah blah? Please. Even if someone actually does watch that, are you ever going to watch it more than once? zzzzzz

Then I came across a $40 version of the original Dawn of the Dead movie. 4 DVDs! featuring three different cuts of the film. Cripes. This is actually one of my favorite flicks ever (seriously) but my god, $40! I make a decent living but I can't justify paying that much for zombies.
(I did find a cheaper DVD of the film in the used bin, but it's probably not anamorphic or anything. It was, however, $9.99).

The other "cheap" (read: not prohibitively expensive) DVD I picked up is American Psycho. I guess since this movie isn't that popular, they didn't feel a super-expensive multi-disc special edition was warranted.

I wish I can just walk into a store and buy DVD and just the get movie in decent quality and that's it. The overwhelmingly vast majority of DVD special features are useless. Maybe they should consider putting some of that stuff on web sites, or having interested customers ordering bonus discs or something. Or offer two versions in the store. Yes, a lot of movies do have multiple versions, but usually the bare-bones version has an inferior transfer and is older, so not anamorphic.

Sure I do internet shopping, but stores exist and I like to use them, and browse, especially in record stores.

And this isn't just limited to movies. I wanted to pick up Motorhead's classic Ace of Spades on CD. This is a near 30-yr old 40 minute metal album, and should not cost more than $10, if even. Nope- $22, with bonus disc. Yippee, demos- who gives a crap?

Even new music comes with expensive gimmicks- bonus DVDs, CD-ROM crap, DualDisk, blah blah- nobody uses that stuff.

No wonder people pirate media.

That is quite ridiculous. And yea, I haven't even seen all of the (or most of the) special features on the B5 dics.

I never got around to buying season 5, so I ordered it recently. I was just glad the entire season was only about $37.00

My guess is that they are just really counting on kids or young adults with some cash to spend this summer will fall for such prices on such old movies.

$37 for an entire season of television is very reasonable. That it's only a bit cheaper for a 30-yr old movie is insane.

Oh, speaking of TV shows on DVD, here's another thing that royally pissed me off (that's right, folks, the hits just keep on comin'):

I'm a big fan of the Office- both versions. A few weeks ago I picked up series one of the UK version on DVD. But yesterday in the store, I saw some box set of the whole series plus something called a "full length" feature.

Is there anyone who would only want just series 1 (of 2)? I bought it assuming that that's just the way they come and I get series 2 (the funnier one) later. Either way, with only 6 episodes per series, why is series 1 even sold by itself? Oh, I know, for idiots like me who are probably just gonna sell it or give it away and plop down more money for the complete set.

And of course I'm afraid to buy the U.S. season because you know there's just gonna be some other box set with everything (though at least an American season is much longer, so seperate season sets make more sense).

Sony would release "Superbit" versions of many of their big movies. Other studios don't do this enough. Superbit had all of the extras and crap complete stripped out, and the ENTIRE 8.1GB of DVD space was used for DTS surround sound and the highest possible picture quality. YES, you can tell a difference.

They were reasonably priced too. Usually between $20 and $25. Some you could even find for $15. I always looked for Superbit before any other version of a movie and would buy those.

I wish all the other studios out there did something similar. That is the only way to watch DVDs.

Yeah I remember Superbit- do they even still make those?

$20-$25 is better than the double disc things, but it's still more than one should pay if they just want a solid anamorphic copy of the film.

I did buy 2-disc special edition DVD- The 40 Yr Old Virgin. "Only" $20. But man does that flick make me laugh.

What pisses me off about special editions is that for some movies, you can only find the special edition when you really just want the theatrical version. At least, this is my case in stores. I wanted to buy Last of the Mohicans, but could only find the extended version / special edition. I'd love to see the extended version once, but honestly? I think most versions of movies that are extended, with extra scenes are severely bogged down by the added material. There's a reason this stuff ends up on the cutting room floor. The only exceptions I can think of are the LOTR series and maybe a few cult classics like Bladerunner and/or Highlander.

But, for the most part, I just want the version I saw in the theater. If these special editions come with both versions (theatrical AND added scenes) and gave me the choice which one to watch, that would be idea, but many don't.

FRUSTRATING!

I have no time at all to watch special editions, after Lord of the Rings, it all got a bit silly.

Alluveal, you're talking about director's cuts- which I agree are usually pointless (though there are some exceptions as you noted).

The "cut" refers to the film, and the "edition," as I understand the marketing, is the DVD itself, ie, bonus features like documentaries and so forth.

In general, yes- scenes are cut for a reason.
I will note one huge exception- the end of the Abyss. In the theatrical cut, you never actually understand why the aliens want to destroy the earth in the first place. With the inclusion of a very cheesy sequence in the director's cut, you at least learn that.

CDs with bonus songs are also usually silly. An album came out on vinyl so it's only 40 minutes. But they want to charge the same price as a new CD with twice as much music, so they pad it with live tracks and demos. Blech.

Again, of course there are exceptions- like singles that weren't on the album, that can be cool. But otherwise let me pay $9.99.

GKarsEye said:

Oh, speaking of TV shows on DVD, here's another thing that royally pissed me off (that's right, folks, the hits just keep on comin'):

I'm a big fan of the Office- both versions. A few weeks ago I picked up series one of the UK version on DVD. But yesterday in the store, I saw some box set of the whole series plus something called a "full length" feature.

Is there anyone who would only want just series 1 (of 2)? I bought it assuming that that's just the way they come and I get series 2 (the funnier one) later. Either way, with only 6 episodes per series, why is series 1 even sold by itself? Oh, I know, for idiots like me who are probably just gonna sell it or give it away and plop down more money for the complete set.

And of course I'm afraid to buy the U.S. season because you know there's just gonna be some other box set with everything (though at least an American season is much longer, so seperate season sets make more sense).

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I don't think in this particular case that it is a marketing conspiracy. I think this comes down to the British always paying more for less. In the UK 6 episodes is often considered a full series.... which is really bad. We get sold short on everything.

Anyway, in the UK both series and the Christmas special parts 1 & 2 are available both separately and as a box set. Is it just a case of the separate series not having been made available yet?

Heck I'm still waiting for a region 2 release of Into the West, something like a 9 months after it was first shown in the UK, and I think it had already beenm in circulation as a region 1 dvd at that point.

Side comment here: I'm still waiting for a Region 1 version of "Blake's 7".

I guess at this late date they are unlikely ever to market one.

i can't believe the sort of prices you guys are paying, the last time i paid a fortune for a movie was at a movie fair, a guy was selling *cough* illegal *cough* copies of Alexander Nevsky, but he had taken them off of VHS and then cleaned them up to cinema quality, i bought it because when i did it didn't have a DVD release and i'm not sure it does yet either, though i would totally pick it up tomorrow if it did. and that admittedly was £20 ($40) but normally i pay no more than £6-£7 for legal copies, HMV rules.

hypatia said:

Side comment here: I'm still waiting for a Region 1 version of "Blake's 7".

I guess at this late date they are unlikely ever to market one.

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Ditto, I just mentioned this yesterday in another thread, I believe.

hypatia said:

Side comment here: I'm still waiting for a Region 1 version of "Blake's 7".

I guess at this late date they are unlikely ever to market one.

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The writers of Life on Mars hinted once that they wanted to have a crack at a reimagining of B7. I think RTD may also have expressed an interest.

If that is true, the original series would probably be released just prior to that... in order to raise awareness... or just after to cash in.

Hmm, possibly. But it was never popular here like it was in the U.K. so who is to say if they'll think much about our market.

I'll also make sure the dvd player I buy will be one that you can set to region-free.

I think your best chance of Blakes 7 is to find someone with the few videos available and brand them,this will never be released again.

You can find series 1 on youtube at the momemt and I bet no effort is made to take it down.It's the same sort of crappy quality

Now extras with music CD's I like

Live,remixes,demos or "unreleased tracks" I love them all.

I don't find cd's anywhere near as collectable as records though.

As soon as the latest Rocky movie is gone,the original will cost bugger all.Stick there marketing up there arse and refuse to buy.They have made their money and should stop taking the piss.

Some Directors cuts like Blade Runner and are worth watching if I would buy before the original but they are satuarating the market with this now.

Yes the British are ripped off too on the prices of lots of things.However I have seen where it was cheaper than Holland and that was video games.

40 quid for football manger or 70 euros.The exchange would make it 40/60.

If,like in Star Trek,everything was free we would be a lot happier

Hey are laptop dvd players multi region?

That might solve my into the west prob!

Galahad said:

Hey are laptop dvd players multi region?

That might solve my into the west prob!

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Oh, god, that never even occured to me. If true, it might solve my Blake's Seven problem.

Thanks for mentioning that.

Galahad said:

Hey are laptop dvd players multi region?

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Mine is but you have to enter an unlocking code.

hypatia said:

Oh, god, that never even occured to me. If true, it might solve my Blake's Seven problem.

Thanks for mentioning that.

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Toshiba makes a DVD player that cost about $40, that will play PAL, and convert it to NTSC. Also, just by entering a code with the remote, you can make it region-free. They were available at many stores last year, probably still are. I have one, and it works fine. If you are interested, I'll post the details, or I could PM you, but it wouldn't be until next Saturday, as I'll be off until then, after tonight.