The Official Arrow Video Thread

[JimDiGriz]

Extras on Pit and the Pendulum are well worth watching if you get the chance. The new documentary is a very good watch and Corman's commentary is interesting too.

[edcresdee]

some decent prices at Zavvi at the moment

Rififi - £7.99 - http://www.zavvi.com/blu-ray/rififi/10386852.html

Invasion of the Body Snatchers - £7.99 - http://www.zavvi.com/blu-ray/invasio.../10856398.html

Samsara/Baraka - £8.99 - http://www.zavvi.com/blu-ray/samsara.../10638477.html

[paulboland]

http://www.zavvi.com/blu-ray/black-s...chcurrency=GBP



http://www.zavvi.com/offers/arrow-sh...chcurrency=GBP

[fuzzymctiger]

Got the last 6 Arrow steelbooks for my birthday a couple of days ago and watched them all

White of the Eye had a great premise and a very flat ending. Fantastic execution though. Top transfer, very interesting grain, would love to know the origin of that. But overall, very impressive visual and audio.

Phantom of the Paradise was a fun fun movie which I loved more than I expected. The transfer was really good, even if the Swan changes were glaringly obvious. Colours were extremely vibrant, and I think the colour changes do work with the film. Great extras too. Audio I can't comment on, as I had headphone issues whilst watching the film

Big Trouble in Little China is a riot. 10/10 audio and video. Highly reccomended

Ditto for Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Amazingly unsettling film, with superb audio design.

Theatre of Blood was very entertaining, was hysterics multiple times because of how twisted it was. Transfer was fairly good. Audio was a bit muffled, which I expect was due to source.

Now Pit & The Pendulum. I'm guessing the blame here is on MGM not Arrow, but what happened. A very organic transfer, sometimes too organic, with lots of little scratches and damage, strange black levels at some points, and little hisses and pops in the audio. Most annoying was what appeared to me to be Edge Enhancement throughout a lot of the movie on people. Not sure if it was or wasn't, but it was distracting.


Look forward to watching the Beast Within, and recieving Phibes and Porky

[crazybeats]

Zavvi selling blu rays as low as £4.99? They really are the cheapest place to get stuff. Even Texas Chainsaw 2 is still £12.99. It just shows you the profit margins on all these film companies. They make plenty of money but thank goodness we still have this big retailers around to give us good prices.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by fuzzymctiger

Got the last 6 Arrow steelbooks for my birthday a couple of days ago and watched them all

White of the Eye had a great premise and a very flat ending. Fantastic execution though. Top transfer, very interesting grain, would love to know the origin of that. But overall, very impressive visual and audio.

Phantom of the Paradise was a fun fun movie which I loved more than I expected. The transfer was really good, even if the Swan changes were glaringly obvious. Colours were extremely vibrant, and I think the colour changes do work with the film. Great extras too. Audio I can't comment on, as I had headphone issues whilst watching the film

Big Trouble in Little China is a riot. 10/10 audio and video. Highly reccomended

Ditto for Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Amazingly unsettling film, with superb audio design.

Theatre of Blood was very entertaining, was hysterics multiple times because of how twisted it was. Transfer was fairly good. Audio was a bit muffled, which I expect was due to source.

Now Pit & The Pendulum. I'm guessing the blame here is on MGM not Arrow, but what happened. A very organic transfer, sometimes too organic, with lots of little scratches and damage, strange black levels at some points, and little hisses and pops in the audio. Most annoying was what appeared to me to be Edge Enhancement throughout a lot of the movie on people. Not sure if it was or wasn't, but it was distracting.


Look forward to watching the Beast Within, and recieving Phibes and Porky

You think Theatre transfer was better than Pit?! Not for me it wasnt. Pit is also quite easily the oldest film amongst those above too dont forget - 1961 (on a very tight budget!).

[anephric]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

Zavvi selling blu rays as low as £4.99? They really are the cheapest place to get stuff. Even Texas Chainsaw 2 is still £12.99. It just shows you the profit margins on all these film companies. They make plenty of money but thank goodness we still have this big retailers around to give us good prices.

Actually, especially for smaller/boutique labels like Arrow, if you don't buy something when it's released at something like the RRP, they hardly make any money at all. By the time it's in the bargain bins/sales, there's little profit to be made. Even for the majors, there's not much money to be made when Zavvi are shifting stuff for near enough pennies, even with their economies of scale/long-tail sales model etc.

[Marv Inc.]

Remo Williams Specs,

Synopsis: First they faked his death and gave him a new identity. Now a top secret organisation is training a former New York cop to combat corrupt forces operating outside of the law. His mentor, Chiun, is an ageing Korean master of the martial arts who can run on water and dodge speeding bullets.
Born on the pages of Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s The Destroyer series of men’s adventure novels, Remo Williams was placed in the capable hands of Bond director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, The Man with the Golden Gun) for his big-screen outing. Fred Ward (Tremors) plays the trainee assassin, with Academy Award-winner Joel Grey (Cabaret) occupying the role of Chiun.
With its classic set-piece atop the Statue of Liberty, much-loved score by Craig Safan and a healthy sense of its own silliness, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins… offers up a cracking slice of mid-eighties action.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the film from a digital transfer prepared by MGM Studios
- Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 PCM audio
- Isolated Music and Effects soundtrack
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary with producers Larry Spiegel and Judy Goldstein
- Remo, Rambo, Reagan and Reds: The Eighties Action Movie Explosion – all-new feature-length documentary from High Rising Productions focusing on a decade of cinematic destruction and Remo Williams’s place among the carnage. Includes new interviews with genre expert Bey Logan, Remo producers Larry Spiegel and Judy Goldstein, celebrated directors Sam Firstenberg (American Ninja) and Mark L. Lester (Commando), producers Don Borchers (Angel) and Garrick Dion (Drive), filmmaker and scholar Howard S. Berger and Professor Susan Jeffords (author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era)
- When East Met West – Joel Grey reflects on his turn as Chiun
- Changing Faces – make-up expert Carl Fullerton discusses his Oscar-nominated work on Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…
- Notes for a Nobleman – composer Craig Safan talks about his classic score
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Red Dress
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the origins of Remo Williams by Barry Forshaw and an on-set report from American Cinematographer magazine
DETAILS:
Region: B
Rating: 15
Cat No: FCD965
Duration: 121 mins
Language: English
Subtitles: English SDH
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: 2.0 Stereo
Colour: Colour

Release Date: 7 July 2014

[NoirFan]

That full-length 80s action retrospective sounds great, I certainly wasn't expecting such an plethera of extras! Now when is Amazon going to stop trying to charge list price for all the Arrow pre-orders?

[Member-222782]

Impressive specs for Remo Williams. Everything we need to know except the street date lol. I'm sure it along with the artwork is buried somewhere in the massive Arrow thread but does anyone know offhand what the street date is? Thanks

[charnier]

Originally Posted by cine74

Impressive specs for Remo Williams. Everything we need to know except the street date lol. I'm sure it along with the artwork is buried somewhere in the massive Arrow thread but does anyone know offhand what the street date is? Thanks

7th July.

[Marv Inc.]

release date added.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by JimDiGriz

You think Theatre transfer was better than Pit?! Not for me it wasnt. Pit is also quite easily the oldest film amongst those above too dont forget - 1961 (on a very tight budget!).

I do think Theatre of Blood looks better than the 3/5 Svet gave it, but Pit easily best it PQ and AQ wise, IMO.

[Vakulinchuk]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

there isn't much to be had in a rapidly declining market, not least thanks to the ruinously widespread belief that Blu-rays are overpriced, whereas in most cases they're drastically underpriced when set against production costs.

Blurays are a bargain, to be honest. Market might be in decline but I've never been happier for what I get with my money - pristine transfers, plenty of extras, OAR respected, uncompressed sound...

But isn't bluray's main problem (at least concerning the belief you mentioned) the fact that the market is still littered with poorly made dvds that can be had for a fraction of the price? And you need a well informed audience to fight that.

[HuggyBear73]

I live in the US and I want to order a steelbook from ARROW. Do they ship single steelbooks in boxes or bubble envelopes?

[RiFiFi1955]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

I live in the US and I want to order a steelbook from ARROW. Do they ship single steelbooks in boxes or bubble envelopes?

I have gotten bubble. Also in the US. But arrived perfect.

[tenia]

Originally Posted by HuggyBear73

I live in the US and I want to order a steelbook from ARROW. Do they ship single steelbooks in boxes or bubble envelopes?

Currently, they wrap everything in bubble wrap and send this in cardboard enveloppes, which is pretty neat.

Originally Posted by MichaelB

not least thanks to the ruinously widespread belief that Blu-rays are overpriced, whereas in most cases they're drastically underpriced when set against production costs.

It depends. That's the issue. Too many people don't know this. They see some high prices, which they think are the norm, and it's another case of "It's awfully expensive".

But it's not. Some are, yes, even at Arrow. I remember fondly when I bought Sullivan's Travels £12.99. Now, I've paid £15.99 for Pit Stop, but only £10.99 for If... at MoC. We're still comparing equivalent things, but one can already sense the difference there can be.

Plus, at the moment of looking, the DVDs equivalent of a given movie will still be less expensive than the BD (except specific sales, of course). The issue is : I'm sure I'm paying less my BDs than most people their DVDs.

I live in France. The usual MSRP price of a new title on DVD is 19.99€. Usual MSRP price on BD is 24.99€.
The CNC (the National Cinematography Comitee) says the average DVD selling price is 17.11€ for a new movie, 8.26€ for a catalog movie.
For BD, it's 22.86€ and 13.13€.

That's a wide difference, setting a 33% and a 59% oncost for BD.

Except that on my 1200+ BDs, my average buying price is 16.24€, 13.81€ per movie if I start splitting the boxsets prices. And this includes 179 Criterion which are quite expensive to import to France (usually around 24€ per title, the most expensive price / movie I'm putting on a regular basis).

I've been in the poor consumer behaviour, which basically only was an excuse to go cheap on buyings. But I've learnt that it's just a silly excuse. Tons of movies are being currently sold on BD for $4.99 in the US, or £6-7 in the UK, or 6€ in France, including new movies. That's certainly much less than 17€, or even sometimes less than 8€.

Even some beautiful objects. One can argue "My god, I'd love to get the Rohmer set, but 200€ is just too much". Well, try on Amazon.it and save 50€.
I've been able to get the Ten Commandments US UCE for the same price than the barebones French release. I got the Ben Hur and the Casablanca ones for 25€ each. This isn't expensive. At all.

France is notorious for high prices on video releases.
Even Manuel Chiche from Wild Side said "When you look at Arrow or MoC, DF releases with tons of extras + a booklet, and then look at their prices, you might wonder what are their financial system."

I went to Fopp at Glasgow last week. Lots of movies at low prices : £9 for Possession, £7 for From Beyond. Tons of BFI at £7 or £9. This isn't expensive, especially for a French person.

But nobody care. People don't want to take 5 min comparing prices. They don't want to wait 2 months to get a discounted price. They prefer to complain "It's too expensive" in order to justify poor consumer behaviour because they only buy 3 movies per year but they pay a price that probably no one on this forum would be willing to pay except if fully aware that's a full price.

But you have to remember : in 2014, you still need to remind them that BD players can also playback DVDs.
But you can't expect from a general audience to be a specialised one.

[HuggyBear73]

THanks!

Originally Posted by tenia

Currently, they wrap everything in bubble wrap and send this in cardboard enveloppes, which is pretty neat.



It depends. That's the issue. Too many people don't know this. They see some high prices, which they think are the norm, and it's another case of "It's awfully expensive".

But it's not. Some are, yes, even at Arrow. I remember fondly when I bought Sullivan's Travels £12.99. Now, I've paid £15.99 for Pit Stop, but only £10.99 for If... at MoC. We're still comparing equivalent things, but one can already sense the difference there can be.

Plus, at the moment of looking, the DVDs equivalent of a given movie will still be less expensive than the BD (except specific sales, of course). The issue is : I'm sure I'm paying less my BDs than most people their DVDs.

I live in France. The usual MSRP price of a new title on DVD is 19.99€. Usual MSRP price on BD is 24.99€.
The CNC (the National Cinematography Comitee) says the average DVD selling price is 17.11€ for a new movie, 8.26€ for a catalog movie.
For BD, it's 22.86€ and 13.13€.

That's a wide difference, setting a 33% and a 59% oncost for BD.

Except that on my 1200+ BDs, my average buying price is 16.24€, 13.81€ per movie if I start splitting the boxsets prices. And this includes 179 Criterion which are quite expensive to import to France (usually around 24€ per title, the most expensive price / movie I'm putting on a regular basis).

I've been in the poor consumer behaviour, which basically only was an excuse to go cheap on buyings. But I've learnt that it's just a silly excuse. Tons of movies are being currently sold on BD for $4.99 in the US, or £6-7 in the UK, or 6€ in France, including new movies. That's certainly much less than 17€, or even sometimes less than 8€.

Even some beautiful objects. One can argue "My god, I'd love to get the Rohmer set, but 200€ is just too much". Well, try on Amazon.it and save 50€.
I've been able to get the Ten Commandments US UCE for the same price than the barebones French release. I got the Ben Hur and the Casablanca ones for 25€ each. This isn't expensive. At all.

France is notorious for high prices on video releases.
Even Manuel Chiche from Wild Side said "When you look at Arrow or MoC, DF releases with tons of extras + a booklet, and then look at their prices, you might wonder what are their financial system."

I went to Fopp at Glasgow last week. Lots of movies at low prices : £9 for Possession, £7 for From Beyond. Tons of BFI at £7 or £9. This isn't expensive, especially for a French person.

But nobody care. People don't want to take 5 min comparing prices. They don't want to wait 2 months to get a discounted price. They prefer to complain "It's too expensive" in order to justify poor consumer behaviour because they only buy 3 movies per year but they pay a price that probably no one on this forum would be willing to pay except if fully aware that's a full price.

But you have to remember : in 2014, you still need to remind them that BD players can also playback DVDs.
But you can't expect from a general audience to be a specialised one.

[crazybeats]

The market is in decline but here in the UK for instance, we were under the impression around 2009/2010 that our analogue signals would be cut off and HD was the future and everyone MUST HAVE a digital box or cable/satelite box just to watch TV. People were being trained into this HDTV future but not trained into HD home viewing. Prices were sky high for blu rays then and I think what most people think is, or they dont know too much about, is the manufacturing side.


I rightly said earlier about Zavvis prices and whatever Arrow sells to them......they do make a profit on, even if it's very low. People look at new films with RRPS, they look at catalogue titles, they look at sale items and they assume that is what companies think that film is worth. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest is worth £7, Frozen is worth £15. They are trained to think older film = less money, new film = more money. They don't stop to think that Cuckoos Nest at it's low price makes Warner Bros a nice profit, Frozen makes Disney an even bigger profit. People don't know how much these big companies pay to make those discs. They don't know how much it costs Warner Bros to press 1 blu ray, when they see all those Disney blu rays on the shelves, they don't know how much it costs Disney to make them and how much profit they make selling them on. That's why prices drop, that's why something can go from £15, right down to £7 within the space of a year and still make money which makes people ask.....why can't they all just be £7 then if it brings in profit? Wouldn't Frozen sell tons more copies at £7? And to an exten they are right. It's 2014 and people want movies to end up like music albums. £10/£9 on release and then into the £5 bins or 2 for £10/2 for £15.

Although I don't see that ever happening mainly because even in a declining market, movies are still making a ton of money. People will always like watching movies.

[samdvd1]

<<<Remembers paying £29.99 for DVD's in the nineties in HMV... Man, as a mid-teen in those years, it was an expensive hobby. That and buying Buffy and The X-Files at £70 per SEASON.

Honestly, we've never had it so good.