A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Time Machine -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[ROclockCK]

I saw this at the video store the other day - great movie, but a gawdawful cover. Seriously, what photoshop intern did they shanghai to knock that piece of crap out during their lunch hour?

It's just a quickie port of the re-release DVD cover (keepcase edition). I suspect the budget for this Blu-ray was probably pretty low...basically, just getting it out for the faithful.


This is one case though where I think I would have preferred it go the Archive. All of the Blu-rays I've seen from that series have been beautifully rescanned/remastered.

 

[Nelson Au]

Regarding the Warner Archive releases, just my uninformed belief, but are those just scanned and not remastered or tinkered with? I have a copy of PT-109 from the Archive from the same era as The Time Machine, and I thought PT-109 looked great! And I assumed it was because it wasn't tinkered with.

The first release of The Time Machine DVD looked really good and with great color. When I upgraded to a 65" plasma from a 50", the DVD looked fantastic and with great color resolution. Maybe it was partly due to the increase in the screen size. The colors that surprised me the most was the reddish color and glow of the lamp in George's desk as he wrote the note in his calendar for the next dinner meeting with the group after they left George's house in disbelief of his Time Machine. The other part that looked great or bad, depending on how you see it, is the sequence when George is in the Morlock cave and he's fighting off the Morlocks amd trying to save Weena and you see the back drop is a clearly painted one.

I figure the blu ray is from the same source. And maybe they didn't spend a lot of effort on the transfer. If this is the best blu ray copy we can ever get of The Time Machine, then it's not bad!

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Brad here. OK somebody out there is messing with my head. Either this is a joke or maybe soon we'll see a Blu-ray release of The Time Machine (2002 Remake). Found this doing a search for a possible Blu for TM2002.


If true, would love to pair this up with my 1960 original Blu in a nice little tin set.

 

[Mark-P]

Well gosh darn, this is already out of print. I had this on the back burner waiting for a good sale. I hope Warner decides to do another printing because I can't find it in stock anywhere.

Edit: I had to import it from another country. They still have copies in Canada and Germany.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Yikes! You're right. Some guy on amazon is trying to sell it for $200.

 

[Nelson Au]

That is unfortunate they sneak this release out and it has such a limited run. Glad I got my copy upon the release day.

 

[Worth]

It's still available at amazon.ca for $10.25CDN.

 

[dpippel]

Well gosh darn, this is already out of print. I had this on the back burner waiting for a good sale. I hope Warner decides to do another printing because I can't find it in stock anywhere.

Edit: I had to import it from another country. They still have copies in Canada and Germany.

Care to share your source(s)?

 

[Mark-P]

Care to share your source(s)?

Sources for what? I've searched every online retailer (including WBshop.com) and the title is nowhere to be found. As I already said, Amazon.ca and Amazon.de still have stock, and I was able to import a copy as I didn't want to miss out.
**perhaps "out-of-print" is the wrong terminology as that would imply that Warner has formally withdrawn the title, when in fact they have only sold out of existing stock. The fact that Amazon doesn't have it available for back-order would imply that they don't expect more stock.

 

[dpippel]

I was speaking about sources in Canada and Germany to purchase the title. Thanks for the heads-up on Amazon.

 

[Tommy R]

Has Warner underestimated the demand for The Time Machine? I don't know how many copies they made, nor how many copies would be made for an older film, nor how fast the studio would expect it to sell, but I like to think that Warner is pleased with The Time Machine's blu ray sales and are thinking of perhaps another release with some new special features. Rod Taylor and Russell Garcia have both passed in the last few years, and Alan Young will be 97 on his next birthday. There must be other people who worked on the film that could give new interviews.

 

[Garysb]

Canada's Amazon listing has availability in one to two months. Also listed as an import. Not sure if orders will be for-filled especially if they are importing from the USA.

 

[Worth]

It was in stock yesterday. Guess they got snapped up quickly once word spread.

 

[bgart13]

I asked the WAC folks about this on FB, here's their very welcome response:

"Good news to report, a system error may have indicated this was OOP, but any problems have been corrected and we can confirm that Blu-ray availability will no longer be an issue. Thanks."

 

[Nelson Au]

Looks like Amazon didn't get the message yet.

 

[TonyD]

Wbshop hasnt either.

 

[Mark-P]

I asked the WAC folks about this on FB, here's their very welcome response:

"Good news to report, a system error may have indicated this was OOP, but any problems have been corrected and we can confirm that Blu-ray availability will no longer be an issue. Thanks."

Seriously? WB is sitting on a warehouse full of stock and not sending them out to retailers because of a system error? Oh brother!

Edit: After more thought. It's more likely that the "system error" is what prevented them from pressing more and they really are out of stock and now that it is fixed they will do another pressing get get them back out there ASAP.

 

[David Norman]

If you really want a copy for less than $20 then check at local Barnes & Noble stores -- quite a few of mine list it as instock.
No huge deals right now, but there will be a 20% store coupon available Monday Only if you want to reserve a copy and pick it up. I'm
not sure of the current store price, but max price would be $16 with the discount. It might make a really good deal if you picked up any of those
$10 Promo Gift Cards during Nov/BF sales and especially the BF Promo cards that expire in a month

Coupon
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/promos/bn-promo.jsp?cid=4400004

 

[Mark-P]

For those who are still waiting for a copy, Amazon has it available for order again. New stock expected on March 27th.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I ordered the German release (which has the nicer cover) instead.