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Josh's Blind Buys: Watching The Unseen Collection (1 Viewer)

bujaki

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I can't rent a lot of the BFI or French Gaumont releases (to name a few). Even though I could stream Criterion titles through Filmstruck (which I do have), I am subject to their programming and title availability. If I own that shiny disc, as you well know, I can watch it whenever I want to. Some Criterion and Eclipse titles I've bought have been blind buys, and have been pleasant discoveries. All in all, my "blind dates" have been quite successful.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I agree that those are the titles worth purchasing, I'll always come down in support of a blind buy over not seeing it at all.

My tastes might be a little more towards the readily available to begin with. I know there are a lot of things I buy where it would have been easy to rent. Sometimes I just feel dumb renting a movie for $4 when I could but it forever for $8 - but if I'm never gonna watch it again, that didn't really save me anything.

It's just about trying to find a better balance for myself again. To not buy a movie I've never seen and am not planning to watch immediately, when I already have dozens of unwatched titles sitting around for months or years.
 

TJPC

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Cliche — “First World Problem”
I am lucky enough to have a well known classic movie station in both standard def. and HD with my cable company and have copied 1000’s of movies with my DVD-R machines.
My favorite eras for classic movies are from the dawn of the motion picture to 1940. I copy them on to disc, make a cover, and put them on my shelves with a small sticker to indicate I have not watched it yet.
I basically now have a copy of every movie from those eras that this well known classic movie station shows, unless they are having a premiere. It dawned on me the other day that what with keeping up with new movies I purchase on Blu ray first, I probably will never get around to most of these movies, let alone watching favorites twice. I only seem to do that when switching to a new format. The time to purge is nigh.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I looked in horror at my blind buy shelf, realizing that I've stubbornly managed to avoid checking out a couple dozen titles I've had for years, and the whole point of this thread was to force myself to do that. Oops. But I learned about John Wayne so that has to count for something, right?
 

Mike Frezon

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This thread has already gotten me in a little trouble because my plan had been to finally watch all of the things I had lying around the house forever, but instead, it's turned into me buying new stuff to watch as well. I apparently have no discipline.

If you had discipline, we'd have to kick you out of the club.

We don't need no steenkin' discipline.
 

BobO'Link

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I looked in horror at my blind buy shelf, realizing that I've stubbornly managed to avoid checking out a couple dozen titles I've had for years, and the whole point of this thread was to force myself to do that. Oops. But I learned about John Wayne so that has to count for something, right?
Every time I manage to whittle down my unwatched (or unopened) stacks I'll read/hear about another "new to me" film and put one back on. For a while, it seemed like I was purchasing 3-4 for every 1 I was watching. Lately it's been more like purchase 1 for every 2-3 I watch, which has helped, but then there are those really good sales on BR upgrades for favorite movies that'll skew the numbers back to that 3-4:1 ratio... sigh... At least the upgrades are simply unwatched copies and not new movies.

On another forum there's a movie watching "challenge" to help you get to all those blind buys. You list 10 films you've not seen, someone picks one from your list. You have to watch that one before you can pick one for someone else to watch. You watch your film, post comments (usually just a few sentences), select one for the person who watched theirs right before you, fill in the gap left in your list by watching that film, and wait for your next film to be chosen. You can take as long as you want to watch your film as being a sloth doesn't stop someone else from going next. People can drift in and out over the course of time and it doesn't impact those who stick around. That's been a tremendous help in forcing me to watch all those discs I've purchased and go "No.. not tonight... maybe later" for months or, in some cases, years. I'll rarely go longer than a week before watching my selected film. It's what finally got me off my duff to watch all those 20th Century Fox "Classic Quad" sets I purchased years ago (as they came out -they are full of films I'd always heard about but somehow never watched) and just kept putting off, as well as other, often highly regarded, films I'd picked up along the way. Much like your journey, I've found some new favorites but just as often find a film I just don't much care for and will likely never watch again.
 

Scott Merryfield

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My tastes might be a little more towards the readily available to begin with. I know there are a lot of things I buy where it would have been easy to rent. Sometimes I just feel dumb renting a movie for $4 when I could but it forever for $8 - but if I'm never gonna watch it again, that didn't really save me anything.

For me the added cost is only one part of the equation. The other is storage space for all these titles. My shelves are close to full, and if I add another shelving unit it will have to go in another room, as I am out of space for another shelving unit in my den / home office where I keep my collection. So I try to purge titles from my collection every so often, and always get rid of discs where I have upgraded to a newer version. The transition from DVD to BD helped my storage issue, too, as BD cases generally are thinner than the old DVD cases. Unfortunately, UHD cases seem to be going in the other direction regarding size.
 

Josh Steinberg

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On another forum there's a movie watching "challenge" to help you get to all those blind buys. You list 10 films you've not seen, someone picks one from your list.

That sounds fun. A while ago, I threw a multiple choice selection out to you guys on a night I couldn't decide, and that ended up being fun, so I may try that again.
 

Josh Steinberg

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#149 - Cease Fire 3D (1953)
Viewed on: November 21st, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray 3D (Kino)

It's always a pleasure receiving a new disc from the 3D Film Archive. Each release has been a treasure in its own way, and Cease Fire is another winner. The passion that Bob and Greg and the rest of the team at the Archive have for their work is evident in every frame of every presentation, and the final product here contains some of the most astonishingly detailed and layered 3D that I've ever seen.

The movie follows a troop of American soldiers fighting in Korea as a cease fire is being negotiated. Filmed on location in Korea and with real soldiers, there's a sense of realism here that I've rarely experienced in war films. It's not a brilliant film, but it makes for a great time capsule to a very specific time and place. The 3D photography makes every bit of the location photography come alive, with backgrounds that seem to go on forever. At 75 minutes, it lasts long enough to give a sense of the scene without overstaying its welcome.

This is another fantastic disc from Kino and the 3D Film Archive. The restoration looks nearly flawless, with perfect 3D alignment and a very clean, detailed and stabled image. The 3D is excellent with fantastic depth and layering that's among the best I've seen - it really is stunning to look at. The 3.0 soundtrack restoration is equally delightful, with some nice uses of directional dialogue and sound effects.

Cease Fire is an interesting film worth seeing, and the presentation here is among the finest work yet from the 3D Film Archive. If you're a fan of classic 3D, you probably have this already, but if not, purchase without hesitation!
 

Josh Steinberg

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#150 - When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (1970)
Viewed on: November 25th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Warner Archive)

I picked this up in a Warner Archive sale this fall after being tempted by the cover all year. I had a feeling that I'd either find it very entertaining or unbearable, and fortunately, I did enjoy watching it. The mostly dialogue-free film involves a tribe of prehistoric people who want to sacrifice Sanna (Victoria Vetri) to their son god because of her blonde hair. Escaping, she's rescued by Tara (Robin Hawdon), a man from another tribe. She has trouble fitting in initially, and winds up on a series of adventures and escapes involving dinosaurs and carnivorous plants. Sanna and Tara fall in love. Cool stuff happens.

The movie has a curious tone to it. On one hand, everything onscreen is utterly ridiculous. On the other hand, it has a certain charm to it, and the stop-motion animation is fantastic, and integrated well with the live action photography. On another night, my attention might have wandered, but on this particular night, it held my interest throughout.

The disc from Warner Archive features pristine video and clear mono audio. The only extra is a trailer. Hilariously, the disc does include English subtitles, although I'm not sure what use they'd be, unless perhaps you wanted to learn a new Scrabble word.

Both ridiculous and strangely endearing, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth was surprisingly entertaining for what it was, and the presentation from Warner Archive looked stunning, revealing the artistry of the film without ruining the artifice.
 

BobO'Link

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#150 - When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (1970)
... Hilariously, the disc does include English subtitles, although I'm not sure what use they'd be, unless perhaps you wanted to learn a new Scrabble word.
I'd forgotten about that option! I meant to rewatch with that on but have not yet made the time. It, along with many other dinosaur films from the 40s-60s, is a guilty pleasure. I'd go see any that came out, no matter how "bad" they might be. To this day, I still love them all and am thrilled that many have excellent BR releases.
 

Josh Steinberg

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#151 - College Humor (1933)
Viewed on: November 26th, 2017
Viewing Format: DVD (Universal)

Years ago, I purchased a DVD set called "The Bing Crosby Collection: Universal Backlot Series". At the time, it was the only place to get the W.C. Fields film "Mississippi" and I was willing to pick up the other titles in the set to do that. I enjoyed the film with Fields, but never watched any of the others in the set.

On this particular night, my wife was feeling in a mood for something old-timey and musical, so I thought that a Bing Crosby title from this collection might fit the bill. We selected College Humor, and.... I think this is the very first time in all of our time together that my wife and I actually turned a film off. We made it about twenty minutes into the eighty minute feature, enough time to see Jack Oakie (far too old at age 30 to be credible as a college freshman) join a fraternity and endure a series of nightmarish hazing rituals. I returned to the film on my own later in the evening, and enduring the remaining 60 minutes. What followed was basically your standard issue Paramount precode picture, with a little singing from Bing Crosby and a love triangle between Crosby, Mary Carlisle and Richard Arlen, and more college mishaps from Oakie. George Burns and Gracie Allen appeared in small, unmemorable roles.

The transfer here is on par with other unrestored precode films from the Paramount library released by Universal. The print used is generally decent, and while it shows some signs of age and use, is more than good enough to allow the film to be seen and heard. No bonus features are offered, but the disc does provide subtitles.

While it may be of interest those with a fascination for early precode titles, on the whole, I found College Humor to be a dud that I am unlikely to revisit.
 

Bert Greene

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I don't know what happened with "College Humor" (1933). Paramount's musical-comedies from back then are almost always total delights. Yet, this one somehow really missed the mark with me. Rather than leave me with a sense of upbeat fun, I found the film oddly unsatisfying, if not a hair depressing. Too bad that Crosby set didn't instead include "The Big Broadcast" (1932), which I find a complete joy (even if it used a long suicide attempt by Crosby and Stu Erwin as a humorous gag!).
 

RMajidi

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This blind-buy business is a bit like kissing frogs, and it turns out I’m prepared to kiss a lot to find those special few. In 2017, those special ones for me turned out to be:

  • Bad Day at Black Rock (WAC)
  • 36 Hours (WAC)
  • No Highway in the Sky (Kino)
  • Speedy (Criterion - UK)
  • Gun Crazy (Wild Side - France)

Many other excellent movies among my first-timers, but these were the standouts.

Happy 2018 to all you frog-kissers, and may your princesses & princes outnumber your toads.
 

Josh Steinberg

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I have about ten writeups left to do for things watched in November/December, and when I finish those (which hopefully won't happen any later than this January), I will try to put together a "best of" mini list for 2017!
 

Josh Steinberg

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#152 - Holiday Inn (1942)
Viewed on: November 27th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Universal)

I had to admit that musicals are something of a blind spot in my knowledge of movies. I'd say that before this year began, the genre I was least familiar with overall was the western genre, closely followed by the horror genre, and that musicals were only slightly ahead because I've seen some of the most major ones (Sound Of Music, West Side Story, etc) in my life. So when my wife mentioned that she was feeling like watching some musicals, but perhaps some older, "everything works out in the end", "really pleasant to watch" types, after our success with Cover Girl, I thought Holiday Inn might be worth taking a look. Amazon had a good price, Matt Hough had given it a good review, and from the comments his thread got, I thought it was worth a look. I'm really glad that I took Matt's recommendation!

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are perfectly paired as partners in the New York City nightclub scene who are ready to go their separate ways. Crosby is ready to retire to "the country" (aka Connecticut) while Astaire wants to keep on performing. Also part of their act is Virginia Dale, who initially plans on marrying Crosby and retiring with him, but changes her mind at the last minute to remain with Astaire. Heartbroken and disappointed, Crosby retires to Connecticut, where he finds farm life isn't exactly what he had in mind. Hit by a bit of inspiration, he decides to transform his farm into a one-of-a-kind "Holiday Inn" that opens for business about fifteen times a year as a resort during the different holidays, major and minor. Marjorie Reynolds ends up auditioning for Crosby and getting a role in the shows, and the two begin to develop feelings for each other. But just as Crosby is establishing himself, Astaire re-enters the picture; his popularity is great for the club, but Crosby is concerned that his old romantic rival is about to steal yet another love from him.

The songs by Irving Berlin are a delight, and Crosby's signing along with Astaire's dancing (and Reyonds and Dale's skill at both) make this a breezy delight. The movie flies by far faster than its 100 minute running time would suggest, and the Holiday Inn setting makes the segues from dialogue scenes to musical numbers seamless; it's a storytelling device I appreciate. The only thing that stood out for me is a musical number celebrating Abraham Lincoln that's performed in blackface. I had been warned about it prior to watching the film, which helped prepare me for it, so when the moment came, I was able to simply observe it as a product of its time. Though I can't claim to put myself in the minds of the people who wrote the song and staged the number, I do not believe it was done with bad intentions, but was merely a product of its time. I had forgotten to warn my wife about this, however, and without advance warning it did take her out of the film for a brief period. I'm not in favor of censorship (even self-censorship by the studio), so I can accept that the film "is what it is". Your mileage may vary, of course, and I would completely understand if this scene was a dealbreaker for some.

Though I didn't examine most of what the "75th Anniversary Edition" had to offer, the black & white transfer was very pleasing, with clear audio, and a clean, stable image. The disc also includes a colorized version (which I did not view), as well as a separate disc with an HD recording of a recent Broadway production based on the film (I didn't view this either but one day hope to come back to it). There are some behind the scenes featurettes and a commentary on the disc as well. For the $10-12 that this has been bouncing around at Amazon for, whether or not you watch any of the bonus features, the film and transfer alone is worth that much. When you consider everything else that's thrown in, it's a generous package for such a low price.

Holiday Inn was a delightful film that I look forward to revisiting in future years.
 

Josh Steinberg

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#153 - SpaceCamp (1986)
Viewed on: November 27th, 2017
Viewing Format: Blu-ray (Kino)

SpaceCamp and I go way back. Which is funny for a title on a blind buy list, but there's a story behind that. Remember the old days when we'd actually have to go to a store, which had rows and rows of shelves, with little VHS boxes on them, if we wanted to watch a movie? The video store I went to was the kind that kept the cardboard sleeve with the artwork on display, and if the title was in stock, there would be a black or clear plastic case with the actual VHS cassette behind it. I was totally a space geek as a kid, so the idea of a movie where a bunch of kids got to go into outer space and save the day, I mean, that sounded like the best thing ever. But, frustratingly, the tape was never there! I saw that display box for years, but it was never in. As an adult, I can easily guess that the tape was probably lost and the store never bothered to get rid of the display, but as a kid, I just found the whole thing mystifying and disappointing. As an adult, I had more or less forgotten about SpaceCamp. Every now and then, if I'd find myself on an 80s childhood nostalgia binge, I'd try to find it, but it seemed like one of those titles that was never readily available. So when Kino announced it as part of their Disney sub-licensing deal, I decided to make a blind purchase and finally see it.

As a kid, the adults in my life warned me that this was a bad movie and not worth being disappointed over not being able to rent. Now that I'm an adult, I can see what they were talking about, except... I had a ton of fun watching it anyway. It would probably be hard to describe it as objectively good, but I can also think of far worse 80s films that are held in much greater esteem, so this is truly a "your mileage will vary" kind of title. The good: the cast of teenage and child cadets (including a young Joaquin Phoenix, then going by the name "Leaf", along with Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston, Tate Donovan and others) are personable and fun to watch, and Kate Capshaw and Tom Skerritt are able to play the adult authority figures with a sort of mother/father knows best effortless charm. The special effects, while not up to today's standards, are more than enough to convey the story points as needed. The bad: the entire plot is set in motion by an R2-D2 type wannabe robot that NASA is developing, which is so far beyond what was possible in the 1980s that it's clearly a Hollywood invention rather than a scientific one. In a film that makes an effort to keep things at least appearing to be somewhat plausible, it's disappointing that a major supporting character is an invention more suited for The Black Hole than mission control.

The transfer on the Kino disc is somewhat unremarkable. It has some very occasional dirt and debris, and looks as if it may be an older master rather than a newly created one, but is good enough. The 2.0 lossless audio (which is actually a matrixed surround track) also falls under the "good enough" heading, and English subtitles are available. The disc also includes a trailer, and interviews with Lea Thompson and director Henry Winer; I only viewed the trailer. It's not reference material, but it's probably the best the film has ever looked for a home audience. If you're a fan of the film, I think you'll find the transfer to be satisfactory.

SpaceCamp may not have been an undiscovered masterpiece, but after about thirty years of waiting, I'm glad to have finally seen it.
 

Josh Steinberg

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#154 - Meet Me In St. Louis (1944)
Viewed on: November 28th, 2017
Viewing Format: DVD (Warner)

According to Amazon's product listing, the two-disc special edition of Meet Me In St. Louis made its DVD debut in 2004. As much as I hate to admit it, this wonderful package has been sitting unwatched on my shelf since then. Back around that time, Warner was releasing so many lovely two disc packages loaded not just with quality main features, but full arrays of astonishingly high quality bonus material. I was a college student finishing film school at the time, and it seemed like a good idea to stock up on these "film school on DVD" packages that the studios were putting out at the time, which in many ways exceeded what I was getting in my day-to-day education. I have absolutely no excuse for not watching it over the past decade, and yet, here we are. So when my wife had the idea for watching some old musicals, I pulled this from the shelf and nominated it as a potential choice. I might be the last person on the planet to discover this, but of course, Meet Me In St. Louis is a delightful film with an outstanding cast, brilliant direction, wonderful use of Technicolor, and featuring some truly timeless songs that I've always loved and unbeknownst to me came from this musical originally.

The simple yet timeless story revolves around a year in the life of the Smith family, living in St. Louis, Missouri in 1903, and planning to move to New York City the following year. Though this is exciting to the family's patriarch (Leon Ames) and eldest daughter Rose (Lucille Bremer) who fancies a boy who has moved to NY, the rest of the family is distressed at leaving their roots behind. As middle daughter Esther (Judy Garland) begins falling for the boy next door, John (Tom Drake), she doesn't want to go, and neither does youngest daughter Tootie (Margaret O'Brien). All of this is set to the backdrop of the upcoming 1904 World's Fair. (As I watched the film, I couldn't help but feel that this was almost a musical predecessor to Walt Disney's original Carousel of Progress attraction - I was filled with the same feelings of hope, optimism and wonder watching the film that I get when visiting the Carousel of Progress at Disney World.) Everyone in the film is pitch perfect, though it has to be said that Margaret O'Brien absolutely steals every moment she appears in. Seeing a favorite like "The Trolley Song" in its original context was an utter delight, and "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" remains perhaps my favorite holiday song, performed beautifully by Garland in the film.

This DVD, from way back in 2004, holds its own quite nicely, even viewed on a 100" projection screen. The image was beautifully clean and clear, and had delightful color. The disc offered both the original mono audio track and a 5.0 remix; I opted for the remix, which kept things mostly in the center channel, but did take advantage of the other speakers for the musical numbers. I am sad to say that I didn't have the chance to sample the truly astounding wealth of bonus features included - a commentary, multiple documentaries, vintage shorts, TV and radio adaptations, trailers and more.

Meet Me In St. Louis is a film that absolutely deserves its reputation. It's a simple film that retains its charm, with songs that stand the test of time, and a sense of nostalgia that's warm and inviting.
 

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