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Author Topic: WEST SIDE STORY Tower exclusive Blue Ray Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 11-15-2011 08:44 PM                     tower.com is registered to a "Caxem Inc" in Montreal.  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 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  |  IP: Logged Ron Funderburg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 814 From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA Registered: Nov 2007 posted 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!  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 11-19-2011 01:58 AM                     Funny you mention it Claude...I'm currently watching Die Hard 2. AJG  |  IP: Logged Ron Funderburg Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 814 From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA Registered: Nov 2007 posted 11-19-2011 08:12 AM                        Aaron, how can the same "stuff" happen the same guy two years in a row?"  |  IP: Logged Aaron Garman Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: Toledo, OH USA Registered: Mar 2003 posted 11-19-2011 01:11 PM                     William Atherton was having his same share of problems... AJG  |  IP: Logged Mike Rivest Expert Film Handler Posts: 185 From: Montréal QC Canada Registered: Nov 2009 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 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.  |  IP: Logged

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