Does anyone hate late DVD reviews? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

The 2-DVD one lists for $40 and the single-disc version's $30 - how is the former twice as expensive? Heck, Amazon is selling the deluxe one for only $6 more!

 

[Adam Tyner]

Best Buy and Circuit City were selling the single disc for $15.99 and the 2-disc for $29.99 last week. I'd assume that's what Burke is referring to.

 

[Brian McHale]

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone reference DVD-Basen. They have links to just about every online DVD review. If I'm curious about a DVD and haven't stumbled upon a review, I just check out DVD-Basen.

As far as wanting websites to provide prerelease reviews, most of these sites are free to use and most of the reviewers have a "real" job (so they can't immediately go through every disc they receive). It seems unfair to criticize them for not always being timely (expecially since it's often out of their control).

I, personally, am grateful for whatever assistance these online rviewers can provide in helping me spend my money wisely.

 

[oscar_merkx]

the only time I do any research for dvds is for back catalogue titles. Just to see which region has the better version out there and buy it

 

[Bill Williams]

Another thing I have to add to what Ron mentioned earlier is that perhaps there are circumstances beyond the reviewer's control that prevent him or her from meeting that deadline (sickness, death in the family, accident). In those cases, those circumstances are perfectly understandable.

I'm a book and merchandise editor/reviewer for TrekWeb, a Star Trek fan web site, and I cannot tell you how many times I've had to wait to review certain books and/or products because either the product was late in arriving (one time I had to wait five months for books to arrive before I could review them - the books released in May, it took me until October before I ever got them), or I had too many pressing things going on at the time (sickness, out of town for conferences, marriage and honeymoon). So I can relate to what Ron has mentioned earlier.

However, there are some DVDs that hit the stores, and nobody ever gives it the once-over. Take Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie, for example. The DVD came out in March '03, and I found very few online reviews of this really great DVD. TDB, HTF, DVD Review, DVD File, FSM Aisle Seat (the five "biggies", in my book) didn't get this one reviewed at all. I'm thinking it may have been because none of them were sent review copies of the 2-disc set. They should have been, or someone should have picked it up and done a review. But I'd put it up against anything and everything Disney/Pixar has come out with any day. Perhaps I should do a review of this disc for HTF

 

[DaViD Boulet]

If it's a big title that I know lots of folks will want to preorder and I get the DVD early, I try my best to get the review up before street.

But there are so many lesser-DVDs that arrive that it would be impossible to do that with everything. Sometimes if I get a "lull" I've thought about going back and reviewing some discs that are already available but that I never had a chance to review because another title took precedence. So far I haven't because I've wondered what the reaction of folks would be to see a DVD review showing up several weeks/months after release date. What would you guys rather for the "B/C List" titles that lost out a pre-street-date review to a bigger title...would you rather have a late review or none at all?

-dave

 

[Brian McHale]

Better late than never, I say. Face it, the only downside to posting a review late rather than not posting it at all is that it inconveniences the reviewer; there is NO downside to the reader. I often find out well after the fact that a movie is out on DVD. I will often go hunting for an online review to try to determine if it's a good release.

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I do get annoyed with late reviews too. If the site does not get a DVD in time, or cannot allocate the time to review it, I understand, but that should be the exception, rather than the rule. If they cannot get reviews up in a timely fashion, then they shouldn't bother. Some sites, such as the Bits almost NEVER have a review up before or even a week after it's release. They have been putting up reviews of titles that have been out for months. Which is why I haven't read their reviews for almost a year now. I now rely almost soley on the HTF, since the HTF has been exccellent about putting up reviews in a timely fashion, and I'm happy about that.

 

[Ron-P]

Late reviews don't bother me as I pay very little attention to them anyway. If I like the movie I'll buy it regardless of reviews.

Heck, the movies that get seriously slammed by reviewers are the ones I usually like.

 

[Shane_M]

I know being in Canada has effected me when it comes to reviews. Although, I'm not one of the big guys it would be nice to get some of the titles a little sooner.

There is one site I visit occassionally, and have stopped doing so, because they claim to have early reviews of titles just days after they are announced.

For example they claim to have a review of the upcoming Star Wars Trilogy when all they have was that it was announced. Of course, now there is the cover art and official details.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

More often than not this is because there are no review copies released, or no PR agency handling the title.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Unlikely. I got a review copy, so I can't imagine the others didn't...

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Better late than never is my sentaments exactly, you might review something I haven't given much thought to, and then it might move me to purchase it. I seem to be moved to purchase a lot of things based on reviews especially from David here at HTF...I had 0 interest in Freaky Friday until his review hit.

Bill, I actually like to see that more people are starting to be willing to do reviews of stuff they get that isn't being reviewed. David VP has done a couple of good reviews for the Dick Van Dyke sets over in the HTF Software-TV section. I've written some stuff for WWE releases, because those rarely ever get reviewed, and even the wrestling sites that review them do more of a recap of the matches than an actual review of the DVD. Yet, I know there are people out there that are not sure if they should get a certain title, because they don't know what's on it. I wrote a review for the Stonecold truth and a couple people at HTF picked it up whereas they might not have if they hadn't read a review, and I did mine without even commenting on the A/V quality of the disc.

So, I have no problems when sites put up reviews later than street, I enjoy reading reviews of discs I already have, not just reviews of discs I want. Besides as Ron and others have said, this for most all of them is a hobby that is secondary to a lot of other things, and sometimes for many different reasons a review can be pushed back, and that's understandable knowing how life actually works. I'm just thankful to have a number of good sites with a number of good reviews that offer up their thoughts on a particular disc.

 

[Joel C]

Not that it matters, but I was going to review Jonah, but we only got a full screen screener with no extras. Sure, I bought the disc, but most sites (at least, those on screener lists) aren't in the habit of giving free advertising to studios who don't care enough to send screeners.

 

[Adam Tyner]

I'd really recommend adding DVD Movie Guide and digitallyObsessed to your list of sites that you frequent, or even better, bookmarking the invaluable DVD Basen and/or Movie Review Query Engine. I tend to enjoy sites that cover more than just the most popular titles. The Digital Bits doesn't post reviews close enough to their release date for it to be a useful resource to me, and I stopped reading DVD Review during their "if you can't say anything nice..." kick a couple years back.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

We get pretty big stacks of discs to review sometimes, and you have to prioritize. Studios that plan ahead and get us things before street date get first priority in my book. Ones that send discs after street go to the bottom of the stack, making them even later, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Any complainers who would like to help shoulder the load at digitallyobsessed.com are welcome to audition to become a reviewer:

http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/becomeareviewer.php3

You can see just how timely you can be at delving into a disc and writing thoughtful and interesting reviews.