31 Movies in One Month: What Was Worth the Money, What to Wait On, and the One Slipcase Worth Doubling Up For
This started as a video. Mike covered this on Mike’s Movie Talk first. This is the written version, reorganized to be read rather than watched — and the video is right here on the page if you would rather have it that way.
I bought about 30 movies in October, and the question that matters is which of them were worth it. The short answer: the pricey rigid slipcase for The Autopsy of Jane Doe was worth it to me, and The Last Boy Scout and Master and Commander were both cheaper on the day I bought them than they are now. Below is each purchase with what I paid and what to do about it, plus the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale list I am saving my money for.
The verdict on paying double for a slipcase
In September I paid $44 for The Autopsy of Jane Doe straight from Severin Films, when Barnes & Noble had the same movie on sale for $22.49. The extra money bought a rigid slipcase you can only get from Severin. It slides open to show the half-body, under-the-skin view of Jane Doe, and I have never seen a slipcase quite like it. Yes, it was worth it.
This is the first time the film has been on 4K. It is a two-disc set, the 4K and the Blu-ray, with almost two hours of new interviews, including director André Øvredal and Olwen Catherine Kelly, who plays the body on the table through the whole movie. The honest part: Severin now has the rigid slipcase version on sale for $38, and Amazon has the regular edition for less than that. If the box matters to you, buy from Severin. If it does not, Amazon is the cheaper way to get this exact same disc.
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Arrow's October: The Frighteners, Video Vengeance, The Last Boy Scout, Futureworld
The Frighteners from Arrow came out on a Tuesday, and I picked it up at Barnes & Noble, where it was 30% off with my extra 10% premium membership discount. It is a three-disc set: the theatrical cut and Peter Jackson's director's cut, both in 4K with Dolby Vision from a new restoration of the original camera negative, plus a third disc with open matte versions of both cuts, so you see more of the picture. There is also a Peter Jackson commentary and a making-of documentary that runs almost four hours. I have not watched it yet, but I have heard great things. Stock looked thin: my Barnes & Noble had one 4K copy, and when I last checked Amazon the shipping dates were slipping. If you want it, order sooner rather than later.
Arrow's new Enter the Video Store set, Video Vengeance, arrived this week. My first one was Empire of Screams, a horror-themed box. This one is all action: Joshua Tree with Dolph Lundgren, Ministry of Vengeance with John Schneider, The Final Alliance with David Hasselhoff, Rotor and Hangfire. Four of the five got new restorations from the original camera negative, and you get full cases for each film plus a book and the Arrow video magazine. These are Blu-ray, not 4K. Five restored films in one set is good value. I have heard Hangfire is the best of the group, so I will start there.
The Last Boy Scout is Arrow's limited edition: a new 4K restoration from the original camera negative, approved by the cinematographer, with Dolby Vision. Extras include new interviews with writer Shane Black and with Danielle Harris, extended and alternate scenes from an early workprint, and more. I had been rewatching the Die Hard movies, and this is essentially another Die Hard with different side characters, which is what sent me looking for another Bruce Willis action movie. I got it for about 40% off and paid $24.57 with tax. Checking now, I paid less than the current going price, so I got lucky. The transfer is fantastic, and I recommend it if you are a Die Hard fan.
Futureworld, also from Arrow, is the sequel to Westworld, which was a surprise hit for me, and I loved Yul Brynner in the first film. It is a new 4K with Dolby Vision, and it is the first major movie to use 3D computer graphics: the little computer-animated hand and face were made by Ed Catmull, who went on to co-found Pixar. I bought it on Amazon because my Barnes & Noble order did not arrive on release day. I paid $33 with tax, which is high if you know how often Arrow runs sales. It has since come down a little. I have not watched it, but it is first on my list.
The '90s nostalgia pile
I spent October in a nostalgic mood, rewatching '90s action movies, and that drove a lot of these picks.
Tombstone finally arrived on 4K from Disney in a steelbook with a marshal's badge on the back, and I rewatched it before buying. Val Kilmer is insanely good in it. Disney pricing is what it is: I paid $39.39 with tax, and the Amazon price now is basically the same. Master and Commander, also a Disney 4K steelbook that came out last year, cost me $29.51. It has gone up since, so if you want it, wait for the price to come back down. The discs in both steelbooks have good artwork and a digital code.
Clue arrives as a Collector's Edition 4K from a new scan of the original camera negative. The best feature is the endings: watch all three back to back, or turn on random mode and let the disc pick one, as theaters did in 1985. I paid $26.61 with tax, and Amazon is showing only a few left. I expect it to come back in stock and drop around Black Friday, so I would wait.
Bill and Ted's Most Triumphant Trilogy puts all three movies on 4K, plus Blu-rays, in a rigid slipcase, and Bogus Journey got a new 4K scan of the camera negative. I did not own the second movie in 4K, and it was hard to find on its own, so I caved on the whole set. I paid $65.49 with tax against a list price of almost $100, and it has dropped slightly since.
Masters of the Universe is the new summer film with Nicholas Galitzine as He-Man and Jared Leto as Skeletor. I already own the 1987 Dolph Lundgren original on 4K from Toy Robot Video, and I enjoyed the new one on Prime Video, so I wanted both. I paid $26.61 with tax. There is no digital code, because Amazon would rather you stream it on Prime Video. That is discouraging, but I want to support physical media, so I bought it.
The one that was almost $200
The Godzilla Minus One 4K steelbook is the find of the month. The only Amazon copies right now are from resellers at almost $200. I found it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble at retail price, which I think was about $35. I had hesitated on a pre-order from the official Godzilla site because it seemed expensive. It comes with a clear slipcase, three discs and a poster. I saw the film in theaters but have not rewatched it at home. The sound is incredible, and it is one of the most humanized Godzilla stories I have seen. If you spot it at a Barnes & Noble, grab it. I am also looking forward to Godzilla Minus Zero.
Horror and the boutique labels
I bought both versions of The Haunting on 4K from Shout Factory, the 1963 original and the 1999 remake, at Barnes & Noble with my premium discount: $21.60 and $18.89. I watched the 1999 version first, with Owen Wilson, then figured I should own the original, which I have always heard is better. Candyman, the Scream Factory Collector's Edition 4K, cost me $21.28, and Amazon itself is sold out, so it is only available from other sellers.
From Arrow on 4K I also took The Addiction, Abel Ferrara's 1995 film, at $24.99, essentially their 50% off price, and The Visitor, which is out of stock on Amazon. Watchers on Blu-ray came from Toy Robot Video, the new label from Arrow, for $21.29; it has since dropped slightly. Two Orphan Vampires from Indicator is a new 4K restoration from the original camera negative by Jean Rollin, who also directed The Iron Rose. Indicator is running its 10th anniversary sale on its own site, so I probably could have paid less direct, but I found a copy at Barnes & Noble at a similar price. I also grabbed The Hot Spot from Radiance, the Dennis Hopper film, for $31.99, on a recommendation from someone at Barnes & Noble.
The rest of the stack
Quickly: Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Aliens on 4K; Bugonia, which cost me $15.96 and is sold out at Amazon itself; Free Willy, City Slickers, City Slickers 2, School of Rock and Stephen King's It miniseries on Blu-ray; and The Outsiders: The Complete Novel on Blu-ray, which cost $4.50 at Barnes & Noble. And a left-field pick from Indicator's sale: a Cliff Richard set of three Technicolor musicals, restored in 4K, with a 100-page book and limited to 4,000 copies. I had never heard of him or seen the films, and I got it for about $30. The first half of the first film makes great background viewing.
Still on the way
Four Criterion flash-sale pickups shipped Monday: The Silence of the Lambs and For All Mankind on 4K, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the Samuel Fuller Eclipse set on Blu-ray. Blast from the Past is on the way from GRUV. My steelbook pre-orders are not here yet: The Odyssey and Hook in November, A.I. in December, and The End of Oak Street, which keeps slipping. Steelbooks seem to be getting pushed further and further back, and I would like to know if you are seeing the same.
What I am saving for: the Barnes & Noble Criterion sale
The Barnes & Noble Criterion 50% off sale is the one I wait for all year, and it is coming up soon. The complete Kubrick is $599.95 at list price, so at half off you are looking at around $300. I also plan to buy Harold and Maude on 4K and K-pop Demon Hunters, both out November 3, and Del Toro's Frankenstein, which came out this past week. I am buying none of them before the sale, because there is no reason to pay full price for a Criterion when it goes 50% off twice a year. I will cover the sale in a full video when it goes live.
The short version
The rigid slipcase was worth it, and The Last Boy Scout and Master and Commander were cheaper when I bought them. Of everything here, the Godzilla Minus One steelbook is the one I would not leave on a shelf, and Clue is the one I would wait on.