Scream Factory Blu-ray Discussion Thread

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by crikan

Where do you see that? Is there a code? TIA

When you find a movie that's being sold by them there will be a comment inside the listing like... "Buy 4 or more movies to get Free Shipping/15% off/20% off etc. They almost always have some sort of deal like that going on ebay. Just search for some movies you are interested in and if one is being sold by blowitouttahere it will most likely have some sort of offer near the item picture inside the listing.

To get the deal I believe you just add all 4 items to your cart and it automatically applies.

[JasonMichael]

Originally Posted by ravenus

The other day I saw Shout's blu-ray of Murder by Death, the 1976 spoof on the classic archetype sleuth stories / films. Written by Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys), the sleuths of MbD - barely veiled variations on the famous fictional detectives including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Nick and Nora Charles (from The Thin Man series), Charlie Chan and Sam Spade - are "cordially invited to a dinner and a murder". They congregate at a remotely located mansion where they are greeted by a blind butler (and there's a deaf-mute cook too, and as you may well guess, the combination makes for some peculiar circumstances). These parts are played by a bevy of stars including Alec Guinness (irrepressible as the blind butler), David Niven, Maggie Smith, Peter Falk and, yes folks, Peter Sellers caricaturing to the hilt as the Charlie Chan character.
After assorted bits of comedy for the introduction and settling down of each sleuth party in their strange host's home they settle down to dinner, during which, in a nod to Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians / And Then There Were None, the host makes his appearance in the flamboyant form of Truman Capote and challenges each of them with the prize of a million dollars to solve by dawn a murder that is to occur at midnight (and I'm not sure he didn't say In Cold Blood), while failure will mean the loss of their reputations.

MbD is a no-holds-barred farce on the stereotype rigmarole of the whodunit. It has interesting elements, like the culture clash between the genteel fastidious sort of detective that Christie created and the hardboiled gumshoe dick. Some of the comedy like the scenes played between the blind butler and the deaf-mute cook for the dinner party is priceless. But given the premise and the starcast I expected greater sparkle. Beyond the introduction of the different sleuths, there is not as much fun from their interaction in the screenplay. And Peter Sellers' Oriental detective is problematic. I wouldn't have minded the racial stereotype so much (apparently Sellers had deliberately heightened the caricature to draw attention to the silliness of white people playing non-white roles) if it was actually funny, but most of it is just awkward. And while one understands that the script aims to poke fun at the ludicrousness one comes across in the denouement of many suspense stories, MbD's climax feels cloyingly overdone. I expected a comfortably funny film spoofing my favorite genre, but I doubt I will be revisiting this film too often.

Shout's blu-ray features a decent transfer although the image is not free of age-related damage and the compression (especially in the scenes of fog) is a little suspect. The lossless mono audio is fine within limitations, with a decent boost to the music. Extras include an okey-dokey short interview with Neil Simon (in which he mostly seems to describe specific scenes of the film) an audio commentary by a Mr. Gambin (who seems to refer to everybody as incredible and makes such wincing gaffes that I turned it off after a while).

The best thing about the movie is Charles Addams's incredible poster art which Shout used for the cover. It serves to illustrate how awful most of their newly commissioned covers are.

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

When you find a movie that's being sold by them there will be a comment inside the listing like... "Buy 4 or more movies to get Free Shipping/15% off/20% off etc. They almost always have some sort of deal like that going on ebay. Just search for some movies you are interested in and if one is being sold by blowitouttahere it will most likely have some sort of offer near the item picture inside the listing.

To get the deal I believe you just add all 4 items to your cart and it automatically applies.

Thanks HBK. Yeah, on the top of the listing, it will tell you if it qualifies for the discount. You can click on a link that takes you to all the titles included. I sort by horror and basically all the SF releases come up. You can also search by title too. It's super easy and a great deal when Ebay offers that additional 15-20% off.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by jcs913

Thanks HBK. Yeah, on the top of the listing, it will tell you if it qualifies for the discount. You can click on a link that takes you to all the titles included. I sort by horror and basically all the SF releases come up. You can also search by title too. It's super easy and a great deal when Ebay offers that additional 15-20% off.

I'd never considered stacking them like that when an e-bay code comes along, I'll have to remember that the next time one is available to see how some of the older releases stack up. I also have a lengthy list of Vinegar Syndrome titles to catch up on and that sounds like this would be a possible solution to that as well.

[starsteam]

Is anybody else getting fed up with Amazon's new coupon system lately? I noticed a few of the Scream titles I had on pre-order now have 5% coupons you can attach. In the case of a title like Screamers, it's still the same price as when I pre-ordered so I can reorder it and save a little money with the coupon. But something like Cobra and 10 to Midnight has since gone up in price since I pre-ordered it.

Long story short, I didn't add it up correctly and ended up canceling and re-ordering Cobra and now will be paying 80 cents more despite using the coupon. These coupons are pointless because the only requirement to use them is to buy the item. Plus having to cancel and reorder just to get to use the coupon is annoying. It would so much more convenient if Amazon would just drop the price by 5% instead of making customers click on some coupon option.

[jcole8882]

Still nothing yet for april?? O.o they normally have it almost done by now.. cuz next Monday is the 7th.. and that's late for announcements..

[jcs913]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'd never considered stacking them like that when an e-bay code comes along, I'll have to remember that the next time one is available to see how some of the older releases stack up. I also have a lengthy list of Vinegar Syndrome titles to catch up on and that sounds like this would be a possible solution to that as well.

Yeah, it is deep discount, so basically what their site has, is usually in the sale. Granted, the newest releases may not be, but month or 2 older releases are. I am getting Criterion releases for $16 or so (waiting for Shampoo, which I paid $15.80 or so) and the SF prices are always below $20. I don't usually get the VS titles, as if I want one, I want their beautiful slip with it and no one else has those but their own site, or Diabolik. I am quite certain if you stack both deals, you can get VS titles at, near or below $15 each.

[TripleHBK]

Originally Posted by jcole8882

Still nothing yet for april?? O.o they normally have it almost done by now.. cuz next Monday is the 7th.. and that's late for announcements..

The folks at Scream Factory didn't return to the office until yesterday. I imagine they have quite the stack of e-mails and other affairs to sort through. I wouldn't be shocked to see an announcement tomorrow, but my guess is that each day next week we'll see new announcements and final specs revealed for already announced titles.

[bb8977]

Originally Posted by jcole8882

Still nothing yet for april?? O.o they normally have it almost done by now.. cuz next Monday is the 7th.. and that's late for announcements..

At this point I assume they'll start revealing titles tomorrow and throughout next week.

[NeMo_ET]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

The folks at Scream Factory didn't return to the office until yesterday. I imagine they have quite the stack of e-mails and other affairs to sort through. I wouldn't be shocked to see an announcement tomorrow, but my guess is that each day next week we'll see new announcements and final specs revealed for already announced titles.

They started posting stuff yesterday on instagram and the caption started with "and we're back". The post was for the Shout Select release of Brighton Beach. 19hrs ago was When Harry Met Sally and 1hr ago was The Witches. So I think you're on the right track here.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by schwano

I just want my order for in-stock and available items from over a week ago to ship.

I placed an order of 23 titles (yes, 23 ) on Monday. I just got a shipping notice for 7 of them. So I guess they are having stock issues.

[Jobla]

My preorder of OBSESSION now has a USPS tracking number assigned to it.

[DenOfEarth]

Come on, announce something tomorrow.

[darkness2918]

Got Robocop 2 in today from Amazon with a slip in case anyone was curious.

[RyGuy1496]

Man I wonder what the chances are of Shout! or Scream Factory ever tackling a release of Mars Attacks!

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by RyGuy1496

Man I wonder what the chances are of Shout! or Scream Factory ever tackling a release of Mars Attacks!

Or even Arrow. The film is uneven (and runs a little long), but it's good moments are memorable, and it certainly calls for a retrospective look back with the people that worked on it.

[NeMo_ET]

I haven't seen Mars Attacks since I was about 8yrs old in the theater when it first came out lol! I remember loving it back then but it was also more "adult" than a lot of the stuff I had seen at the time. I should really revisit it. Is the current release OOP or something? Why would we want Shout to touch this one? I'm guessing the star and director lineup wouldn't provide us with much in the interviews department.

[mparisi]

Picked up a copy of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978) last week when it dipped to ~$17 on Amazon and to my surprise it had a slip!

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by NeMo_ET

Why would we want Shout to touch this one? I'm guessing the star and director lineup wouldn't provide us with much in the interviews department.

With that many actors, Shout could surely get *somebody* to talk about it.

[RedHarvest]

Wish Scream Factory would announce something big to renew my interest with them.