• December 2025
    S M T W T F S
     123456
    78910111213
    14151617181920
    21222324252627
    28293031  

  • On Facebook

    On Facebook

  • Archives

  • Categories

  • Comic Blog Elite

    Comic Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory

So Disney DOES Still Do Blu-Ray + DVD combo packs!

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Walt

I truly wish I knew what/why/who it was, determining if a home-media-release movie would have a BluRay/DVD combo pack. (+ Digital, too, even!)

I was in Target, and happened to notice these two new releases:

maleficent_and_planes_fire_and_rescue_new_on_bluray

And I just happened to further notice the formats.

UNLike the recent Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy (or Fox‘s X-Men: Days of Future Past, but that’s Fox and not Disney)…

maleficent_top

Maleficent, a live-action (like the Marvel films)…Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital. EMPHASIS…on the Blu-Ray and DVD!

fireandrescue_top

And an animated film, Planes: Fire and Rescue. Again with the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital.

So really…WHAT THE HECK?!?

Why include a DVD for SOME films and not others, along with the Blu-Ray and Digital grouping?

I mean…WHAT makes it seem like a “good idea” or anything the public would want?!?

I have personal reasons for not really wanting either of these two films, but I’d be inclined otherwise to buy them specifically to “support” the three-format combo while I refused already to buy the Captain America movie and will likely refuse to buy Guardians first-hand (If I buy Guardians I’ll likely go with a second-hand/”used” copy since that won’t be a sale Disney can track/count as “support” for an inferior product).

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

On NOT Buying X-Men: Days of Future Past

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Walt

This is the second major disappointment for me, for a movie on home release that I was previously QUITE looking forward to purchasing.

xdofp_01

After being pretty satisfied last year with the BR3D/BRD/DVD/Digital release last year of The Wolverine, I thought for sure I’d be ok with X-Men: Days of Future Past. BUUUUUT…. The so-called “Ultimate Edition” is Blu-Ray 3D, Blu-Ray, and Digital.

Where the HECK is the DVD in the combo?

And for the Wal-Mart exclusive, a reprint of BOTH chapters of the original story…but it’s apparently some really skinny, tiny thing and not even a digest-sized or “mini” graphic novel. AND the box isn’t even sized properly for the item’s inclusion!

xdofp_03

The box is just an oversized thing that caves in and will surely DUMP the blu-ray case right at without provocation. If I didn’t turn the package over and squint at it and really stare to see in through the plastic, I’d’ve sworn they FORGOT to include the “Exclusive Edition” comic or that it was actually some “digital bonus” or such.

So what of a NON-“Ultimate” edition?

xdofp_02

Blu-Ray/Digital.

Again… Where. Is. The. DVD?!?

And this box has the same issue as far as that “bonus” comic.

There’s also a properly-sized cover version of…Blu-Ray/Digital. And there’s a coverless DVD.

I’m not interested in Blu-Ray 3D. I’m not interested in seeing my movies in 3D, PERIOD, theater or otherwise. I don’t have a 3D Blu-Ray player or 3D tv or the glasses or such. I’ve only reluctantly “upgraded” to Blu-Ray in the last several years, still QUITE happy with all the bargain DVDs and such I find and tv-on-dvd and all that.

I don’t mind (occasionally) paying a couple dollars more for a Blu-Ray/DVD combo…I can play the dvd in my computer, or pretty much anyone/everyone I know “at least” has a dvd player, so it’ll be watchable elsewhere/with others…even as I have the capability of watching the Blu-Ray while at home.

But this crap with putting 3D BluRay with BluRay and not including a DVD (even as a “bonus” if nothing else)?!?

Nah…sorry.

I’ll stick with the Redbox.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

On NOT Buying The Winter Soldier

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Walt

Captain_America_The_Winter_Soldier_3DBluRay_BluRay_Digital_Combo_PackWhen I first saw the second Captain America movie, The Winter Soldier, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I saw it twice in the theater, actually, and enjoyed it as much or more the second time through.

And as such, I decided I actually WOULD buy this one when it was released on home media. (where I have NOT bought the first Cap film or either of the Thor films).

But now Disney‘s changing “the rules.” I finally get “trained” to actually EXPECT a BluRay/DVD combo pack (maybe with “digital” thrown in as a 3rd option) and they’ve switched to 3D-BluRay/BluRay/Digital, leaving me from there to have to choose ONLY a DVD or ONLY a BluRay.

Yet this is a film that since my roommate and I have a BluRay player, I’d certainly prefer to watch in the HD format (plus I hardly pay attention to “extras” anymore but have been further “trained” to EXPECT there to be MORE “extras” on anything BluRay than on DVD). However, as I’ll be visiting my parents this coming weekend, I’d really enjoy the chance to have them see it, and share that experience with them.

BUT…because of the weird encoding and “language” thing with DISNEY BluRays (forcing one to choose between “English” and whatever else BEFORE ever getting to a menu otherwise) their BR player is incapable of playing Disney‘s BluRays (plays others, but can’t get past the Disney-specific stuff). As such, this is ACTUALLY a case where I could gladly “justify” the notion of a DVD being packed with a BluRay (even though if you have a BluRay player it should play DVDs, but if you have the BluRay player why would you care to watch the DVD on it?).

Then I saw that Walmart has “exclusive” box covers, each focusing on a single character. Truthfully, on looking at the “thumbnails” on the display of the various boxes, I decided “ok, let’s see the Scarlett Johansson one and go from there.” Alas, for all the copies across numerous different displays and locations in the store, that was the only one they did NOT have in stock.

So, grumpy as I am at present, that’s pretty much that. DVD will EVENTUALLY be available in Redbox, so I’ll just have to wait until some visit after it’s available in Redbox to rent and watch it with my parents.

Despite all that, I might’ve gone ahead and “settled for” DVD/Digital, accepting the Digital as added value to giving up the HD of BluRay…but Disney just HAS TO be different for the sake of being different, it would seem.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Pre-Selling the home release opening weekend of the theatrical

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Walt

presellingattheatricalreleaseironman3So, a couple weeks ago, I was amazed to see that Walmart was “pre-selling” Iron Man 3‘s blu-ray the SAME WEEKEND that the movie opened in theaters.

Now, this past Sunday morning, I saw where Best Buy is doing the same with Star Trek. The movies JUST OPENED THEATRICALLY! And these retailers are selling what they don’t even have in-stock, don’t even KNOW WHEN they’ll have in stock?!? And heck, they don’t even list PRICING…probably a deposit of some sort, locking you into a purchase, whatever they decide to charge when the product is eventually produced and released.

Personally, I’m waiting for the Enterprise model/case at Target again that I missed out on with the 2009 Star Trek film. If I could be guaranteed for a reasonable price that “exclusive case” I might give in to the disgustingness of a presell. But to just generically offer an empty, generic case? Ugh.

presellingattheatricalreleasestartrekOh, but I guess they’re selling “bonus” or “exclusive” “CONTENT,” which I can’t imagine amounts to more than a few SECONDS of trailer/teaser material. And frankly, I am totally not the target audience, because I am NOT a fan of a lot of online video stuff: I prefer to read, or have it on a tv screen, and prefer to avoid trailers and such as much as I can (I enjoy them before theatrical viewings of films, but care nothing for every last “teaser” or “trailer” the moment it “leaks” online).

I guess the retailers weren’t getting enough sales by offering stupid “exclusives” and giftcards as “bribes” to lure “loyalty” from customers. Now they’ve gotta be “the first” to offer to take your deposit money to lock you into buying the product from them months before it’ll even be available.

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »