Sci-Fi from Warner (1 Viewer)

[Dan McW]

All six of the stores within 150 miles of me have each of these titles, whereas only a couple (each 100 miles away) had the Paramount/Legend releases.

For those of you unable to search for these titles on Best Buy's site, it has them listed as "Sci-Fi 70's #1 (Dbfe)," "Sci-Fi 70's #2 (Dbfe)," and "Sci-Fi 50's (Dbfe)." Fool that I am, I actually thought that I could type in one of the movie's titles to check on its availability at my local store. I had to scroll through a few new releases to figure out how they're listing them.

 

[John Sparks]

They just opened a new Best Buy by my house (making 5) and I picked these up today:

All 3 Sci-Fi Double Features
Phase IV
Possession of Joe Delaney
Deadly Bees
The Sender
Man who could Cheat Death

Also Planet Terror

 

[Walter Kittel]

Dan,

Thank you for the search tip.

- Walter.

 

[Dan McW]

You're welcome!

I found all three titles on the new-release shelf at my Best Buy, with one title also stocked in the sci-fi section (alphabetized under "S" because of its "Sci-Fi" series title).

There's a G rating on the packaging for both films on the WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH DVD, but apparently the uncut version of DINOSAURS has been released. The DVD version times in at 99:37 or so, even though the packaging states 96m.

 

[John Sparks]

Beat me to it!

 

[Bob Cashill]

The NoHo BB in New York had all three WB's in stock...plus, finally, some (not all) of the Legends--FRAMED, MANDINGO, etc.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I'd get my copy or copies quick. Once the parent complaints of Nudity and Sex in a "G" release start coming in it will be pulled and re-issued ala the 1st release of "The Swamp Thing". I'd expect the later Warners release to be the re-release.

 

[John Sparks]

Watching "World Without End" on a Mit 65711 CRT RPTV professionally calibrated by one of the best in the business and the pic is perfect!!!

It's like this film was never ran in the theaters and we get to see it the first time...what a treat!!!

I hope WB keeps this up and releases all they have.

We know that they'll never be released on BD, so this is the time to collect them!!!

 

[Dick]

I've been watching WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH and can say that it is way dark and too contrasty. Once you adjust the brightness, it's pretty decent. Nice to finally have it. The aspect ratio is about 1.66:1.

Haven't watched much of MOON ZERO TWO, but the wacky title sequence is like something out of a Disney comedy, and completely inexplicable if this is a serious sci-fi flick.

 

[Simon Howson]

Warner Home Video can do amazing work with early CinemaScope negatives. Just look at their work this year on Kismet, Hit the Deck and Pete Kelly's Blues. I am glad to hear it has continued with World Without End, and am anxiously waiting my copy that a friend in the U.S. is buying for me.

 

[soop.spoon]

I really hope these sell well... anyone care to speculate what a round 2 might look like?

- Atlantis The Lost Continent / The Power
- Captain Nemo & the Underwater City / The Hellstrom Chronicle

?

 

[BradleyS]

Why assume that? Surely it's easier to change the packaging from G to R than it would be to author and press all new discs with an edited version. Didn't the COUNTESS VAMPIRE/VAMPIRE LOVERS DVD get recalled so they could change the packaging from PG to R? Granted, there is the SWAMP THING counterexample, but I wouldn't assume Warners will necessarily release the edited cut. But I hope everyone who wanted a copy got one, just in case!

 

[Dick]

THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE was a 1971 Columbia release and so will not being showing up on any Warner Bros. product - or, for that matter, on its own product, as the doomsday narrative aspect of the movie hasn't aged well (although the movie won an Oscar for Best Documentary). The Ken Middleham photography is astonishing (you can also see his work in PHASE IV) and I have been championing a release of the film for years. Just don't think it'll happen, although Columbia seems at long last to be getting its act together (new management?)

Re: WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH: Some of Jim Danforth's stop-motion actually rivals Harryhausen's (I expect to be flamed), and I think this is about his best work as an animator. But, damn, between this and ONE MILLION YEARS B.C., if I ever hear the word "Akita!" again, I will gag. It is used about every four words in the "dialog" of both movies and seems to mean anything and everything. Piss-poor "language" created, I guess, by the screenwriter. Just not enough vocabulary. Sign language and grunts would have been preferable to the five hundred times "Akita!" is uttered. Rant over. A good movie to have in order to fill out the dinosaur movie gap. I thought it odd this was paired with MOON ZERO TWO instead of, say, the more thematically parallel CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT (which actually had no dinosaurs at all but was a Hammer prehistoric epic).

 

[JeffMc]

CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT is with Columbia (just like HELLSTROM) so that one is up to Sony to release.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Because Vampire Lovers was a ratings mistake. There is no edited version of When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth or Swamp Thing. Swamp thing rerelease was the original release just as released in US theaters in the U.S. as PG. An uncut European release was put on the 1st DVD. When Dinosaurs Ruled was released in US theaters as a G rated film and a different version with Nudity and sex was released in Europe and this is what was just released on DVD. Warners already released the original theatrical US G rated release on VHS and Laserdisc so it would not be hard for them to switch and its why the packaging shows a G rating.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Looks like I lost out... Although I live in the U.S., there are no Best Buy stores in my immediate area. So I pre-ordered all three "BB exclusive" WB sci-fi double features via Best Buy's online store --fourteen days ago (very shortly after the first news of their imminent release first broke on the Classic Horror Film Board, probably before many people even knew about them)-- only to get an email this Tuesday saying all three were back-ordered. :frowning:

Now the news that WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH/MOON ZERO TWO is being recalled, while some out there gloat and ramp up the price on extra copies they've horded and put on Ebay. Meanwhile, I try to play by the rules, order online (my only option) early, and end up with zilch.

A similar thing happened when I pre-ordered the Legend Films BB exclusive of PHASE IV, a couple of week ahead of street date... I'm still waiting for a copy to be shipped to me. :frowning:

That's my big beef with this "Best Buy exclusives" business. Though annoying, I can live with the idea of not being able to find the best price on certain select titles, between several different retailers (Amazon, DeepDiscount, Walmart, Best Buy, etc). But when there are no walk-in Best Buy stores near me, and their online store has such trouble filling pre-orders, I get seriously pissed-off, and want this cynical marketing practice to end. Instead, naturally, it only spreads to more and more DVD companies!

If the studios insist on following this path, why can't these things ever be Amazon.com exclusives, instead?

 

[soop.spoon]

Wow you're right. Not sure why I blanked on that one. That's unfortunate... I can't see Sony scrambling to get this one out there.

 

[soop.spoon]

Hold your horses... has it actually been recalled? The discussions on this thread appear to be speculation only. ?

 

[mdnitoil]

It's not been recalled. There's just rampant speculation that it's a candidate for recall. This is just fair warning based on previous Warner behavior not to wait around forever.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

On the CHFB forum, at least one regular poster there said he went to his local BB, looking for WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH/MOON ZERO TWO. Copies of the other two WB double-feature DVDs were on display, but not that one. Figuring it had temporarily sold out, he asked the sales clerk about it. She said, according to her computer, the WDRTE/MZT DVDs were "defective", and were being sent back.

Hey, if the recall is a hoax, or if the only change turns out to be WB replacing the "G" rating listed on the WDRTE portion of the case with "unrated" (or "PG-13" or "R"), and I get the DVDs I ordered in a reasonable time-frame, that's fine. But I have a bad feeling this may end up like the original MGM DVD release of SWAMP THING (which featured the "European cut"), or the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986) disc with the alternate ending, or those copies of Fox's BOOMERANG (1947) that slipped out a year or so ago.

Then there's the issue of my pre-ordering all three double-features from the website about as early as one possibly could, when the news about their release hadn't spread to this or other forums (beyond the CHFB boards) or the DVD DRIVE-IN news page yet, only to have them listed as "back-ordered" when the 7/29 street date rolled around. What's up with that? Did that many people really pre-order, for example, BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH/THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, before the word fully got out that the disc was even in the cards, to the extent that the BB website was out-of-stock on the morning of street date? Call me crazy, but I have my doubts.

If anyone knows how Best Buy operates, what I'm really asking is, does their online incarnation only get its stock of "exclusives" after the brick & mortar BB stores fill their shelves? I know there's the "Store Pickup" feature at their website, but what about the stock shipped out to home addresses? Does that end of the business get the leftovers/overstock?

I'm normally a pretty patient guy, but in a situation like this, I don't particularly like having to wonder if I'll get something I ordered from a major retailer.