Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: WEST SIDE STORY Tower exclusive Blue Ray

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-15-2011, 01:27 PM:

WEST SIDE STORY was released today on Blue Ray in both a standard edition and a deluxe set. Both include two BDS, with the movie on disc #1 and the special features on the other and a DVD of the movie. The deluxe set also includes a CD of music from the show as well as lobby card reproduction and a book.. The standard edition is in a regular BD case that hold three discs and probably no inserts. Target however has a exclusive standard edition of the movies in a digibook with a lot of nice pictures and articles on the film and it is nice. Another nice thing is the $16.95 price. The only complaint I have on the packaging is the flimsy disc holders that is exactly the same as the type used in THE SOUND OF MUSIC digibook packaging that was also a Target exclusive. I have found there is no problem if one is careful when one is handling the disc.

I just bought WSS about an hour ago and have not played it yet because I am still on the road but plan to do so tonight.

-Claude

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-15-2011, 01:54 PM:

Tower? They went out of business B&M-wise on the US mainland a long time ago. Tower is still going strong in Japan though - and maybe I'll be able to visit them starting next year.

As for the WSS release on BD, due to the reported issues with pix and sound on this one, I'm gonna pass on it. There is a disc exchange program planned but I'll wait until they get it right. Too bad too - I was really looking forward to this one.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-15-2011, 03:25 PM:

My mistake on the heading of my thread. I meant Target instead of Tower and as you can see, I had corrected myself in the body of the thread. Because both Target and Tower starts with the letter 'T' my subcontious mind automatically thinks of Tower because it used to be my favorite store for CDs, Laserdiscs and DVDs. I still miss the three Tower stores in Honolulu I used to frequent very much.

I know of the problem with the Blue Ray release of WSS but because I already have the deluxe edition of the movie on DVD that was released about five years ago and found it excellent, I am not too concerned with the abrupt manner of the way the visuals play out in the overture sequence of the film. I also have no problem with the way the movie's soundtrack was mixed to 7.1 sound.

-Claude

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 11-15-2011, 05:21 PM:

There's still a Tower website you can order from, but I have no idea who owns it now. I worked at Tower.com mostly answering phone calls at the 800-number after I got out of the theater business. When the stores went under the website was sold to another company who laid everyone off and moved the operation to Canada, then they failed and the site is still up but I don't know who controls it.

The Target-exclusive Sound of Music BD was pretty cool- not as much of a fan of West Side Story but kind of regret not picking up the DTS laserdisc when I had a chance.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 11-15-2011, 08:44 PM:

tower.com is registered to a "Caxem Inc" in Montreal.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-15-2011, 09:45 PM:

Jesse,

Among the fifty or so DTS Laserdisc I had in my collection was WEST SIDE STORY. It is unfortunate I do not have it anymore because Aaron Garman recently bought them all from me at a very reasonable price

-Claude

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 11-17-2011, 03:21 PM:

I never had the opportunity to watch all of my Blue Ray of WEST SIDE STORY yet but I did get to see enough of the movie and the special features to come to the conclusion that buying the disc was a good decision. Beside the brouhaha about the WEST SIDE STORY title card not evenly fading in like it suppose to do as shown in the theatrical exhibition and previous video releases, and some color and contrast abnormality in the image quality during parts of the film, I thought the new BD of WSS is fantastic. Compared to the special DVD edition I bought several years ago and the one that came with the BD, the high definition picture is razor sharp and made me feel I was watching a 70mm print of the movie. Most of the special features are new and in high definition.

I was at Walmart yesterday and saw the BD of WSS on the rack and felt very fortunate that I had the opportunity to buy an exclusive Target copy of it. The digibook packaging is exactly the same as another exclusive Target Blue Ray release , THE SOUND OF MUSIC. As I had mentioned before, I love the packaging but have reservation about the disc storage but can live with it by being careful. If you did not get WSS in Blue Ray and plan to get it, the Target set is the one to get but I think most Target stores may have already sold all of their copies.

-Claude

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 11-18-2011, 08:07 PM:

I feel pretty oh so pretty! Not me the girl that sang the song she feels pretty. Okay well foot in mouth!

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 11-19-2011, 01:58 AM:

Funny you mention it Claude...I'm currently watching Die Hard 2. [Smile]

AJG

Posted by Ron Funderburg (Member # 4561) on 11-19-2011, 08:12 AM:

Aaron, how can the same "stuff" happen the same guy two years in a row?"

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 11-19-2011, 01:11 PM:

William Atherton was having his same share of problems...

AJG

Posted by Mike Rivest (Member # 5500) on 11-19-2011, 01:20 PM:

Chris, tower.com is registered to a "Caxem Inc" in Montreal.

They are in dumpy building, which I been in, at the edge of Old Montreal called 640 Rue St. Paul Ouest.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 11-19-2011, 11:20 PM:

Are they still operating from there? It looks like whoever's running the site now isn't even trying- it actually has links to Amazon and other sites to buy stuff! Before they at least tried to have a staff like it was when it was still in Sacramento. The company in Montreal was called Caiman when they bought the online division. We had a conference call with its 'leader' where he said he wanted to keep it based in Sacramento- someone specifically asked if anyone was going to be laid off and he said no, in fact he would probably hire on some more people locally. Then about 2 days later, almost EVERYONE except for about 5 people were laid off. The few that were left ended up quitting because they didn't think their jobs were going to be very stable there and they'd get more from unemployment by leaving then rather than later. We had a very dedicated customer base before the trouble started, and even as the stores were closing and our future was uncertain, we STILL got a decent amount of business on the online side. The new owners flushed that all away.

No matter though- that was my transition out of the theater business and I'm now back in school to finish, like I should have done in the first place. The worst thing about Tower stores going under is that there's now much fewer places to sell media that isn't the "latest and greatest," stuff you'd be hard-pressed to find at Target or Wal-Mart. Borders could have been a decent replacement but they didn't try either and now they're gone too.