DVDs: The Super Collector Edition Thread

[marywebgirl]

Has anyone heard anything about an Office Space special edition DVD? I have the plain old version, which is nothing special, but I heard rumors ages ago about a better one with commentaries and other extras.

The commentary for UHF is very good.

That does it. I'm buying that the next time I see it.

[huntergrayson]

Huzzah. According to the very helpful Digital Bits website, the Office Space SE is due in November. I didn't find any other details, but hope this is good news.

Meanwhile, October looks to be the month for classic DVDs -- a 3 Disc Wizard of Oz set (which includes the early silent films of the Oz series!) and a 14-film Hitchcock box for less than a hundred bucks!

To help with Miss Marple -- Paramount is notoriously bad with their back catalogue, but IMDB lists Miramax as a distributor for Enchanted April. Given the whole Miramax collapse, it could be held in rights limbo. Or getting the shoddy treatment that Buena Vista gives to Miramax DVDs. I'll try to research more and find good contact info.

I would commit a felony for Lynch's Lost Highway on DVD, especially a Criterion, since it is a film that demands to be seen in widescreen/it's original aspect ratio.

I keep telling myself that studios are going to release everything soon before HD-DVD hits the market, but that's probably wishful thinking.

[huntergrayson]

Sadly, studios think that kid movie = kid special features. So there's really nothing substantial on the Prisoner of Azkaban disc.

But I'm mainly here to give MaryWebGirl good news:

The Digital Bits confirms that Fox will releae the Office Space:SE (with more Flare) on November First. Extras will include deleted scenes, a behind the scenes doc and commentary from Mike Judge.

There's a lot of great, expensive DVDs over the next few months, such the complete Thin Man and the first Rogers/Astaire Box (both this month), the Hitchcock Collection (October), and complete DVD sets of Buffy, SATC & Friends each with a new disc of special features (all in November).

[huntergrayson]

Ohhhkay, it's been a year, so I thought I could double-post. Talking about the Criterion Hitches in another thread reminded me.

Like Buffy, Alias is coming in a superdeluxe collector's box with all five seasons and a booklet. It's shaped like a Rimbaldi Artifact!! (time to sell off those old seasons, I guess)

George Lucas is going to demonstrate his crassness and greed by FINALLY releasing the Original Star Wars. But guess what? It's non-anamorphic and the transfers are taken directly from the Laserdisc versions! For the non-techies, "anamorphic" just means enhanced for widescreen TVs (the kind we all have to buy in 5-10 years) so that you see no/less black bars. Christ, Mean Girls and Stealth have anamorphic transfers but the original SW doesn't? Among the lies Lucasfilm has been floating is that he destroyed all prints of the original version. Right, because there aren't private collectors that own a copy of Star Wars.

Last but not leastly, Criterion drops a couple re-releases this month, including a 3 Disc Seven Samurai and a reissue of Brazil, with an anamorphic transfer. Plus, for those of you with a big disposible income who DON'T already own the films, this Box Set seems like a killer deal (13 bucks/film!). So pretty. If they keep all the original extras, I'd say it equals about a semester of film school, no? Bergman, Hitchcock, Renoir, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Polanski, Milos Forman, etc, etc, etc. Yep, a semester of film school, easy. Now which Greecie wants to be my sugar daddy/momma?

[laconicchick]

maddiemoo said:

I'm going to whine now about all the LOTR DVDS: Why so many special editions? Yes, I know, to make money, but there's got to be at least 3 different DVD releases for each film. The sad thing is, there probably are people who own them all.

There's only 2 for each, actually. One is the original version seen in theaters and has your basic promotional behind the scenes stuff, trailers, etc. The second version is the extended edition, which takes up 2 discs, then has 2 more discs including documentaries, photos, and more in-depth stuff for the nerdier folks. There's also a lot of really fun commentaries from the director, writers, and actors, amongst others. There's nothing in the theatrical version that's also on the extended edition and vice versa, so you're never buying the same thing twice. They really don't try to rip you off at all with the 2 editions, and I appreciate that.

And yes, I do own them all.

Sadly, that's no longer true as of Aug. 29. So finally the annoyance from a year ago is legitimate! The limited edition will include the theatrical and extended releases on one disc (per movie), and another disc for each movie with a new feature-length behind-the-scenes documentary. This pisses me off, but doesn't surprise me.

I loooove the Achiever's Edition of the Big Lebowski. The extras are nothing special, but the packaging is awesome.

I am so thankful the X-Files and Buffy are being released in the "thin pack" packaging, which is half as expensive and much less cumbersome.

Should I be worried about HD DVDs? I have no desire (or money) to switch over until it's absolutely necessary... How long do you think I have before it will be the only thing available?

[huntergrayson]

I wouldn't worry about HD-DVDs for a good long time. For some reason, the Best DVD site online will no longer come up on my computer (it's the Digital Bits, BTW - am I the only one with this problem?), but even they said to wait before converting. There was an article they talked to in the LA Times about how HD-DVD really only makes a difference with HUGE setups - like 55+ inches, at minimum. Not to mention that there's the whole BluRay/HD-DVD format war going on. I'd wait - there's no killer ap yet and the studios are bungling this by not doing enough special features. Like, hi, the "Unrated" Basic Instinct 2 is on DVD but the Bluray only has the theatrical? Whatev.

DVD took a few years to become a standard format. It did so because it has not only a very visible quality difference (which even Joe Schmo could see) but a different way of looking at movies, what with chapter stops and whatnot. HD? Not yet. It sucks, because there's the capacity to say, have both the theatricals and EE of any of the LOTR on a single disc via branching without having to compromise pic quality too much but the studios don't care yet.

On one hand, yes, eventually we will all have HD-TVs. But it is a ways off.

[Deleted]

True Confession and Celebrity-Spotting crossover with DVD Collector thread:

I was shopping at the Virgin Megastore on Sunset a few years ago and saw Gary Oldman and once of his kids shopping (kid wanted a superviolent videogame, Oldman resisted). In a startling coincidence, my BF at the time was perusing the Criterion section and staggered up to me with a "I've just seen god" look on his face. In his hands were four copies of the Criterion Collection's Sid and Nancy, which had been out of print for a couple of years. (Apparently, they found a box in storage).

He bought a copy (just one!) and I bought none, since I was dirt poor at the time. I still have bruises on my ass from the kicking I gave myself. Oldman disappeared before we could ask to autograph the copy, which would've been crazy-sweet.

And all of this is to back up what huntergrayson said: if you see the disc you want, get it right then and there, with no hesitation!

And, speaking of huntergrayson, I have a copy of Lost Highway on DVD, though it was a bargain-basement version, in fullscreen, which -- I was told at the time -- was the only release of that movie. Interesting trivia: did you know it was made into an opera?

"As a matter of fact, I'm there right now."

I want whomever is responsible for the nonavailability of Twin Peaks Season Two to be hurt, like, really badly.

[satellite]

I want whomever is responsible for the nonavailability of Twin Peaks Season Two to be hurt, like, really badly.

Doesn't Lynch eat lunch at the same place every day? I've thought of paying him a visit, but I guess it's not totally his fault.

My DVD annoyance was paying $25 for the unrated version of "American Psycho" and then a few months later having the Killer Cut come out- unrated with commentary and more special features- for like $15. The unrated edition has a different interview with Bale though, so I've held onto it.

I was pleased when they finally put out the special edition of "Goodfellas" (you had to flip over the old disc to watch the last hour), but of course the DVD store wouldn't buy my old one because of invisible scratches (yeah, right).

I feel for the person who posted about "Angel Heart". The special edition is around $10 now.

Since I've had Netflix, I almost never buy DVDs now, unless it's a box set I really want. Not even the $5.50 ones at Target that used to be so tempting, because I always suspect that there will be a SE out soon.

There's a new SE of Pretty in Pink that I might buy.

[huntergrayson]

The S2 DVD of Twin Peaks IS totally coming, y'all. Within the next year or so, I think. It is a rights issue and has nothing to do with Lynch. The company that did distribute collapsed, was bought out, whatever. I think Paramount (ick!) is in charge now, but they are going to do it, complete with reissuing S1 (the current DVDs have FLAWLESS transfers) and maybe the American Pilot.

Now Lost Highway...there's a problem. I've even considered getting a region free player for this and other movies, but the PAL speedup would fuck up the awesome soundtrack pretty badly. Stupid PAL speedup. Stupid companies (HD-DVD could have been actually regionfree, with no speedup, but it's not).

Oh, I really want to see Repulsion as well, but PAL speedup. The R1 is pan-and-scan!

Speaking of Goodfellas and Lynch, Universal is the WORST company ever - and released flipper DVD-18s of both Casino and Dune:SE that don't play on many players. And they pulled this for Dietrich's "box set" as wel (along with Mae West and Lombard's). The hell? Doesn't Morocco deserve a disc of its own?

Netflix actually has some flippers as 2-Disc sets for some reason.

[Deleted]

Paramount's had the rights to both seasons of Twin Peaks for almost a year, hence my hurt-wish on them. Anchor Bay had them for a while, which would have been pretty good (since they do some fine archival work on peculiar stuff, like Profit, f'rinstance) then dropped out.

Apparently the existing S1 Twin Peaks set -- which is awesome -- was wickedly expensive to produce, and they never recouped their outlay, thus making it highly unlikely for the S2 set to be as chock-full of detail (and easter eggs) as the first. Rumour has it that the S1 re-release will be bare-bones, too, so back to that advice to buy it when you see it.

My pilot episode DVD is a weird Korean version that I bought in LA four years ago; it's the U.S. pilot, not the craptastic European version with the lame, tacked-on "ending". In the menu for the "stars", there are but two entries: Kyle Maclaughlan and Joan Chen. Heh.