Big Lots Sale (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

I've been craving Archway fried Cocoanut macaroons and they are the only place here I know that has them. Otherwise, I wouldn't go in mine either.

I did notice they had the Bean's Holiday with the Christmas stack tucked under a shelf, stacked up so I had to remove stuff and place it elsewhere to actually look. I decided to hold off on that movie. It'll probably be $3.

Oh man, yeah... another dump would be great. Although I need it to wait until I've finished paying for Dark Shadows the complete series that I just bought.

 

[Malcolm R]

Looked like some new Christmas titles at my store last night. Nothing really "new" or exciting though. Seemed like lots of the same titles they had last year. Some I recall:

Four Christmases
Fred Claus
Prancer Returns
The Bells of St. Mary's
Cricket on the Hearth/Little Drummer Boy
Jack Frost (with Michael Keaton)

 

[BobO'Link]

I've been craving Archway fried Cocoanut macaroons and they are the only place here I know that has them. Otherwise, I wouldn't go in mine either.

I did notice they had the Bean's Holiday with the Christmas stack tucked under a shelf, stacked up so I had to remove stuff and place it elsewhere to actually look. I decided to hold off on that movie. It'll probably be $3.

Oh man, yeah... another dump would be great. Although I need it to wait until I've finished paying for Dark Shadows the complete series that I just bought.

Yeah, I love those macaroons too! Don't make the same mistake I did... I looked at the nutritional information. Let's just say they're not the most healthy snack and eating almost an entire bag in one sitting is *not* a good idea!

Looked like some new Christmas titles at my store last night. Nothing really "new" or exciting though. Seemed like lots of the same titles they had last year. Some I recall:

Four Christmases
Fred Claus
Prancer Returns
The Bells of St. Mary's
Cricket on the Hearth/Little Drummer Boy
Jack Frost (with Michael Keaton)

Your store is behind - the one here put those out about a month ago (but they've not put out *any* Halloween titles here so...). The sad part is last year those were all $3/each and this year they're $5. Bummer... although I *did* pick up Bells of St. Mary's as it's OOP. There's a reprint coming from Olive Films but I doubt it'll be as low as $5 for a loooong time. I also picked up a Four Christmases/Fred Clause 2-fer for $5 since at $2.50/film it's probably worth the cost.

I miss looking through new stuff. At one time I was spending $40-$50 a month on DVDs from BL. I don't think I've dropped that much in the past 6 months.

 

[BobO'Link]

OK James... I'll see your WM finds with these from SAM's Club.

I stopped in a couple of days ago for a few things and found these (links to Amazon):

Marilyn the Premier Collection - $24.96

This is a 17(!) disk collection with the following films:

All About EveAs Young As You FeelLets Make It LegalLove NestDon't Bother To KnockMonkey BusinessO. Henry's Full HouseWe're Not MarriedGentlemen Prefer BlondesHow To Marry A MillionaireNiagaraThere's No Business Like Show BusinessThe Seven Year ItchBus StopSome Like It HotLet's Make LoveThe Misfits

From what I've read these are all the "remastered" versions of the films - *BUT* the packaging is basically cardboard foldout pages with slots for the disks. For the ~$1.60 per film I figure I can put up with that (and the duplicates as I already own about a third of the titles). I had several of those films in my Amazon wishlist and the individual prices for *3* of them were higher than that 17 disk set so I'm *very* happy about the find.

Then I spotted:

Mr. Moto Volume 1 & Volume 2 - $14.96 each.

Those are each a 4 film set and together contain the entire Mr. Moto Mystery collection. I'd snagged a copy of Charlie Chan V1-5 when Amazon had those sets for ~$60 a couple of months ago and was lamenting they'd not offered such a deal on Mr. Moto. Of course I grabbed these as well! My "Oriental Sleuth" collection is now complete (I'd picked up the Boris Karloff "Mr. Wong" series as well as the other Chan films some time back)!

There were *2* copies of each title on a end cap waterfall display along with some other sets (I recall a "Best of Superman" one but none of the others as I was too excited about the 3 I quickly snagged).

 

[Radioman970]

woooooooah! I don't have a SAMS unfortuanately. I do remember amazon having that set on sale once and I nearly got it.

I have a very nice book with tons of pictures of her that belonged to my mother throughout my childhood. There's huge creases on some pages. She just gave it to me a few years back. I'm sure I looked more than her. ha!

 

[BobO'Link]

Wonders never cease... I was at BL Saturday and they had finally put out some Halloween DVD titles. I picked up a copy of the Unrated Mother of Tears simply because people on another forum have made such a big deal about the unrated version. I had a duplicate title in the car I traded in for it. I can always trade it again should reviews and other information makes me think I made a mistake. Other than that one the rest are things I already have or don't care for. They had a copy of Black Christmas which seems to get raves but reading the back it sounds like just another slasher movie and I do not like slasher movies so it stayed at the store.

 

[Radioman970]

The original Black Christmas is great. I think it's beyond slasher... kind of like Psycho is. Reminds me of Hitchcock and the movie Halloween mixed up. The best thing about the film deals with the telephone. Really well done. Not trying to talk you into it, but it really is good. I think it's better than almost every slasher of the time. Halloween goes it one up.

Now that remake, I never have liked it. Gave it 2 chances to impress and it just feels like the filmmaker missed the whole point of the original. I think people hate the remake of Halloween for the same reason.

 

[BobO'Link]

^I didn't know there were 2 versions of Black Christmas so I didn't really look at the production date. I may give it another look when I go back to see if it's the original or remake. I like Psycho and the original Halloween because they are more psychological horror than slasher movie even though they have slasher elements. Thanks!

 

[TravisR]

^I didn't know there were 2 versions of Black Christmas so I didn't really look at the production date. I may give it another look when I go back to see if it's the original or remake.

The original was released by a relatively small video company so I imagine it's The Weinstein Company's remake.

 

[Malcolm R]

The remake is actually titled "Black Xmas" vs. the original "Black Christmas."

 

[Radioman970]

I think it's probably the remake as well.

@ Bob. The original definitely has psychological elements to it. It's much much more than just a series of killings. I'd put it with A Christmas Story as Bob Clark's finest achievements.

 

[BobO'Link]

Was in BL last night to use the very last 20% off Buzz Club reward on my card (sad day). I mentioned it to the manager who doesn't much care for the new system and says it's already affected sales and new traffic - he's watched my wife and I work the old system as have all the checkers. They always knew when we'd earned a 20% off based on what was in the cart. Anyway...

It is the remake that's in the store here. Thanks for the input everyone!

The best part of the trip was I had a $5 off $20/$10 off $40/$15 off $60 coupon that stacked with the 20% for a really good discount. I took home ~$65 worth of stuff for a bit over $40 tax included. My wife had originally wanted a new Christmas tree which would have been just under $100 with tax for one of the $180 ones after the current sale price/discounts/coupon but changed her mind at the last minute. I just don't understand her sometimes...

 

[Radioman970]

That remake is probably full screen too. Mine was. It's a good looking film, but for me they just missed what made the original such a classic.

I didn't know trees were so much. I have the one my family put up throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. It's still in good shape. Well... okay shape. enough of those silver stream things put on and it looks like the real thing!

 

[BobO'Link]

^Yeah... trees... For my money a "Charlie Brown" tree looks OK once you fill it up with ornaments, garland, etc. She thinks she wants a "pre lit" variety even though I'm the one who puts the light strings on the tree. That way she doesn't have to wait for me...

 

[Malcolm R]

^Yeah... trees... For my money a "Charlie Brown" tree looks OK once you fill it up with ornaments, garland, etc. She thinks she wants a "pre lit" variety even though I'm the one who puts the light strings on the tree. That way she doesn't have to wait for me...

Prelit is a pain if the strings start going out. My mother had a prelit tree that was pretty good for a couple years, but then the strings began going out and we couldn't find the defective bulbs. She finally just cut all the light strings off the tree and now strings her own lights.

Myself, I'm still using a 7-1/2-foot "way after Christmas and closer to Easter" clearance tree I bought at Ames about 25 years ago for $10 (marked down from $149). It still works fine.

 

[Radioman970]

I was given a replica Charlie Brown tree from my mom. Looks just like the real thing.

 

[BobO'Link]

Prelit is a pain if the strings start going out. My mother had a prelit tree that was pretty good for a couple years, but then the strings began going out and we couldn't find the defective bulbs. She finally just cut all the light strings off the tree and now strings her own lights.

Myself, I'm still using a 7-1/2-foot "way after Christmas and closer to Easter" clearance tree I bought at Ames about 25 years ago for $10 (marked down from $149). It still works fine.

That's always been my beef with those pre-lit monstrosities. Many of them are just standard strings of lights zip tied to the limbs. I'd rather do lights the old school way so if there's a problem just dump the bad string and go on.

I was given a replica Charlie Brown tree from my mom. Looks just like the real thing.

Big Lots has some of those in stock (a bit over a foot tall when assembled) and I almost picked one up because it looks kind of cool. At the store here they are with the annoying animated stuffed animal things. I think it may play "Christmas Time is Here" if you press a button on the base. If so that would by why it's in that location. My wife loves those annoying animated stuffed animal things - as do the grand kids. I usually have to buy one or two every year but I've managed to *not* buy one this year. I think it's because she has all the "good" ones BL sells. My grand kids like to see if they can get them all going at once (she has 20+ of the things). I leave the room when that starts...

I actually found one I like last year - it's a snowman about 6" tall that repeats what you say (kind of like Furby but you can understand it as it mainly pitches a sound a couple of octaves higher and speeds it up a bit). I like to set up two of them close together and get them going with each other in a kind of snowman feeding frenzy. It really annoys the wife... ;D

 

[Mike Frezon]

I was given a replica Charlie Brown tree from my mom. Looks just like the real thing.

I think it says a lot about how A Charlie Brown Christmas is wedded to the American consciousness that people can say a plastic tree can look like the "real thing."

 

[Radioman970]

to me that sucker is almost real! lol

It came with a single Christmas ball that weighs it down. Now... you can't argue with that right there!!

 

[BobO'Link]

Well... now that the full BL BF ad is out it appears BL will be a total "meh" this year. No soup for you!

The *only* thing I saw DVD wise is Buy 1 Get 1 50% off (or 25% off). They show this for $5 titles but I'd guess it includes all of them. It also shows this price to be a Thanksgiving Day price but it's probably all weekend.

There are also a few Disney BR for $8 each but nothing jumped out for me as it's all titles for which I already own the DVD (if interested) and probably wouldn't upgrade even if I owned a BR player.

NO TV sets of any type!

Ahhhh for the "good ole days" of $6/$10 TVonDVD seasons with several worthy contenders...