criterionforum.org

I've only watched Sherlock Jr tonight but feel safe in saying Kino's hit another home run after their ravishing General disc: the credits and every intertitle screen are filled to the hilt with scratches and speckles but the picture proper looks extremely good. Damage is still present but very minor: contrast is excellent except for a few shots in the extended dream/cinema screening sequence that are noticeably darker and murky. Grain reproduction is very good, on a level with the General resto. The DTS track is very good although I'm not sold on the Alto score just yet; it is, however, much better than the terrible score on the DVDs (Bond cues anyone?).

How's Three Ages look? I didn't doubt for a second that they'd put their muscle on the title that they're using to sell the disc on, but I do hope that they haven't fudged the second film at a cost for the first.

DVD Talk review

Jason Bailey wrote:Three Ages hasn't been attended to with quite the same level of care--it's only a couple of years older, but it does look a bit worse for wear. There's more visible print damage on display, some of it downright hairy (particularly during the chariot sequence and the police station scene). But those moments are fleeting; overall, it's still quite impressive.

I haven't seen this latest transfer, but as far as I know all prints of The Three Ages derive from the same source, the print unearthed in Keaton's garage in 1954 that was in the process of nitrate decomposition. Judging from the reviewer's comment, he isn't aware of this and/or the fact nothing can be done about it. There is a mk2 DVD set in which digital clean-up has been applied but of course that can't do much about the decomp.

Beaver review of Metropolis. Perhaps the MOC version will be better, but this does look like another solid blu offering from Kino.

Too bad the new DVD editions aren't reviewed.

Breaking news: Kino appear to have reneged on their written agreement with MoC that they would each region-lock their versions of Metropolis.

Apparently it was due to an accident at the pressing plant, which seems to have coincided with an equally unfortunate error at the packaging designer's, whereby the Region A logo got left off the artwork. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

MichaelB wrote:Breaking news: Kino appear to have reneged on their written agreement with MoC that they would each region-lock their versions of Metropolis.

Apparently it was due to an accident at the pressing plant, which seems to have coincided with an equally unfortunate error at the packaging designer's, whereby the Region A logo got left off the artwork. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

If it was due to an accident, that's hardly reneging on an agreement.

Tribe wrote:

MichaelB wrote:Breaking news: Kino appear to have reneged on their written agreement with MoC that they would each region-lock their versions of Metropolis.

Apparently it was due to an accident at the pressing plant, which seems to have coincided with an equally unfortunate error at the packaging designer's, whereby the Region A logo got left off the artwork. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

If it was due to an accident, that's hardly reneging on an agreement.

I believe the two 'accidents' together cancel each other out as accidents.

Tribe wrote:If it was due to an accident, that's hardly reneging on an agreement.

Indeed - that's why I said "appear to have", which is speculation based on my views about the likelihood of both accidents occurring simultaneously despite (presumably) being caused by different people working for different firms.

Of course, to be fair, it may well be due to a genuine mistake - because the more I think about it, the more bizarre it seems. Kino achieved its aims by getting MoC to region-lock their disc and massively restrict imports to the US, and given that hardly anyone would have imported the Kino into Region B given the clear superiority of the MoC edition (not speculation: I've already listened to the Kalat/Rosenbaum commentary and read the booklet), it's hard to see what Kino would stand to gain by making their title region-free. Especially now that they've effectively given MoC the green light to remove the region coding from future pressings of this title.

We may be giving Kino way too much credit for being devious. Don't get me wrong, I agree that MOC has been wronged. But at the same time, I don't think Kino cares enough to have hatched some scheme here...hell, until their BluRay work they have become infamous for their lack of interest in releasing presentable transfers and charging Criterion prices to their customers.

For all the crying of "I'll never buy a Kino release again" on this board, it can't be overstated that, for the most part, Kino's been doing right with their Blu releases, much more so than their notoriously spotty and overpriced DVDs. I'm going with the MOC Metropolis simply for the extras, but nothing short of Kino perpetrating crimes against humanity (or a readily available superior edition from another company, natch) is going to stop me from picking up any interesting future releases.

I honestly don't see Kino making too much money out of this in exchange for all the badwill they just brought themselves. Consider:

1. Surely most everyone in Region B-land will opt for the MoC over the Kino.

2. Even if the MoC were region-free, most consumers in Region A territories would most likely buy whichever copy of Metropolis came up first in an amazon search, or was the cheapest, or that B&M stores had in stock. MoC probably wasn't going to make much from these people anyway.

3. I would think that a good portion of the people in Region A territories who are knowledgeable enough about the global home video market to know about MoC in the first place would also be in the loop enough to know what's happening here. Many of these people are region-free, and weren't going to be buying the Kino anyway. Hopefully those that aren't region-free but would have otherwise bought the MoC will at least see fit to boycott Kino on this one release.

swo17 wrote: Hopefully those that aren't region-free but would have otherwise bought the MoC will at least see fit to boycott Kino on this one release.

That's me. And I'm boycotting.

med wrote:For all the crying of "I'll never buy a Kino release again" on this board, it can't be overstated that, for the most part, Kino's been doing right with their Blu releases, much more so than their notoriously spotty and overpriced DVDs. I'm going with the MOC Metropolis simply for the extras, but nothing short of Kino perpetrating crimes against humanity (or a readily available superior edition from another company, natch) is going to stop me from picking up any interesting future releases.

Granted, I'm the one I really care about when I make decisions about how to be a consumer, but this is going to make me much more patient about buying any more Kino releases in the future. I've bought several of their BDs, but I suspect that now I'll be waiting until there is a competing release before I make a purchasing decision, or I'll simply choose to rent the disc instead.

The good folks at Masters of Cinema (all, what... 4 of them? 3?) are significantly responsible for exposing me to many now cherished films that I would otherwise not have discovered. I'm not going to go overboard on my feelings of indebtedness or what have you, but their bottom line directly affects their ability to continue to put out quality work, which has thus far benefited me directly. It's hard for me to take this underhandedness by Kino lightly, and I heartily encourage simple free-market retribution.

Kino is being bombarded on their facebook page. They also just changed their photo from Metropolis to Sherlock Jr.

And let me say that I'll definitely be getting their Keaton blu-rays, and "The Black Pirate" Both are quality releases with fine supplements.

I just won't be buying Metropolis, both because of its poor supplements, and because of this incident with MoC. They should learn that they can't just dump a product on us and expect us to lap it up.

I would like to add to this heat, but I didn't see how to post comments on their facebook page. Do I have to 'like' Kino first in order to throw s**t on them?

Brianruns10 wrote:And let me say that I'll definitely be getting their Keaton blu-rays, and "The Black Pirate" Both are quality releases with fine supplements.

I just won't be buying Metropolis, both because of its poor supplements, and because of this incident with MoC. They should learn that they can't just dump a product on us and expect us to lap it up.

Unless it's their Keaton Blu-rays or The Black Pirate, apparently.

andyli wrote:I would like to add to this heat, but I didn't see how to post comments on their facebook page. Do I have to 'like' Kino first in order to throw s**t on them?

Yes, as in life, you have to like them first.

I am excited about the eventual one-upping in hyperbolic internet hate that is sure to hit by this evening:

"I hope you die on Christmas Eve in front of your children."
"May fire rip through your offices tonight."
"I am not buying shit from you and hope you spend your days living in a fucking refrigerator box."

Good thing 4Chan doesn't care about 80 year old films.

swo17 wrote:

Brianruns10 wrote:And let me say that I'll definitely be getting their Keaton blu-rays, and "The Black Pirate" Both are quality releases with fine supplements.

I just won't be buying Metropolis, both because of its poor supplements, and because of this incident with MoC. They should learn that they can't just dump a product on us and expect us to lap it up.

Unless it's their Keaton Blu-rays or The Black Pirate, apparently.

Well one has to realize there are many people involved in this who could be hurt. Just like back when BP was doing its thing in the Gulf, and people were boycotting BP stations, not realizing they were hurting the people who ran those stations more than the corporation itself. Boycotting all of Kino's products hurts a lot of people and institutions who contribute, not to mention Kino does have some excellent, quality titles.

I'm choosing instead to focus my displeasure, by refusing to buy their blu-ray in question, and hopefully helping to send a message to them that they shouldn't engage in ethically dubious practices to undercut their competition. It is frustrating that, rather than beat their competitor by releasing a better product, they apparently resort to trickery to corner their competition, and get a one week jump on the marketplace, which means a lot since the first week are a DVD/Blu-rays biggest sales week.

Brianruns10 wrote: get a one week jump on the marketplace, which means a lot since the first week are a DVD/Blu-rays biggest sales week.

This doesn't make sense to me. It takes longer than a week for a disc sent from the US to arrive in Europe. So why would anyone, even the most hardcore fan, order the Kino version? Even if the MoC is released a week later, the Europeans will have it earlier than the Kino disc.

Tribe wrote:We may be giving Kino way too much credit for being devious. Don't get me wrong, I agree that MOC has been wronged. But at the same time, I don't think Kino cares enough to have hatched some scheme here...hell, until their BluRay work they have become infamous for their lack of interest in releasing presentable transfers and charging Criterion prices to their customers.

I agree. Kino has never demonstrated any ability to be consistent - deviously or laudably.
There are alternatives to nearly all of their releases, which I will definitely use.

Tribe wrote:We may be giving Kino way too much credit for being devious. Don't get me wrong, I agree that MOC has been wronged. But at the same time, I don't think Kino cares enough to have hatched some scheme here...hell, until their BluRay work they have become infamous for their lack of interest in releasing presentable transfers and charging Criterion prices to their customers.

Rob of Kino Lorber has posted on the MoC thread about how they caught the error and fixed the problem. But I'm a little curious what you mean by lack of interest in releasing presentable transfers. So far, nearly every Blu-ray release have received pretty good reviews. I haven't had a problem with the transfers of the Blu-rays (past DVD's, yes...). Granted, a few websites had issues with "Steamboat Bill, Jr." but I haven't had a problem with any of their Blu-ray releases at all.

And as for prices, with the Deep Discount and Best Buy sales for Kino Blu-rays for nearly $10-$12 each, it's hard to complain.