Stanley Kubrick Collection

[eez28]

According to a lot of posts on dvdtalk, the sets have been fairly hard to come by at almost every major b&m. Those that have been found have had a badly damaged outer box and The Shining has had a different cover than all the rest and all of the online pre-orders from just about everyone have not shipped either. Another thing that sucks is the last minute exclusion of the commentary on EWS.

[kaujot]

Precisely.

I couldn't find a single boxset in Austin. Of course, others may have gotten to them first, but I checked just about every likely store in town.

And I've read that lots of people who have preordered them have had their orders delayed.

[denti alligator]

Amazon has most of the HD titles as shipping in 5-8 weeks.
I pre-ordered all of them on HD DVD from Warner and they haven't even shipped yet (direct from the manufacturer). I dunno what's going on.

[souvenir]

Amazon has most of the HD titles as shipping in 5-8 weeks.
I pre-ordered all of them on HD DVD from Warner and they haven't even shipped yet (direct from the manufacturer). I dunno what's going on.

Don't lose hope. My order status never went to shipped, I never got a shipping confirmation, and the HD-DVD titles I ordered from WHV arrived via UPS today.

[denti alligator]

I was never hopeful to begin with. I had pre-ordered The Wild Bunch from them and it didn't ship until a week after its release. I don't expect any different with these. Did you order the Kubricks? You had them pre-ordered and they arrived today? Amazing!

Very positive review of the HD Shining (though the audio sounds like a bummer).

[souvenir]

My hands always type less than my brain is thinking! Yes, I pre-ordered three of the Kubrick titles, got free shipping, and the box was delivered today. I was worried because of the horror stories on DVD Talk about the WB store taking weeks to ship out pre-orders lately, but no problems here.

[Matt]

My box, which I preordered from Amazon on October 4, now has a shipping estimate of December 3.

[atcolomb]

I just purchased my boxset from Best Buy and i have to say that the box itself is thin and flimsy. Also there could have been more info written on the packaging so overall kinda of cheap looking and not a sturdy box to hold the dvd's........

[tryavna]

Peter Howell of the Toronto Star has a bone to pick with the box set and bizarrely bemoans the lack of Kubrick commentary tracks.

...and then adds not to tell him it couldn't be done.

I can't believe a newspaper is willing to give this guy a salary for this type of review.

I agree. How reliable is a man who apparently knows nothing about distribution rights (i.e., wondering where Paths of Glory, et al are)?

BTW, I guess Warner could have hired a medium to communicate with Kubrick (like in Rashomon).

i have to say that the box itself is thin and flimsy. Also there could have been more info written on the packaging so overall kinda of cheap looking and not a sturdy box to hold the dvd's

That's par for the course for Warner. All of their boxes are flimsy.

[Antoine Doinel]

My box, which I preordered from Amazon on October 4, now has a shipping estimate of December 3.

...just in time for Christmas

[Matt]

Get down to Best Buy and get there fast.

The closest Best Buy is about 40 minutes away. I've seen this films before, I can wait.

[hot_locket]

Are the individual cases in the box set thinpaks, or regular sized?

[eez28]

regular

[arsonfilms]

You know...

I love Warner. Warner is great. By far the greatest studio in terms of digital presentation, extras, etc.

Their packaging is horrible. Every Warner box set I have shows wear and tear, even stuff I bought recently. I understand the cost-cutting rational behind making the boxes flimsy and poorly assembled, and fitting the box with standard stock items, but I wish that Warner would understand the cost-savings that comes from selling smaller packages. With fancy new thinpak and digipak technology, that box could be half the size, thereby shipping twice as many per case, reducing the total weight by about a third and ACTUALLY FITTING ON MY SHELF.

[devlinnn]

The set looks to be just big enough to plug up the hole in eez28's floor. That's an ankle-breaker bud.

[eez28]

The set looks to be just big enough to plug up the hole in eez28's floor. That's an ankle-breaker bud.

Not my place, stole the pic from someone at dvdtalk. My set is in limbo at family video.

[flyonthewall2983]

Really, if or when I buy the set, I would just cut loose of the box and put them in their alphabetically with my other DVD's. I had the Dirty Harry box, but kept the box because they were in snapper cases.

[headacheboy]

I canceled my Kubrick box with Amazon and went out today to my local Best Buy to pick it up. I get it home and I'm quite excited to watch the "unrated" version of Eyes Wide Shut so I pop it into the computer and guess what?

There is only one version on the DVD and that is the R rated version. There is no menu option for the unrated version, nor is it found on the second disc. If someone would check their copy to see if it coincides with my findings I would appreciate it.

The cover, by the way, is the one with the mask, not the standard Cruise/ Kidman cover. I don't know if that will make a difference or not. Does this have anything to do with the unavailability of these boxes?

[eez28]

I canceled my Kubrick box with Amazon and went out today to my local Best Buy to pick it up. I get it home and I'm quite excited to watch the "unrated" version of Eyes Wide Shut so I pop it into the computer and guess what?

There is only one version on the DVD and that is the R rated version. There is no menu option for the unrated version, nor is it found on the second disc.

Holy crap, that sucks. I have not seen from any posts at various message boards of anyone getting the R rated version. What has actually been the case is that while is was listed as including both versions, many were only getting the unrated version.

To reiterate: A Total Clusterfuck

[mbalson]

I canceled my Kubrick box with Amazon and went out today to my local Best Buy to pick it up. I get it home and I'm quite excited to watch the "unrated" version of Eyes Wide Shut so I pop it into the computer and guess what?

There is only one version on the DVD and that is the R rated version. There is no menu option for the unrated version, nor is it found on the second disc. If someone would check their copy to see if it coincides with my findings I would appreciate it.

Well I agree that there is no option to select which version of the film to watch (Even though the case clearly says this is a selectable option). I skimmed through mine to make sure it was the uncensored version and it is.

I already have the uncensored R3 discs so this new R1 discs hold less value for me than others perhaps, but I thought it odd that the R rated version was nowhere to be found on this new disc.

Just a side note about this set in general. Anyone else finding it frustrating that there are now so many editions of these films? I mean, I just can't get rid of the old fullscreen set... yet the new editions have all the extras and 16x9 version of Clockwork. I guess I'll just keep both sets. The only 100% waste in the new set, for people with the previous set, is the Documentary. It's exactly the same.

Oh and does anyone know if Barry Lyndon and Lolita are any different from the previous editions?

[headacheboy]

Okay, I've figured this out. I fouled up by assuming that Eyes Wide Shut had both the R rated and the unrated version on the same disc. I did not interpret the statement on the back of the box which reads" First Time North American Availability of Uncensored International Version" to mean you would get either the R Rated version or the Unrated version.

So, it appears when you buy this box check to see if there is a "Restricted" logo next to the quip about this movie on the back of the box. If so, you've got the R rated version.

So, eez28 has a rated version in his box. Check it out by looking at mask. There is a big ol' Restricted box on it.

For goodness sakes Warners! What were you thinking?! And damn you Headacheboy, your wife told you not to buy this damn thing!

[manicsounds]

Nobody seems to know why Warner pulled the boxset, but it seems it is because of the problem with Eyes Wide Shut not having both cuts on the disc?

It seems odd that they are not recalling the individual titles.

in limbo at amazon now. Might have to cancel and wait for the DD sale...

[greggster59]

Okay, I've figured this out. I fouled up by assuming that Eyes Wide Shut had both the R rated and the unrated version on the same disc. I did not interpret the statement on the back of the box which reads" First Time North American Availability of Uncensored International Version" to mean you would get either the R Rated version or the Unrated version.

So, it appears when you buy this box check to see if there is a "Restricted" logo next to the quip about this movie on the back of the box. If so, you've got the R rated version.

So, eez28 has a rated version in his box. Check it out by looking at mask. There is a big ol' Restricted box on it.

My box and keepcase for EWS both say Rated R. I put on the DVD and it's the uncensored cut. I also have this version on a (4:3) Region 4 Brazilian release. Nothing's different. Very confusing. Why the hell is there even a censored version at this point!

[eez28]

Now then... let's talk Warner's new Stanley Kubrick box set. There are a number of issues bring reported by readers today, and we're getting asked a lot of questions about the discs. First issue: A lot of readers are reporting shortages of the discs - both high-def versions and the DVD box set. Amazon is apparently warning customers of delays in shipping the Blu-ray versions. Our local Best Buys here in Orange County, CA had plenty of the high-def versions today, but the DVD box sets are in short supply. Other retailers have low or no stock of either or both high-def versions, etc. I just got off the phone with Warner, and they're telling me that ALL orders from distributors have shipped out, so retailers should have plenty of copies of everything soon. Warner isn't commenting yet on the reasons for the delay and street date shortages, but industry sources are telling us privately that the studio recently switched to a new software fulfillment/distribution system, and that change over is reportedly causing some delays and logistical hiccups.

Another issue: The Eyes Wide Shut discs (all formats - as originally announced back in July) were supposed to include scene specific audio commentary by Sydney Pollack and historian Peter Loewenberg. They do not, although upon checking, a revised spec list sent to us on 9/1 had already omitted the commentary. However, neither do these discs include the theatrical version as expected, so if you want that too, you need to keep your original DVD. Studio reps have suggested to us that this may have been a disc space issue, but we're expecting official word soon. The problem with this notion is that the Blu-ray Disc version should certainly have had the room to include the other cut of the film (via seamless branching as planned). Frankly, the HD-DVD version should have had room enough as well. But we're expecting to find out from the studio exactly what happened tomorrow. Unfortunately, we have been informed that (for whatever reason) the theatrical version WAS dropped from the disc and the packaging wasn't corrected to reflect this. We're told that future copies will have corrected packaging, which means that the branching feature will NOT be part of the release.

The other question a lot of people have had, is why Kubrick's Lolita and Barry Lyndon weren't included in the set. This may be due to the possibility that the films required additional remastering work... or it could have been just a bad decision made by the studio in thinking that fans wouldn't care if they were missing. Again, we've asked the studio why the films weren't included in the set (and separately on high-def) and we hope to hear back tomorrow.

Given all of the above, you might be asking still ANOTHER obvious question: Why didn't The Bits warn its readers about any of these issues before the discs came out? And believe me, we would have had we known. Unfortunately, we didn't get review copies of these discs until just yesterday... and then not all of them. We're just as frustrated as you are, believe me. As I said, we'll try to have some answers for you on all this issues as soon as possible.

[Romat]

I didn't see it mentioned here, but the dvd covers for the cases inside the boxset are not the same as the single disc release covers. A customer at Amazon says:

I was very disappointed when I opened by Kubrick box today to find that the individual cases did not feature the same covers/artwork as the new single versions of 2001, Eyes Wide Shut, and Clockwork. Instead we get crappy looking covers that are mostly black and empty except for centered airbrushed clip art from the film, like a mask on Eyes Wide Shut or HAL on 2001. They look truly terrible and if you're breaking the titles out for your shelf as opposed to keeping them in the box, they look bad on their own.
Who the hell designed these?
And, the spine of The Shining doesn't match the other spines. Completely nonsensical.

If you look at the photo of the boxset, posted earlier in this thread, the same images look like they're used on that back cover.