Biggest waste of money on a DVD or video purchase . . .

[The Burgomaster]

We have all done it.

SCENARIO #1: A movie gets released to theaters, gets terrible reviews,  and quickly disappears. You don't have a chance to see it during its theatrical run, so you run out and pay full price for the DVD or video. As predicted, the movie stinks. Six months later, you can buy it for under $10.

SCENARIO #2: You are at your local Best Buy or Circuit City or you are browsing DVDs or videos online. Suddenly, a box cover catches your eye. A half-naked woman being chased by an axe-wielding psycho wearing a hood. The back of the box shows a grainy photo of a guy with sideburns and a mustache who is wearing a European-cut suit. The cast includes names like Antonio Molineri and Maria Buonasera. The director is Pepino Scugazzi. The fine print says "program content copyright 1972, Gambelli Films, Rome." You say to yourself, "Ah, yes. I've been meaning to add this to my Pepino Scugazzi collection!" So you buy it. The movie ends up being a pan & scanned, badly-dubbed Italian murder mystery. There is no half-naked woman in the film. There is no axe wielding killer, either. Most of the time, the detective drinks coffee at a sidewalk cafe.

Why do we buy these movies?

My real question is, what is your personal WORST waste of money? The movie that you kick yourself for buying almost every day?

[systemcr4sh]

I don't really have anything that I kick myself for owning. But I bought Return Of The Living dead full price and saw it in future shop yesterday for 10 bucks and thought "AWWWWWWWWWWw if only I waited!"

[trala-log]

i don't buy movies very often...but i bought the second armitage the third anime...the first one was damn good but the second must have been done by totally different people b/c it was f**king horrible.

my friend got windtalkers and that is beyond terrible...but he wasn't mad b/c he didn't pay for it

[Chadzilla]

Being broke, I haven't bought anything in awhile and my buying movies sight unseen are largely behind me.  But I plopped down cash to buy my wife a DVD of Flashdance and man, oh man.  That movie hurts!!!

[Perk]

I bought The Legend of Drunken Master on DVD for 15 bucks.  Then a few weeks later I saw Druken Master 2 on sale for 20 vhs.  It was in chinese and I didnt realize that they were the same movie.  When I got home and put it in I realized that they were the same and I tried to take it back.  However they wouldn't take it and I can't get rid of it anywhere so now I have two copies of Drunken Maser 2.  

O i brought Ringu from Best Buy for 25 dollars and then went on Ebay and saw the whole trilogy on sale  for 30.  I was highly upset.

[The Burgomaster]

Perk wrote:

> I bought The Legend of Drunken Master on DVD for 15 bucks.
> Then a few weeks later I saw Druken Master 2 on sale for 20
> vhs.  It was in chinese and I didnt realize that they were the
> same movie.

Yeah, watch out for those Jackie Chan movies. A lot of them had different titles overseas than they had in the U.S. and it gets really confusing.  Imagine a video distributor trying to deceive the public? I won't stand for it!

By the way, did any of you ever buy DVDs from Dimension. I am 99% sure that the company no longer exists. In the early days of DVD, they released a bunch of crappy movies with REALLY bad picture quality. I bought THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE with John Travolta (okay . . . stop heckling me . . . ) and it looks like a 3rd generation VHS dupe that was recorded in the EP mode on a cheap VCR. Totally unwatchable. The Dimension executives (wherever they are) should all burn in hell.



Post Edited (04-29-03 18:31)

[Johnny Blister]

Scenario 1:happened to me with Battlefield Earth,Legally Blonde and Batman And Robin
Scenario 2: Two words: GOSFORD PARK

My personal biggest waste of money on cinema came from seeing"Gosford Park"Why the hell did they hyped as one thing(murder mystery)when it was a completely different thing(Victorian tea party)

My personal biggest waste of money on VHS came when I rented"Resident Evil"It was a whory b***h movie and I HATE whory b***hes.

[Andrew]

The "Project A-Ko" box set.  I liked the first movie, but had never seen the following films.  There was a good reason for that...

[Foywonder]

Spending around $75 (video and overseas shipping) for a Korean language copy of YONGGARY (the new one) when if first came out. Sure it was in Korean but it was an all CGI giant monster movie so it couldn't possibly be that bad could it? Sigh. The worst part was that English language bootlegs became available about 2 months later and then about a year later it actually got released in the US as REPTILIAN. Now that was a huge waste of money.

[sinbad007]

Regarding your double copies of "Legend Of Drunken Master."

You should watch the original version sometime (not in English) because they cut out the original ending for the American release.

SPOILER:

The original ending showed Jackie Chan as a brain damaged retard from consuming the flammable liquid in the big fight scene near the end. Over there, they thought it was a pretty funny way to end it but in the US they cut it out.

[Squishy]

Don't want to sidetrack the thread, but--

Andrew wrote: "The "Project A-Ko" box set. I liked the first movie, but had never seen the following films. There was a good reason for that..."

Andrew, what's included in the box set? If "Project A-Ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group" and "Project A-Ko 3: Cinderella Rhapsody" are part of the package, I am very interested--but there appear to be TWO collector's sets out there: one does not have the immediate sequels, but two "Versus Battle" videos I didn't care for at all--and the other has two discs titled "Uncivil Wars" and "Love and Robots," which I've never heard of--might be retitled (maybe even re-edited) versions of the ones I'm looking for. I am so confused!

If one of them starts off with a parody of a pool-shooting contest, and another  prominently features B-Ko's dad...THAT'S THE SET I WANT!! "Project A-Ko" was fun, but "Daitokuji" and "Cinderella" were more fun--and technically superior--and "Cinderella" took the ballsy move of almost entirely eschewing the superpowers/exploding missiles angle in favor of heavy characterization and dialogue-driven comedy AND made it work beautifully (in my book, anyway). ("Daitokuji" was largely a rehash of the original, but the few changes involved were priceless.)

I don't know if I'd want to buy it; it would have to have a "subtitled/original Japanese soundtrack" option. I cannot abide dubbing.

Disgusting trivia: I don't think the others were, but the first "Project A-Ko" was produced by Fairy Dust--the same company that made the infamous "Cream Lemon" series--as their first (only?) venture out of hard animated porn. "Project A-Ko" was, in fact, initially intended to be a "Cream Lemon" chapter; then they realized it could be something better. (If you don't know what "Cream Lemon" was all about, forget it. Don't ask. Trust me. Just don't.)

[Squishy]

Okay, never mind. Naturally, AS SOON AS I'VE POSTED, I turn around and find the answer. The DVD collection offered at Amazon has ALL the "Project A-Ko" videos: "Uncivil Wars" is the two "Versus Battle" vids on one DVD, and "Love & Robots" is "A-Ko 2," "A-Ko 3," and "A-Ko Final" all stacked together.  I could just huck the "Uncivil Wars" disc...

Now I just gotta find out about the dubbing...

[Squishy]

Sigh. Okay, I can get the "Love & Robots" DVD all by itself--forgoing "Uncivil Wars" entirely--and it DOES have the subtitle option. Gonna order it now! Forgive the multi-posts.

[Cullen]

Off topic - Project A-ko was what made my brother and I anime fans.  Actually, Speed Racer and Robotech did that, but we were blissfully unaware of that at the time.  The video store by us started getting anime and out of curiousity we started renting what little they had.  We started with Fist of the North Star and Vampire Hunter D , and both of those films left us cold.   A-ko , as my faulty memory has it, was going to be the last one we tried.  We watched it and, frankly, fell in love with it.  It seemed to go on forever, and not in a Touch of Satan or a It's Alive sort of way.  It was like entering Heaven... okay, maybe that's a little much, but you get the idea.  We were hooked and have been otaku ever since.  More or less.

On topic - The tape I regret buying the most is Godzilla v. Meglon .  Not simply because its's the worst Godzilla movie ever made, mind you.  It's just that later in life I was given a Godzilla collection for a present and now I have two of the damn things.
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[Brother Ragnarok]

Why, if you miss a movie in the theatrical run and were only sort of interested in the first place, would you buy it instead of renting it first?  That's what the little card in your wallet with the word "video" on it is for.
As for worst purchases, I don't own anything I hate.  Mostly because I find it hard to hate movies.  Even if they suck there's always something fun about them.  I more often have the "bought it a week ago, saw it for five bucks cheaper yesterday" problem.

Brother R