pygospa

32 minutes ago, Casiusco said:

The only negative is that I don't know German to be able to read the texts, I think I'm the only one in my family who doesn't know German...

Okey, I totally get that. I am not a fan of texts I cannot read, either, and unfortunately in Germany you cannot sell English text (different to countries like Asia, obviously). Unfortunate for international buyers :( 

On 11/11/2020 at 1:32 AM, Lordpercy said:

Love Lost in Translation and was gutted that I wasn’t able to get a copy of Cover B as that at least has unique front cover art vs the other two covers that have been seen before. I did message Pretz as soon as it went on sale but they never replied.

 

Oh well, I’m interested in the new box art release they are doing to replace the steelbook edition that now can’t be made

Oh I am really sorry to read that you couldn't get it :( As you already mention, the planed steelbook will not be released, due to the new mutated Corona outbreak in mink farms in Denmark, which put the area into quarantine where the steelbook manufacture is located. This is especially sad, as Birnenblatt was already preparing for preorders and they even posted an Artwork (probably the inner print) of the Steelbook, plus the fact that they already had one of their hardest year with a lot of postpoinings and cancellations. Unfortunately, now they are again getting a lot of hatemails for it 😟  People in Germany are mad and crazy 😟

There is already one image for their new box which they call "Piece of Art Box", which of course raised a lot of questions, some of which Birnenblatt already answered. I'll subsumize everything we already know. And I'll do it here, because, you've mentioned the box, @Lordpercy and becasue we don't know what and how exactly the box will look, and where else it would fit the best. So let's start:

In their initial posting, Birnenblatt called this the "plainer package" comapred to the Mediabook. Release date will be 12.12.2020, but pre-orders will start end of this week. Birnenblatt mentioned, it could be this thrusday (which is actually today!), but I haven't seen it anywhere yet, so maybe this weekend. Keep your eyes open. This being the alternative to the Steelbook and intended to be a "plainer" version, it only comes with one disk and no bonuses. Some are angry on Facebook, and maybe Birnenblatt might change this in future, but for now, they always did it this way - making the Mediabook their "premium" version, that comes with all the extra disks, and their Steelbooks/Futurepacks/Tape-Editions to only include one disk.

Someone asked about the prices, and Birnenblatt answered that the POAB is at least always planned to be the cheaper variant. No idea, what that actually means, because this way they keep it open to be more expensive? Maybe they still don't know what to expect from the production costs?

Another one asked two questions, a) if it Digipack, and b) as a follow up to Brinenblatts answer, if it has plastic trays. The answer from Birnenblatt: The box will be out of sturdy card board, it will be hinged to be opened, and the insides will also have artwork printing. The disc will be on a separate inlay that can be removed. Regarding the dimensions we'll be oriented towards the size of our Mediabooks and Tape editions. The inlay will be without plastic trays. Everything else, we have to check ourselves with the comming product pictures.

Again this seems to me like Birnenblatt themselves are not quite sure about how this product will be looking like in detail.

Another question was if this will also come in an Amaray release and Birnenblatt said no. This will be their cheapest release of the movie, Keep cases will not be done by them.

And last but not least someone asked about the FSK seal, and Birnenblatt responded that it will not be sticked directly onto the package, instead it will either be a J-Card OR a sticker on the shrink wrap.

On 11/11/2020 at 11:08 AM, Casiusco said:

I like all options, speciallty A & B....

 

...but I'll also always wait a true collectors edition of this film  

 

 

Well, I feel that Mediabooks are a "true collectors edition" - at least for some labels they used to be and still are. Birnenblatt is one of them, with all the special and exclusive extras, the high quality texts the beautiful artwork (well this time they did not commision anything new and fancy, unfortunately), their limitation and the fact that once it is sold out, it's sold out for good - not re-released in Covers J, K, L, M, N, etc. (like some other labels do). But yeah, everyone as he likes :)

23 hours ago, Veum said:

Ordered box “A” in our German GB hey!😊

I also went for Cover A, I liked it best from the composition and front and back. However I also enjoy the water color artwork on the new box. So probably I'll get one, I guess :D

Release: 04.12.2020

Link (Wicked Shop): Cover A, Cover B, Cover C

Price: 29,99€

Limited: 444, 333, 333

"This is (...) the incredible saga of Ma Barker and her boys: The most bloodthirsty killers in the history of crime", say's the tagline in the trailer to the 1970s American low-budget drama movie by Roger Corman, that is - rather loosely - based on the original life story of Kate Barker (1873 - 1935), who is quoted as "the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal brain of the last decade", who died in a shootout with the FBI. The movie stars Shelly Winters (1940~1980s movie idol), and has an interesting supporting cast that include actors such as Bruce Dern or Robert De Niro. Corman counts this movies to one of his favorites, however the critics hated it. And after 50 years, this movie finally gets a release in Germany, but also an European premiere on HD blu-ray.

"Bloody Mama" will be part of Wicked Vision's "Collector's Series" and us such comes in a Mediabook with three different cover artworks to choose from, with Covers B and C being newly comissioned artworks, and Cover A showing the standard international movie poster. They will bear the No. 42 in the Collector's Series, and will have "just" a DVD copy included on the disc-side of things. There will also be an audio commentary with Robert Zion, an Interview with Rober Corman, "Trailers from Hell" with Roger Corman, and German and English movie trailers. And of course we get a 24 paged booklet with a new Essay from David Renske, but of course in German. There will be no English subtitles this time, but of course the movie comes with English original audio, as well as German dubbing.

The Release is already preorderable for a couple of days (sorry to be soo late with the news, but I was rather busy), however all covers are still in stock.
 

Release: 12.12.2020
Price: 29,99€
Shops: Pretz-Media, MediaMarkt, BMV-Medien, OFDb
Limitation: 444 (A), 222 (B) and 333 (C)

Normally, Birnenblatt is one of these labels that has a couple of releases, streched over the year. This year, the output is pretty high. Besides Better Watch Out and Get Out, there is another movie that Birnenblatt has just opened for pre-orders a day ago: "Lost in Translation". As listed above, there are three covers and all of them have known artworks, so no new comissioned or drawn artworks as we have seen with the other two mediabooks. Yet they look good, and unfortunately they are rather limited in numbers, and the first shop already sold out on all three (Saturn). So if you want one of these, please be fast - I listed all shops that carry them because I don't know how long all shops will have all the covers. Just today Birnenblatt posted, that Cover A got really low and B and C are already sold out on some shops.

Here are these Covers:



As for the content, not much is known, except for this little fact: Instead of a DVD or UHD copy, this release is coming with a Bonus disc, that will contain a exclusively produced movie analysis by Wolfgang M. Schmitt, Jr. - again something that might only interest German buyers, and probably not even most of them. Schmitt studied Literature and is currently working on his PhD. Beside his studies he started working as freelancer for different news papers and used to focus on Literature as well, but somehow stumbled upon movies, and as a side-project started the German YouTube Channel "Die Filmanalyse", which, with up to 200.000 views on some videos is probably one of the largest German movie YouTubers - yet he is actually hated by many, for his highly intellectual and scientific way of presenting and analysing movies, and his often harsh and not that popular positions. Still his reviews are worth watching.

Other than that we know nothing about this release - it's a bit of a shame not having the technical and bonus information available up front But Birnenblatt already sells them just with their insane beautiful artworks. Also a little heads up! - this will also come in an exclusive Steelbook which will have 4000 copies and a new and exclusive watercolor artwork, that'll probably look totally insane. However, that will be a one-disc set, so probably the extra Blu-ray is missing - but for most of you international buyers that will not carry any additional value anyways.

As for the movie, I guess you can already call it a classic, even though it was released in 2003 (but well, let's face it: I always think the 2000's where yesterday, until someone reminds me, that it's already been 20 years...). It's the second film by Sofia Coppola, daughter of the famous Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now), and already won an Oscar for that movie (the best original screenplay). The romcom-drama starrs Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, who are supported by Giovanni Rbisi and Anna Faris, and has earned widespread critical acclaim.
 

Nice update, and I am always happy to have helped someone to a new edition they like and would have otherwise missed 🙂 Hope, you'll enjoy it.

Seeing your update, I have two questions, though:
1. Where is that Pan's Labyrinth steelbook from?

2. Seeing you chose to buy those Japanese-Artwork-Steels: Do you know if they also have japanese audio? I'd get them in an instant, if they had - but as far as I know they haven't - then again, often those info in shops isn't always accurate, that's why I'm asking 😉

Happy to hear that. Hopefully they (MM/Saturn) don't screw up again. I already contacted Birnenblatt and ask why it has to be MM/Saturn exclusive, as they had so many screw-ups lately, but Birnenblatt said, that they'll make sure that this cannot happen. So let's hope for the best 😀

Thank you @R1s1ngs0n for adding the links to the initial post. I hope everyone interested in this release has realized this adding of the links. I was unfortunately really busy and missed it myself (fortunately my girlfriend ordered one right away).

Unfortunately Cover A is already sold out. Cover B and C still available.

Some additional information was shared by Birnenblatt:

• Artwork for Cover A was done by Hans Woody; they also included another "behind the scenes" or "making of" picture, that I wanted to share with you:
  
   
• Booklet text is written by Antje Wessels.

Second part of the information was really interesting for me, as I follow her reviews for a long while now. Besides her blog she is also active on Twitter and after having multiple guest aperences on Kino+ since 2018, she finally joined Kino+ as editor and fixed moderator besides Daniel Schröckert. And if you don't know Kino+: In my humble opinion it is by far the best German show on movies and series, and it is not even on German TV as the stations don't think that a weekly, two hour long talk format on movies is worth showing. So they are doing it on YouTube.


Antje Wessels ist seit Februar 2019 offiziell eine Bohne, da sie nun die Sendung Kino+ auch redaktionell unterstützt ^[1], nachdem sie seit August 2018^[2] bereits mehrere Gastauftritte in dem Format hatte.

59 minutes ago, WKRP said:

Also are their mediabooks G1 (blu-ray) or G2 (dvd) size?

They are G1 (DVD) size. The G stands for Generation, G1 = Generation one, or first Generation - and that was DVD, while Blu-ray came later, thus second generation ;) 

Birnenblatt always does G1, i.e. DVD size, they never did anything else, so it would be a real surprise if this one wasn't DVD sized as well....

5 hours ago, Grendel said:

First, my apologies for not responding as of late to the variety of informative posts you have provided.

I've not been on as much lately as in the past, due to current job efforts and other items.

No problems, my friend. I am not as active as I would like to be, as well. But I'll try to feed you with all the information that might be interesting for you (or to be quite honest, releases that interest me, and that I therefore share with you  ).

5 hours ago, Grendel said:

- The Human Duplicators,

- Transylvania 6-5000 (13 Euro)

- Haunted Honeymoon (16 Euro), and

- Cadillac Man (16 Euro)

Nice selection! I hope you read my thread for The Human Duplicators, it will be just a simple Amaray (blue) release with o-card slipcover, and the quality will not be the highest possible with blu-ray, due to problematic master situation. Just something to be aware of. And you probably know that Cadillac Man will also just come in a Scanavo casing, but with a booklet. I - of course - own all of them 🙈. For Transylvania I chose the other cover though (it's also a special offer, but 16€).

4 hours ago, Grendel said:

- Krampus (2015 original! 🤩) old world fantasy horror meets 'The Burbs', complete with awesome practical spec fx, great acting and a really smart script. Highly recommended!

- Rare Exports: what if Santa was an evil demon and elves were his minions ? what if they wanted to capture and eat kids? Perfect film. Can't rate this high enough.

- Santa's Slay: wrestler Goldberg as a very pissed off Santa. One of the funniest 'slasher fliks' I know of. Beats the "Scream" series by a mile.

- A Christmas Horror Story: Santa gets some bad vibes and goes on a North Pole murder spree. So totally bizarre, I was dumbfounded for long after.

 

As for older, traditional Christmas horror, we of course have;

- Christmas Evil: guy goes nuts, dresses as Santa, becomes a slasher. One of the very early fliks of the genre and applauded for its depiction of a person's disassociation psychosis.

- Silent Night, Deadly Night: same old, guy goes nuts, dresses as Santa, bodies pile up. This one caused a protest/boycott though, best publicity a movie can buy! (sequel; not so great. "Garbage Day!")

- Black Christmas: original of course! disturbed lad escapes asylum and murder stalks coed girls at a house. Another very early entry in the 'Slasher' genre and in fact, the one many acclaim started the whole genre! For historical purposes, it's a must own but it's actually a really cool flik as well. Recommended! ( ALL the remakes, are straight dumpster fire fuel).

Of course, no list is complete without adding "Gremlins" and even G-2 is really good!

Gotta own these ones, or thar's somethin' wrong wit ya, kid!  😉

Thanks for the list, there is a lot I still have to watch. Krampus I've seen in a Sneak Preview and liked it so much that I got the Steelbook, and after that, as FAC (with the identical steelbook ). I also own Rare Export in a steelbook, and I think I've seen the movie, but I cannot really remember what it was all about, so I need to re-watch that - maybe this Christmas. I also own Silent Night, Deadly Night, in a Mediabook release by Anolis (part of their Fatastische Klassiker, Die 80er series), but also haven't seen it, yet. I am looking forward to it. Of course I chose the first cover 🤩

Another movie I am looking forward to watch this Christmas, is "Deadly Games", which is probably quite similar to the Christmas Evil and Silent Night, Deadly Night, but from France. Said to be a really good movie, that has similarities to Home Alone, so another one fitting the this release. There is a really beautiful German DigiPak version from the independant Camera Obscura label, and for international buyers: It even has English subtitles (original soundtrack is French). I'll link a German blog article just for the picutres (beacuse Digipacks you'll need to see from all directions 😅 ).

And I'll check out all the releases you listed, let's see what I can still get for this years Christmas 🎅
 

2 hours ago, RAK said:

@Grendel Nice List, I have a lot of those on my must buy list. I have heard positive things about most of those movies.
 

@pygospa This looks like a fun movie, might have to try and get one. I like Cover B.

 

Not to hijack your post, but have you heard any news about this release from Nameless. I thought it was supposed to be up for preorder by now, but can’t find any info.

 

 

So, as far as I know there is no news on when to expect/order the Halloween releases. They just announced that preorders will be in October, but that could be as late as the 31st. They didn't get any more concrete than that. However, their Mediabooks are manufactured in the Check Republic, which apparently is hit hard again by Corona. Due to this they postponed two other releases (Short Circuit 2 and Bloodline will be postponed). So, this may also affect their other productions as well, and could push preorders into November. But that's just my speculation, there is no official information yet (as far as I am aware).

What do you think about this release? Is it interesting for you? Are you planning to get one? And if yes, which cover do you prefer? I am yet undecided. In Germany this movie is pretty unknown - I couldn't find anyone in my bubble that knew the movie, and even Birnenblatt was asked about the movie and they linked a Trailer afterwards.

Reason for me to get this anyways are the two kids, which where really stunning in The Visit (which I really enjoyed, and which gave me the chills). Both are really talented, and I'd love to see where their career takes them, especially if they keep on focusing on horror movies. Plus I know far too little good Christmas movies that I actually enjoy, so this might be an addition.

Coverwise I am undecided as well - I love the Cover C from the colors but it's the common poster artwork. Cover B on the other hand is pretty unusual, and I love how they added the title into the Artwork. But it's a bit monotonous, color wise. So... which would you prefer and why? Give me some inspiration  

Release: 17.12.2020
Price: 29,99€
Cover: Cover A, Cover B, Cover C
Limitation: 333 numbered copies per cover

According to Wikipedia, Better Watch Out is a psychological horror film, according to IMDB it's comedy and crime, and if you watch the trailer it foremost looks like a Christmas movie in the likes of Home Alone. Whatever it is, Birnenblatt pushed this forward - out of nowhere - even before their longer announced title Get Out, so it is available for the Christmas season. And because it is Christmas, instead of adding a DVD copy of the movie or an "Audio Booklet" (which to me is even more useless), they added an Audio CD that will contain the "A Swinging Big Band Christmas" album performed by the "London Music Works". It will come in 3 different cover artworks, each limited to 333 numbered copies. That's all what we know for now - Birnenblatt lists the companies Pretz, Media Markt, Saturn and BMV-Medien, which will carry these - I don't know if that is an exclusive list, though, and if Amazon or Co will list them as well.

The movie is a 2016 Australian production that was also filmed in Australia (Fox Studios Moore Park in Sydney), by Chris Peckover and features primary some child actors, from which two (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) have already perfectly worked together in M. Night Shyamalan's The Visit. Even though it did not gain much attention it holds a high critics rating, especially at Rotten Tomatoes, who also list the movie in their Top 55 Christmas movies list on place 23. However, it only got a limited cinema release in selected places and for the majority it was just a video-on-demand release.

And with that being said, here is the trailer:
 

I love that A variant one, due to it's wonderful purple color scheme, it makes me a bit weak. However, I do own a copy by OFDB Filmworks, which is a really great slipcase+digipack edition, with a booklet numbering certificate from 2012, which today is pretty rare and quite worth a penny, as for a long time this was the only and definite edition to have. Its not half as wonderfully designed, though...


And besides this release, I am also on the hunt for this - really hard to get - hartbox edition for personal collecting reasons



This was the first ever Wicked Vision release, before they even founded the label, and as I own everything else, I really want this one as well. Unfortunately seems to be impossible to get   But if I do, I'd own two copies and a third I cannot justify.

Some news, you guys:

Relese will be Feb. 4th, 2021, there will be three different cover artworks, all limited to 333 copies, each as a UHD and BD combo. Also, it will be Saturn and Media Markt exclusive. Information is already sent out to the shops and they'll list them in the next days (if I don't forget it, I'll link them here as soon as they are online). And these are the three cover artworks:

So guys, what do you think? Which cover is your favorite? And would you get it? Or are you not interested in this at all?


If I get it, I'll probably opt for Cover A, although I don't like the back artwork, that could have been done better, in my opinion.  Front is superb though. Cover B has the best back artwork, but I don't like the style too much (looks rather amateur like), plus I find it really strange to feature these two supporting characters that don't have any significant role on the front. And Cover C - if you know me, I find it boring to have the artwork that everybody knows already. This has been used so many times, and it's just not for me.

There are some news by Turbine about this release:

Quote

Wegen extremen Aberglaubens müssen wir die VÖ unserer Ultimate Edition von AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON auf Freitag den 13. November verschieben.

Spaß beiseite, durch unvorhersehbare Verzögerungen können wir den Werwolf leider nicht am 6. November rauslassen. Jetzt müssen wir Euch um eine Woche Extra-Geduld bitten. Möge der Vollmond mit Euch sein.

Edition B ist noch bei uns im Shop erhältlich, der Bestand ist aber schon sehr übersichtlich:

https://turbine.ws/AWIL_B_Turbine

And my translation:

Quote

Because of our extreme superstition we are postponing the release date of our Ultimate Edition of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON to friday 13th in November.
Joking aside, due to unforeseeable delays we cannot hold our original release date, November 6th. Therefore we'll have to ask for your pacience for one additional week. May the full moon be with you.
Edition B is still available at our shop, but the stock is really low:
https://turbine.ws/AWIL_B_Turbine

I know I have to tag @Grendel and @Mad-martigan who are interested in this series, so here you go, please don't miss out, and be fast to order. Anolis reminded buyers that currently Amazon is really hard, because lately they list the titles very late, or they list them but you cannot preorder, and ask you to - if you can - choose one of the many other good online shops like: "Wicked Vision, OFDB, BMV, DTM etc.". In the commentary section a few people complain about Ofdb canceling orders just the day they ship because they let people "overorder", so maybe don't choose them. I don't know about the other shops and international shipping, so I just linked "Wicked Vision" who are - as always - the first to list them in the shop.

I am a bit disappointed about this title, as Koch is also doing a "William Castle" Collection, and I would have wished this to be released in that series, but well. Better to get it by one of them, then not getting it at all

Here is the William Castle collection, btw. Also really worth getting into, as they are really beautiful Digipacks with stunning artwork, a lot of extras, and a thick booklet. If you are interested in these, I can open up a new thread for them as well - 1 and 2 are already out, so I can provide some photos, three is open for pre orders.

• https://www.kochmedia-film.de/blu-ray/details/view/film/der_unheimliche_mr_sardonicus_william_castle_collection_1_blu_ray_dvd/
• https://www.kochmedia-film.de/blu-ray/details/view/film/das_alte_finstere_haus_william_castle_collection_2_blu_ray_dvd/
• https://www.kochmedia-film.de/blu-ray/details/view/film/kennwort_kaetzchen_william_castle_collection_3_blu_ray_dvd/

Release date: 13.11.2020
Buy link: Wicked-Vision
Price: €29.99
Discs: Dual Format (BD+DVD)

Remember how I always tell you guys that Anolis is a slow label? Well... nobody knows, why exactly, probably it's the lockdown, that has the Anolis guys locked up instead of partying every night, but here we go: Today, Anolis announced the fourth title in their "Fluch der Galerie des Grauens" series - "The Night Walker", or how we know it: "Er kam nur nachts" (He just came at night). It's a 1964 black and white movie by special effects icon of the time William Castle, staring Barbara Stanwyck, Hayden Rorke and Robert Taylor and classified as a thriller with horror elements. Also it is the second to last movie that William Castle directed. 

With part four of the series we've now got:

1. It! Terror from Beyond Space
2. Donovan's Brain
3. The Angry Red Planet
4. The Night Walker

Regarding the package, there won't be any surprises (as typical for these series releases), i.e. a standard black DVD keepcase (G1 size) with a flap for holding two discs, as the set comes with a BD and a DVD disc which will be identical in content. The artwork will be fitting to the previous releases as well, with the spine creating a spine-image if combined with all other releases in the proper order, and it will feature the German cinema release poster that is totally different to the international poster as wellas some of the other countries posters (that all are pretty similar to the international onces), and this set will also come once again with a booklet, that features an essay in German by Robert Zion on 24 pages.

We only get a few extras on the disc:

• Audio commentary by Steve Haberman [English]
• Audio commentary by Robert Zion [German?]
• US and German trailers
• German title sequence
• US and German advertisement advice
• Movie programs
• Picture gallery

And for all you US/CA readers out there: There is a Shout Factory Region A release for both countries, they'll probably share the blu-ray master. The Shout Factory has just one extra listed, and that's the audio commentary by Steve Haberman.

As always, I'd like to close with a trailer of the movie - enjoy:
 

Thank you for tagging me, @Grendel. The Cover artwork looks awesome, and I have to confess I haven't seen this one yet, but it's been on my list for quite a while now. I have never heard of this label, is it a US release? Where can you be able to get those? Amazon? If it is US, will it also be relased in UK? And what kind of packages do they use? Is this Amaray in a Slipcase? Or is it something more special?

There's a small piece of news that Turbine shared a few days ago:

Quote

Sneak Peek zur Ultimate-Edition von AN AMERICAN WERWOLF IN LONDON.

Die weltweit erste offizielle CD mit der originalen Filmmusik, bietet den Score von Elmer Bernstein und die legendären Songs (von Bobby Winton, Van Morrison, Sam Cooke und The Marcels).

Alle „Bad Moon Rising“-Fans müssen jetzt stark sein oder in die Plattensammlung greifen: Der Song ist nicht dabei, trotz Rick Baker, der für uns höchstpersönlich bei Sänger John Fogerty angefragt hat.

Hier die Playlist inkl. der groovy Musik aus dem Pornokino:

And my translation (without any warranty  ):
 

Quote

Sneak peek for the Ultimate Edition of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.

The world wide first official CD with the original soundtrack will house the score from Elmer Bernstein and the legendary songs from Bobby Winton, Van Morrison, Sam Cooke and The Marcels.

All "Bad Moon Rising"-fans must be strong now, or access your own music collection: The song is not included, even though just for us Rick Baker has asked the singer John Fogerty in person.

Here is the playlist, including the groovy music from the porno cinema:

I just watched this movie yesterday, and while reviewing it, I wondered if I had made any photos - and lately what do I do, when I want to check if I did any photos? I look it up here on the forum. Seems like I didn't so here you go

Some short words about the movie: It's great. Really hillarious, great fun to watch. I can recommend it. Also the edition (as you will see on the photos) is worth every penny - so much love went into this release! 😍

Enjoy:

 

#1074, #1073, #1059, #1049 | KOR | Molly's Game, John Wick 3 - John Wick 1 | Scanavo + 3x Steelbook (NE #26-28) 

EAN: 8809427724634, 8809427726157, 8809427726133, 8809427726119
Release date: May 16th, 2018
Region Code: free
Paid: 34,23€, 47,24€, 38,53€, 39,04€

Another package just arrived, and this time I remembered, that I used to have this cool headline over my posts, which actually I still like, and even though I am now only showing new arrivals as a group shot, I could still use it. So here we go, today my 1073rd and 1074th blu-ray releases arrived in my collection: John Wick 3, and Molly's Game. Molly's Game I wanted to get a while ago, but getting those as single purchases would just add up crazy on that postage costs, so I waited until I had more that I wanted to order from Nova Media. I've seen the movie and liked it (though it wasn't as good as I expected it to be - my heart is still fully consumed by Chastains performance in Miss Sloan - what a great movie!).



Also I started getting the John Wick releases from Nova Media. I loved John Wick from the very first movie, and really wanted to have it on Blu-ray. However, back in the days I couldn't get my hands on FAC releases, and later these where sold out and sold for crazy money. I always had them on my search list, and that was the reason why I didn't get into the first edition on Blu-ray by Novamedia. Regretted it, though. And since Nova is actually continuing the series, which for Filmarena is not a given anymore (they used to complete every movie series, in the past, but lately? Shazam, Joker and Aquaman, but no other DC movies, just Thor Ragnarok, Black Panther and the Spider-Man movies from Marvel, Star Trek Beyond (and none of the others), Pets 2, just "War of the Planet of the Apes", just "M:I Fallout" and "M:I Rogue Nation" - I feel that the passion that Filmarena used to put into these releases has all gone away and they are just a business, that doesn't care what collectors want, and if a release makes sense or not. So I am not trusting them to get us a John Wick 3, I don't believe that I'll ever get John Wick 1+2 for a good price, and so, heavy hearted, I opted for these new 4K WEA steelbooks, which look quiet decently and also fit together well. I do believe, that Nova will continue these and if they do, chances are, that it'll be in 4K (while Blu-ray could become unclair in future). So here we go, the whole set. I waited, till I had them all and now I am excited to open them up
 

And last but not least: Madhouse. Here I was once more lucky enough to get one of those collectors cards, and again one that is signed by the artworker (and one of my favorit artists, Timo Wuerz). Also, you might know that this label is primary done by Daniel Perée, and if you look into the booklets you'll often find that a lot of pictures are actually from his private collection, which is yet another indicator that this label is done out of passion.


 

My copy arrived today and I made some pictures for your enjoyment. Unfortnuately I did not get one of these lovely limited cards, so seems like I was too slow to order this one, unfortunately :(

 

My copy arrived today. Here are some detailed pictures. Enjoy!

There I was, saying that I would use this thread again more often - not as I used to as detailed pictures thread, but rather a "look what the postman brought"-kinda thread, and then I don't get any post for over two weeks (and even worse - I turn this thread into some kind of back ally news thread ). Enough of that, today finally the post man came to visit me once more, and brought me three different orders (in two packages). I'll go into more detail with one of the package, and the other one, you'll know where to find the detailed pictures of it, later

Interestingly, today I also learned that there are two kind of services from DHL - the shabby once that always break my packages, even though they cost 6€/parcel. The once who never ring at my door, or if they do, throw the package with a loud bang into the staircase and run off as fast as possible so they don't have to face my anger, or that do ring and come up, only to tell me that they cannot give me the package because it has a +18 label and I need to get it from the post office (because they are too lazy to do it at the door), or who sign the package themselves without delivering it, and then I only get it four days later.

And then there is DHL Express. Oct. 13th, the vendor ships it out, Oct. 14th the guy rings my door. At 7:45 am. Oh, and btw. did I mention that it was delivered by Amazon? In the US? Yep. USA -> Germany, on one freaking day. After an estimation that it would arrive tomorrow. And for a package that went all the way over the big ocean, it's in nearly mint condition. WTF? I had expected this to arrive end of October the erliest. The other package contained some films that I ordered from Wicked Vision - their two newest mediabooks + the third installment in the "Der Fluch der Galerie des Grauens" series.
 

Now while these Anolis titles all have their separate threads, the Friday the 13th doesn't, as far as I know? So I'll just briefly talk a bit about this release in here, because me getting it, is a bit strange for a couple of reasons:

1. I am not a huge fan of Friday the 13th. In fact from all the 70s/80s franchise slashers, I would argue that this is even my least favorite series (considering such other great franchises, such as Halloween [my favorite], The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, Psycho, Childs Play, etc.).
2. There is a Mediabook release of all these Friday the 13th, out in Germany.
3. I detest Amaray packaging, and for a lot of releases I just wait and hope that there'll be anything else in the making: Digibooks, Digipacks, Mediabooks, Steelbooks, Scanavo Cases, Boxsets, Fullslips, ...

Now let's start with the third reason - beacause back in the days I didn't care too much about disc content, and rather wanted great packaging. And I never minded Amaray releases on DVD, but I hate this blue translucent look. To me it looks really cheap. Plus most of the artworks look horrible because this blue is competing with the other colors and therefore destroys the intention of the artist. I have changed a bit in that regard, because I learned to value both, the quality that is not always good (during the start of Blu-ray there where a lot of upscale releases out there), plus I learned to value bonus material with background on movies so much more during the last years (as these started to become rare on standard Amaray-Blu-ray releases, compared to standard Amaray-DVDs in the old days). So even if there might be a better packaging, I also way in these factors, and rather go for an Amaray release with a lot of extras than a vanila disc in beatgold packaging with handwritten booklet by the actors themselves (well... maybe not in that case ).  Which leads me to the mediabooks. I was excited when I heared about the plans of '84. And again, back in those days, I was rather fond of '84 and gotten my hands on as many releases they did, as I could. I of course knew, that all their releases where rather pricey repacks. But, I didn't care, and I think '84 did do a good job in design, booklet and artwork of these releases, as well as in choice of titles. But once the plans got revealed, I was a bit disappointed. Prices where between 45€ - 50€ per movie, and they didn't get rights to all the movies, "Friday the 13th (1980)", "Jason goes to Hell", "Jason X" and "Freddy vs. Jason" would be missing from the set. But another label got these and promissed to do "fitting" counterparts - of course for the same prices. So you'd be spending 500€-600€ for the set. '84 did say that the licenses where rather expensive and they couldn't do it for a lower price, but they would still make it special though, and decided to go with padded mediabooks and some new and exclusive artwork, and text-free backs as they would come in quater-slips and it would also be three disc sets. Now, if you know me, I hate padded mediabooks Plus, I thought that the artwork, while a funny idea, is pretty cheap and uninspired: Every cover shows the mask that Freddy wears, which basically is the same (with some nuences of course). Backartwork = backside of the mask. That was an easy job for the artworker... To make things even worse, they did not at all work together with the other company, so the only thing the other four releases have in common, was the padded mediabook and the quaterslip. Covers don't match, spines don't match. And even content doesn't match: Instead of 28 pages of booklet, you get 6 lousy ones, instead of three discs you get two, one being the DVD, the other being a blu-ray repack from a dual-disc release: yep, if you get "Jason goes to hell" you get a disk with "Jason goes to hell" AND "Jason X", and you get the identical disk also on "Jason X". And that's for freaking 45-50€s, because the Mediabook is padded.

Normally, '84 goes for multiple Covers, plus they sometimes do a second edition, and a couple of insiders knew: There is more comming, so just wait. And I did. Because as much as I wanted these, I did not want to spend so much money on these films, especially if there where a couple of things that mad me really unhappy about them. Instead I wanted standard, non-padded mediabooks, for a "normal" 25€-30€. Hell, I'd even spent a bit more (like 35€) if it was so hard for '84 to get the rights, and everything. But then I also want non-padded with nice artwork. Show a bit of creativitiy and initiative!

They did. For 35€-40€, a year later, and in three different artworks, there came the second release. And boy was I excited. There was the Cover D that featured a drawn artwork (I think by Ralf Krause?) that was really stunning. On the paper everything looked great, and I ordered the first of them for the full price (I think I paid 36,99€), but what you got was: A single disc release, missing the DVD copy (that I don't care about) and the extras - and there I finally understood why '84 put all the extras on a second disk, even if there would have been space on one disc. So I cancelled them, and actually later found out that you could hunt them down on secondary markets originally sealed for arround 20€. And so I did. Unfortnuately, a few of them (Part 2+3) are hard to get, and the extremely ugly done parts 1, "Jason goes to Hell", "Jasonson X" and "Freddy vs. Jason" had a so low printing that they actually sold out the quickest, and are hard to get. I even feel that 20€/piece is a bit too high for what you get - it's the movie + artwork and booklet. Which I don't want to disrespect, the artwork of the '84 Entertainment books is really phenomenal, and each edition comes with 28 pages of text and artwork. Then again, there is this slight anger I have about the booklet - the first release uses the first and last page to display additional and alternative/rare artworks, even japanese movie posters wich are so strangely different to what we know. For the unpadded release however, '84 decided to replace these pages with their artwork they used on the padded books. So if you decided you didn't like that artwork, and went for something different, you still get that artwork, and do not get to enjoy the alternative/rare artworks out there. It's just a small thing, but for me it adds up.



But we collectors are stupid, and after paying aproximately 150€s on my 6 mediabooks, and being on the hunt for the last 6, that will probably cost twice as much (which I am not willing to pay), there came along this release by Shout Factory, in a absolutely stunning artwork box, that would set me back 150€ as well, but would not only contain all the movies, but also all the extras that I would have gotten with '84 in the padded mediabooks. Plus a lot of new extras and old ones (like audio commentaries) that '84 did not include. Plus, all new 4K masters they used, that are suposedly better than the once included in the mediabooks. Plus" Friday the 13th (1980)" and "Jason Goes to Hell" in two different cuts. Plus "Friday the 13th - Part 3" in 2D and 3D. Plus two additional disks with bonus features that did not fit the movie discs - including the entire "The Friday the 13th Chronicles" that '84 split up into different pieces to put on each of the single releases. And of course an all new 56p booklet - of course the last one cannot measure up with the single 28-p booklets by "Christoph N. Kellerbach", that would add up to some 250 pages in total. But that doesn't bother me. I would have loved to see some spine artwork or alternative cover artwork - but a few of these are actually reversible (with mostly more horrible poster artworks than the ones they chose to feature - but it's a nice gesture though, and I reversed 5 of the 8 reversible covers to show the more "rare" or more beautiful artwork  




All in all I am pretty impressed, and now the only thing keeping me from enjoying these is my still missing Region A player (yeah... I know... you told me so many times to get one... ). I am currently browsing amazon.com for a decent offer. As for my mediabooks, I am happy to not having to spent any crazy amounts on the four mediabooks that are not worth their money at all, and I'll keep the beautiful artwork ones. And who knows, maybe, if I am lucky, I can still hunt down parts 2 and 3 for a reasonable enough price, then I'll complete my collection of artwork beauties, but I am not in a hurry, nor is it bugging me to not having them all together so I can finally watch them all. Because now I have