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I remember the good old days when the tone was that the kleine Mann shouldn't question their model and we should all be grateful for them. I think the release of the UK bargain bin staple, hooligan porn, The Firm, with a region free Blu-ray elsewhere, was the turning point. It's now gone full WENGER OUT. Thankfully other labels both in the States and abroad have rescued many of their releases and I'm sure loads of people here have made good money flipping their releases.

In a way, their model is what it is, with its few strenghts and many weaknesses.
My issue really lies more in the way they're answering people, as if they believed their very own customers are stupid ignorant blessed chaps who just are craving light but expensive releases and don't care paying that much for inferior releases (though to be fair, many of the comments on labels FB do look like coming from ignorant people happy to pay too much for inferior or technically debatable releases).

As I wrote originally to TT, they should just remember how lucky they are customers simply don't massively import, because they'd otherwise would have had to amp up massively their game in terms of content v. price ratio, and it's a shame they don't have the bollocks to at least admit this.

And they're not the only ones, as I wrote, to have this very poor way of dealing with legitimate complaints. I know it's always tiring to get criticized, but a factual comparison remains, well, factual, and labels shouldn't be afraid to explaining their local constraints and why the final result is what it is. Even if it doesn't teach a lot of new elements, it'll still be better than reaching the first exit door.

I know everyone here that is interested in the Budd Boetticher titles will pick up the Indicator release, but I figure I'd share this post by TT from the Home Theater Forum

As of this time, although we do have the titles under license, Sony's asset management team have advised us the transfers don't meet their QC standards enforced in the U.S. Apparently the UK doesn't operate under such restrictions, but we do have to conform to those requirements under the guidelines of our license agreement here. This has affected our ability to release a number of other titles that are also out in other territories. We understand that many members will likely want to obtain this set, so they must do what they must, but we have no choice but to wait until such time in the future when better masters may be generated.

It seems weird. Sony are doing the masters themselves, so the QC standards are theirs, no matter the countries they're selling it to.
They might not meet TT's standards or expectations, but that's another matter (especially for a label that have released some technical duds like Heaven & Hell).

I suspect that the masters that TT are referencing are all DVD era masters (for example, in the Boetticher set, only Ride Lonesome is listed as a 2K master, while the remaining titles are only listed as HD.) Still, all the Hammer titles that Mill Creek has released used older DVD era masters.

Actually, that TT post reminded me that Robert Harris warned people on HTF to skip Indicator's Castle Keep and wait for the US release, so I don't doubt that TT is telling the truth. With the MGM deal done and Fox currently not licensing to them, I think Sony is the only Studio that is licensing to them. They obviously have some Fox titles from their previous deals, but the well is running dry and I have to think that they would be releasing those Sony titles if they could.

I don't doubt that these remasters are older pre-existing HD masters that could be improved upon. I myself voiced how unfortunate it was for some Indicator releases to be using not only pre-existing masters, but vastly dated ones like (indeed) Castle Keep.
I'm more perplex by how TT is writing this, as if Sony had one standard for the UK and one for the US, which they likely don't. They have 1 existing master for a given movie, no matter where you're at, and if you don't want, fine, or if it's contractually impossible for them to sell you such an older master, fine.
I'm quite certain it's more a matter of the label choosing or not to go ahead with dated material.

Also, TT’s situation doesn’t mean these refused movies will ever be newly restored anyway, and TT have licenced pre-existing masters many times (a perfect example being The Stone Killer, released only 3 months before Indicator with the same pre-existing HD master which honestly is visibly dated), which makes this look simply like TT being caught in a potential sales drop because of Indicator eating part of their sales, and responding by trying to shame them as a whole by saying the whole UK standards for Sony are lower than the US ones.

Meanwhile, their The Front release is beaten by Indicator's 4K-sourced one, and I believe it will be the same for The St Valentin Massacre (I don't think TT is using a 4K restoration).

The video catalogue can be complicated, why trying to overly simplify it ? It's just opening the door for someone like me asking them how come then they accepted The Stone Killer pre-existing master, EXACTLY like Indicator did.

Sale: $15 each for 15 days. Starts today at 4pm/1pm and ends on the 28th.

Edge of Eternity
The Emperor in August
Harlock Space Pirate
Julia
The Last Detail
The Panic in Needle Park
Peyton Place
The Pirates of Blood River
Runaway Train
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow / Drunken Master
State Fair
The Stone Killer
Two for the Road
U Turn
The Valachi Papers

Any opinions here on Edge of Eternity, Captain Harlock, and Emperor in August? I’m curious about those.

Model Shop (Jacques Demy, 1969)

Release Date: April 17th, 2018.
Pre-order date: Wednesday, April 4th at 4 pm EST.

Special Features:

• Isolated Music Track
  TV Spots
  Original Theatrical Trailer

Booklet art:

TAKE A GIRL LIKE YOU (1970) BLU-RAY - June 19th

MY SISTER EILEEN (1955) BLU-RAY - June 19th

MY GAL SAL (1942) BLU-RAY - June 19th

LET’S MAKE LOVE (1960) BLU-RAY - June 19th


Quine!

My Sister Eileen?!?!?!!!!!! Be still my beating heart! Will 100% gladly pay full price for this on release day

I haven't imported a TT disc since Inserts, which is never going to get a Region B release. This is too much to resist though, and it doesn't seem likely to be a priority for Indicator. The Technicolor 'Scope will look lovely from the new 4k.

And we all have Scorsese to thank for getting TCM to make the new 4K-- hopefully he'll say a few words for the Blu-ray and entice more curious buyers in the process

domino harvey wrote:My Sister Eileen?!?!?!!!!!! Be still my beating heart! Will 100% gladly pay full price for this on release day

haven't seen either version (1942 or 1955).

Auto Focus (Paul Schrader, 2002)

Release Date: April 17th, 2018.
Pre-order date: Wednesday, April 4th at 4 pm EST.

Special Features:

• Isolated Music Track
  Audio Commentary with Director Paul Schrader
  Audio Commentary with Actors Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe
  Audio Commentary with Producers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and Screenwriter Michael Gerbosi
  Murder in Scottsdale
  Making-of Featurette
  5 Deleted Scenes with Optional Director Commentary
  Original and Redband Theatrical Trailers

Booklet art:

No Down Payment (Martin Ritt, 1957)

Release Date: April 17th, 2018.
Pre-order date: Wednesday, April 4th at 4 pm EST.

Special Feature:

• Isolated Music Track
  Brand New 4k Transfer

Booklet art:

I'm a fan of Schrader and I've not heard about this one very often. Is it any good? I can't imagine this is particularly wholesome (Not that Schrader is anyway.)

Blue Denim (Philip Dunne, 1959)

Release Date: April 17th, 2018.
Pre-order date: Wednesday, April 4th at 4 pm EST.

Special Features:

• Isolated Music Track
  Original Theatrical Trailer
  Brand New 4K Transfer

Booklet art:

Big Ben wrote:I'm a fan of Schrader and I've not heard about this one very often. Is it any good? I can't imagine this is particularly wholesome (Not that Schrader is anyway.)

I think it's great, probably Schrader's last on that level. It is similar in a lot of ways to Taxi Driver and Mishima in terms of a suicidal drive towards a type of perfection connected to the character's complications with sex. It's a lot bubblier in its darkness than them though with a lot of effective humour.

That Auto Focus cover is so bad yet not in a Twilight Time way that I figured it had to be based on original art, and it is. So, like, they only use original poster art when it is fucking horrible?

If they ditched the blue chick it’d be ten times better right there.

knives wrote:

Big Ben wrote:I'm a fan of Schrader and I've not heard about this one very often. Is it any good? I can't imagine this is particularly wholesome (Not that Schrader is anyway.)

I think it's great, probably Schrader's last on that level. It is similar in a lot of ways to Taxi Driver and Mishima in terms of a suicidal drive towards a type of perfection connected to the character's complications with sex. It's a lot bubblier in its darkness than them though with a lot of effective humour.

I’ll write more about it when it’s released theatrically in June, but I think First Reformed is a step above Auto Focus and is Schrader’s best since Affliction, which I still think is his masterpiece.

Haven't seen it to be fair.

Thanks for the feedback guys I think I'll pick this one up.

For Blue Denim it seems like a missed opportunity for Twilight to piggy-back on Criterion's re-release of Midnight Cowboyand include a piece on James Leo Herlihy. It would be interesting if Criterion managed to slip that into their release but so far doesn't look like anything specific addressing him listed.