The most insaine & exciting week of my DVD buying life (ET, Spidey, Clones & Rings) (1 Viewer)

As many know, importers here in the UK don't need to stick to US streetdates when importing Region 1 DVD titles for their customers. I kind of had a slight fear a whole bunch of AAA orders would arrive the same week, worse were fears I'd get two majors on the same day and be lost over what to tackle first... It happens this week has worked out rather amazingly well for early deliveries.
Monday: This was nothing but a typical monday, got on with my work, nothing arrived. Mondays are always boring, Garfield was right. Same old stuff, spent the day wishing a nice DVD would arrive, but no, nothing.
Tuesday: This day started quite differently as the postman brings me the E.T Gift Set, which is simply gorgeous. I was thrilled to receive this, it's one of my all time favourite movies and despite all the ridiculous troubles from Universal regarding the DVD release of the film itself, they did actually do a fine job in putting together the set, I wasn't expecting the outer box to be so strong, and the digipack holding the 4 discs inside is really rather nice.
There was a down side to Tuesday and E.T however, disc 2 (the 1982 cut of all things) has a scratch which screws up the movie at chapter 9. :frowning: I have applied some scratch removal solution this morning but it doesn't seem to have worked. I'll try again later, if nothing, I will look to replacing it somehow.
Wednesday: Spider-Man arrives. A delightful disc, one I was far more pleased with than I expected. Whilst some of the extras may leave a bit to be desired, I found the overall presentation to be rather good indeed.
I never really liked the way the movie looks as far as cinematography goes. I liked the transfer, but there's a lot crammed with the movie on disc 1 and none of the extras on that disc I have really taken too other than the vast selection of excellent TV spots. Nice menus though, and I like the 'quick navigation' option to skip sitting through animated menus and menu transitions...
Disc 2 I enjoyed more extras wise however, notably the comic themed supplements which are presented in comic style animated menus and play host to a great 25 minute documentary. Wednesday was a good day.
Thursday: Attack of the Clones. Now, I wasn't expecting this until tomorrow, so its arrival today was a special surprise. I saw a fair bit of this disc in LA in september and was impressed with the clarity and detail of the transfer. Having watched it all very early this morning (an 8am viewing no less) I find myself especially drawn to Kamino. Detail there is great, really exceptional stuff. Inspecting the whle film now close on my own set up, I still have issues with the High Def photography. Whilst issues of darkness are not as much of an issue on Crouscant as they were theatrically in DLP, issues of detail in some parts still remain, possibly due to reports of Lucas zooming and re-framing a number of shots in post production.
The sound on the disc is just great, I think it's a suprior mix to Phantom Menace in that, although TPM was stellar in many rights I always felt they tried every split surround trick in the book. Clones' mix was more subtle, it wasn't as over the top. The presentation of the 5.1 on the DVD is far more balanced than any of the 4 DLP and one 35mm showings I took back in May. Music isn't buried beneath sound effects, dialogue is really strong from the centre (dialogue was a terrible point of Phantom given so much ADR, there seems less here, that or they did a better job).
Having watched it in my home now, I am drawn more to the finer points of the sound than I am the picture. Yes the picture is great, but still the CG stands out a little too much for me (although CG Yoda REALLY looks real at times). I just don't feel won over by high def photography just yet. The transfer on Clones however is a grain haters wet dream.
Friday: What's to come tomorrow I wonder? Myyy preeeecioussssss...... At a cubic foot in size, and 4lbs in weight I intend to dedicte this weekend to tomorrow's expected arrival.
I will update my thoughts on all of the above in due course. I just wanted to share what an exicting week this has been for me and DVDs. I don't intend to buy any more until December as my dear wallet need's a break.
Dan

Best DVD week ever! Received Spidey on tuesday, Clones today and I should get the ET Gift Set and the Fellowship Of The Ring box tomorrow as well. I've only watched Spiderman so far but I was surprised how good it looked after the negative reviews.

I don't intend to buy any more until December as my dear wallet need's a break.

I wish I could stop! Although with Episode 2 and FOTR out of the way Novembers now looking like a bit of an empty month for R1 purchases for me.


Richard

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Band of Brothers screams to be purchased though, Richard. Another £55 gone there at some point.
I've gone over a few of the supplements on Clones this afternoon, finishing up on what I saw at Fox in LA with my fellow mods the other month. I'll be one to come out in support of having 3 great documentaries now instead of the one long one we got for Phantom. 'Puppets to Pixels' really is a gem, and shows a very humerous side to Lucas the public rarely gets to see.
My one regret about the featurettes and documentaries is that we get no major focus on the music, and at least last time we got one of the web featurettes about the TPM score. There was a really good EPK music promo for clones in which you could distinctly hear hints of unused cues and alternate cues, it's a shame that never made it to the DVD, but there's a heck of a lot here, there really is. They're taking the structure that TPM set and building upon it a little more here and there.
When I have more time tonight to fully relax with the disc, I will tackle the commentary. I want to get as much out of the way before Fellowship arrives.
Dan

I'm just happy FOTR will be with me for the weekend. My brother is home from late tomorrow night until monday morning and I've not seen him in a few months. He knows a Clones viewing awaits him, but he'll be over the moon when he sees Fellowship arrived.

Dan

SpiderMan should arrive tomorrow or saturday and both Star Wars & Fellowship should arrive soon as well. Don't you just love getting them before the actual date they go on sale.

Depends on the movie, Oscar. Spider-Man, I wouldnt have really minded when that reached me, I just wanted a good price on it and I thought it was a decent enough movie, but given it's typical for discs to ship early here, it came early which was nice, it's always nice to be sure. It has been on sale with a few importers for a couple of weeks, but not at prices I wanted to pay for it, as it's just not a title I lusted for.

As far as lusting for any kind of DVD at the earliest possible opportunity, the biggest deal for me is Fellowship of the Ring. I can not put into words how excited I am to take in this set.

Right after seeing the film on opening day last year, one of the first things I said about it was any form of expanded cut of that movie would be nothing short of perfection, and this weekend I hope to be proven right. My love for Tolkien is probably deeper than my love for Star Wars, both are things I grew up with but I was really thrilled with what PJ did with Fellowship as he just captured so many visions I had as a child of Middle Earth and its inhabitants. I just adore the film and in knowing what PJ can make of a special edition (frightners ld) I expect a spectacular experience for both film and supplements this weekend.

Dan

Looks like you are coming down with the flu, right? Got my Spidey but have to wait till maybe next week for Clones and Rings.

Remember this week Dan - there will be few others like it.
Most of those I'll hold off for as Christmas gifts. FOTR is one I can't wait for so that will be an early pickup.
Keep us posted on whether or not you indeed get your FOTR copy for the weekend.
Don't forget - you promised a super duper review!

Dan the man i can beat you this week..

So far this week got:-

Dog Soldiers
ET Gift Set
Band of Brother
ST:TNG 5
X-Files 6
SW: AOTC
Spiderman:Limited Gift Set
Babylon 5 Series 1

Hopefully LOTR-Gift Set tommorow (the one i'm wanting most)


I'ved never had so many boxsets arrive at once.. 3 today ET, Spiderman, Band of brothers.. I bet the Postman was cursing me..

That ET set is darned heavy - to be honest i thought it was jsut a digipack with 3 discs.. Tha'll teach me now so i'll look at the specs fully in future..

Lou,
Fear not. My gift set shipped last night so it will be here saturday morning at the latest. I'd like to do what I'd hope will be one of the first dedicated in depth reviews of just the extended cut itself, and hopefully with that I can can convince the movie mods to let us fanboys have a dedicated single review & discussion thread just for the extended version of the movie...

Looks like you are coming down with the flu, right?

*cough* ......yes, indeed. I've lost all hearing in my ears, and my vision is all blurry. Oddly, I can hear 5.1 crystal clear and can see images on a DVD perfectly. I have a feeling these symptoms may be passing amongst the HTF membership in the coming weeks...
I've done the commentary on AOTC this evening. Good stuff, moves at a good pace just as the movie does. Some informative little bits in there, ILM tweaks you'd never even know were tweaks, really openes your eyes as to what they can do with an image. There's some funny moments too, notably Ben Burrt refering to the idea of killing an R4 droid would get them an NC 17. Great stuff all round!
Waiting to hear back from my retailer if they will replace my E.T for me as I sure as hell cant mend it sadly. Strong chance they will, they seem to have good reputation for doing so. Fingers crossed.
Dan

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This week gets possibly more insaine! Yesterday it wasnt looking like my usual early supplier would have FOTR gift set in stock in time for me to have it for the weekend so last night I e-mailed them to cancel that order, and I placed an order with another importer who had it in stock and who would have it to me by saturday...
WELL, this morning, my original importer replies to that e-mailed cancelation request saying that actually, it shipped last night for me. Great I thought, I like giving them my business, good bunch of people and I know they will get it to me saturday morning at the latest.
With that all in mind I send this other importer I placed an order with a cancelation e-mail. I'd not used these guys before, so just to be sure, I rang them and had it confirmed over the phone "yup, yup that's done for you".... Good stuff. Out of curiosity though, I chcked my account status with these people to make sure it read canceled on their site..... it reads despatched.... Uhm, I now realise may end up with TWO of these beasties tomorrow.
Now, a few possibilities here. They did cancel it and thats an error on their site, which I hope to god it is, for their sake, or they get a nasty phone call from me in the morning. Second possibility, it shipped and I wasnt billed... That's the dream scenario. Third, I just sell the double to someone next week, nice and early before streetdate.
The above story is proof of how fanboy desperation can backfire good and proper. Heck, if all this happened to me in a single day it'd make a bloody cracking episode of 24.
The adventure continues,
Dan

Oh, and I wanted to add that matching Star Wars DVD spines on the shelf looks incredibly cool.
Dan

I'm moving to Europe...

You'll move back when you see the prices these things cost us. I'm a chump and not afraid to admit it.
Dan

Hey Dan I was like that for LOTR- the 2 disc version i REALLY needed it.. so i ordered it from like 3 places.. got 3 copies - LOL

Yep the SW disc does look good on the shelf.. makes it ordered..

Hopefully i'll get the LOTr-5-Dsicer tommorow.. if so it will be a busy viewing weekend.. Can you believe it i still haven't watched SW:AOTC and i'ved had it like 10 hours.. LOL

"You'll move back when you see the prices"

What are you paying for the 5-discer Dan.. I'm paying a mental £58 (around US$80) paying a lot but i know it'll be worth it..