Robocop (Blu-ray SteelBook) (Arrow Video) [UK]

paulboland

Contributor Steels/Arrow
Contributor
Premium Supporter
Sep 10, 2012
38,294
Navan/Ireland
Release date: November 25, 2019
Purchase links: Arrow Films - Zavvi - Amazon UK - HMV
Price: £25.00 (Arrow Films) - £24.10 (Amazon) - £24.99 (Zavvi - HMV)

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STEELBOOK CONTENTS

  • 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by MGM, transferred in 2013 and approved by director Paul Verhoeven
  • Director’s Cut and Theatrical Cut of the film on two High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray™ discs
  • Original lossless stereo and four-channel mixes plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround sound option on both cuts
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on both cuts
  • Limited edition collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Omar Ahmed, Christopher Griffiths and Henry Blyth
DISC ONE – DIRECTOR’S CUT

  • Archive commentary by director Paul Verhoeven, executive producer Jon Davison and co-writer Ed Neumeier (originally recorded for the Theatrical Cut and re-edited in 2014 for the Director’s Cut)
  • New commentary by film historian Paul M. Sammon
  • New commentary by fans Christopher Griffiths, Gary Smart and Eastwood Allen
  • The Future of Law Enforcement: Creating RoboCop, a newly filmed interview with co-writer Michael Miner
  • RoboTalk, a newly filmed conversation between co-writer Ed Neumeier and filmmakers David Birke (writer of Elle) and Nick McCarthy (director of Orion Pictures’ The Prodigy)
  • Truth of Character, a newly filmed interview with star Nancy Allen on her role as Lewis
  • Casting Old Detroit, a newly filmed interview with casting director Julie Selzer on how the film’s ensemble cast was assembled
  • Connecting the Shots, a newly filmed interview with second unit director and frequent Verhoeven collaborator Mark Goldblatt
  • Composing RoboCop, a new tribute to composer Basil Poledouris featuring film music experts Jeff Bond, Lukas Kendall, Daniel Schweiger and Robert Townson
  • RoboProps, a newly filmed tour of super-fan Julien Dumont’s collection of original props and memorabilia
  • 2012 Q&A with the Filmmakers, a panel discussion featuring Verhoeven, Davison, Neumeier, Miner, Allen, star Peter Weller and animator Phil Tippett
  • RoboCop: Creating a Legend, Villains of Old Detroit and Special Effects: Then & Now, three archive featurettes from 2007 featuring interviews with cast and crew
  • Paul Verhoeven Easter Egg
  • Four deleted scenes
  • The Boardroom: Storyboard with Commentary by Phil Tippett
  • Director’s Cut Production Footage, raw dailies from the filming of the unrated gore scenes
  • Two theatrical trailers and three TV spots
  • Extensive image galleries
DISC TWO – THEATRICAL CUT

  • Archive commentary by director Paul Verhoeven, executive producer Jon Davison and co-writer Ed Neumeier (originally recorded for Theatrical version of the film)
  • Two Isolated Score tracks (Composer’s Original Mix and Final Theatrical Mix) in lossless stereo
  • Edited-for-television version of the film, featuring alternate dubs, takes and edits of several scenes (95 mins, SD only)
  • Split screen comparison of Theatrical and Director’s Cuts
  • Robocop: Edited For Television, a compilation of alternate scenes from two edited-for-television versions, newly transferred in HD from recently-unearthed 35mm elements
 
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Got a dent (on the rear) under the info sheet (which shows no damage) and the booklet inside the steel is torn.

Pretty poor quality checking from Arrow in this particular instance.
Same here. Noticeable dent on the rear under the slip, and another on the front near the just at the edge.
 
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Got mine today and am pleasantly surprised by the finish, although they got it backwards IMO... kinda weird the background is gloss whilst robocop and the car are matte, but I guess it's because they wanted to give those parts more of a metallic look? Would've preferred the whole thing to be glossed tbh, but can't complain too much... it's a big step up in terms of finishes for Arrow!
 
[QUOTEI never bothered with laserdiscs :p[/QUOTE]
The Criterion laserdisc is amazing!. It's not a box set but a fold out double disc like a vinyl album. Full CAV. Even today the quality is amazing. Would love to see a 4k release of the film. 'I'd buy that for a dollar"!
 
[QUOTEI never bothered with laserdiscs :p
The Criterion laserdisc is amazing!. It's not a box set but a fold out double disc like a vinyl album. Full CAV. Even today the quality is amazing. Would love to see a 4k release of the film. 'I'd buy that for a dollar"!
[/QUOTE]
I skipped laserdiscs as I knew it was a short lived format and was going to be done away with very quickly when I was working in the business that is why I never bothered with laserdiscs
 
The Criterion laserdisc is amazing!. It's not a box set but a fold out double disc like a vinyl album. Full CAV. Even today the quality is amazing. Would love to see a 4k release of the film. 'I'd buy that for a dollar"!
I skipped laserdiscs as I knew it was a short lived format and was going to be done away with very quickly when I was working in the business that is why I never bothered with laserdiscs
[/QUOTE]

Laserdics lasted 10 years nearly, 4K lasted less than 2 before failure lol
 
I skipped laserdiscs as I knew it was a short lived format and was going to be done away with very quickly when I was working in the business that is why I never bothered with laserdiscs

Laserdics lasted 10 years nearly, 4K lasted less than 2 before failure lol
[/QUOTE]
Laserdiscs market share was bad it failed due high prices of players and discs and not having ability to record
VHS and DVD wiped away the laserdisc market completely with ease

4K UHD Discs has sold lot more in 3 years than laserdiscs did in total over it's 10 years it lasted and that saying a lot considering 4K UHD Discs only has 5.9% global market share
UK 4K UHD has 13% of discs sales

Laserdiscs was mostly doing sort of ok in Japan while it lasted
 
Laserdisc is still a popular format for film buffs after all these years. I still buy them and play and it's only recently I've got into 4k and enjoying them. I'm surprised how well a lot of the laserdisc pressings hold up. Was not expecting that especially after getting into 4k
Laserdisc lasted 20 years not 10 years. 4k is hardly a fail. Doing very well. In fact despite the doom merchants physical media is holding it's own.
 
Laserdisc is still a popular format for film buffs after all these years. I still buy them and play and it's only recently I've got into 4k and enjoying them. I'm surprised how well a lot of the laserdisc pressings hold up. Was not expecting that especially after getting into 4k
Laserdisc lasted 20 years not 10 years. 4k is hardly a fail. Doing very well. In fact despite the doom merchants physical media is holding it's own.
Laserdiscs had a large catalogue of titles around 35,000 (A lot of these was in Europe/Japan) but did not sell a lot of units per title compared to VHS and later DVD's
VHS initially was rental market but that changed a lot with retail VHS Home media releases in late 80's when Music/Video Shops started to sell a lot of Films and TV on VHS

Consumers started to purchase films on VHS instead of renting
From the 90's 's the cost to make VHS tapes was a lot cheaper than it cost to make laserdiscs
Sales of films on VHS tapes was huge in the 90's
Laserdiscs did not do that well in USA

VHS was outselling laserdiscs by a huge margin in terms of unit sales per title especially from the 90's

Laserdiscs only had 5% market share of home media market at it's peak

VHS also had an advantage over Laserdiscs that you could use VHS tapes to record

The arrival of DVD put an end to laserdiscs with consumers combined purchases of both VHS and DVD
 
[QUOTEThe arrival of DVD put an end to laserdiscs with consumers combined purchases of both VHS and DVD[/QUOTE]

Not true. The studios stopped making laserdiscs as they did not want comparisons between DVD and laserdisc.It was a deliberate decision on the part of the studios.
Fans were not happy but the studios wouldn't budge on that. There was still a market there but the studios wanted DVD because of the ability to control through regional
coding and they did not want any review comparisons between DVD and laserdisc. They wanted a quick but brutal change over. The irony being that DVD accelerated piracy to such a level that nearly 70%
of all physical media today is piracy.
Also remember laserdisc was and still is a high quality format better than either VHS or DVD. Laserdisc was always a niche market, it's prices made sure of that. It was never going to compete
with any mass market format. In it's day a laserdisc was $40 to $70 and over $100 for special editions like Criterion.
All the things you take for granted today. Running commentaries, extras, directors cuts, extended editions, proper aspect ratios, HD, dolby digital, 5.1, laserdisc got there first and even today a lot of those extras are still being
used for both blu-ray and 4k.
I have loads of laserdiscs that have material that will never make it to any other format due to copyright, legal reasons or studios afraid to upset snowflakes..... (No I'm not kidding!) You think the film you watching today even from
the 90's is uncut?. You'd be surprised what films you take for granted are more complete on laserdisc.
Anyway rant over, back to 2019 and that lovely Arrow steelbook......
 
Not true. The studios stopped making laserdiscs as they did not want comparisons between DVD and laserdisc.It was a deliberate decision on the part of the studios.
Fans were not happy but the studios wouldn't budge on that. There was still a market there but the studios wanted DVD because of the ability to control through regional
coding and they did not want any review comparisons between DVD and laserdisc. They wanted a quick but brutal change over. The irony being that DVD accelerated piracy to such a level that nearly 70%
of all physical media today is piracy.
Also remember laserdisc was and still is a high quality format better than either VHS or DVD. Laserdisc was always a niche market, it's prices made sure of that. It was never going to compete
with any mass market format. In it's day a laserdisc was $40 to $70 and over $100 for special editions like Criterion.
All the things you take for granted today. Running commentaries, extras, directors cuts, extended editions, proper aspect ratios, HD, dolby digital, 5.1, laserdisc got there first and even today a lot of those extras are still being
used for both blu-ray and 4k.
I have loads of laserdiscs that have material that will never make it to any other format due to copyright, legal reasons or studios afraid to upset snowflakes..... (No I'm not kidding!) You think the film you watching today even from
the 90's is uncut?. You'd be surprised what films you take for granted are more complete on laserdisc.
Anyway rant over, back to 2019 and that lovely Arrow steelbook......
VHS in the 90's outsold laserdiscs by a huge amount.
Market share is based on unit sales of a format

Laserdiscs was too expensive and cost more to make than VHS did

Picture quality was not important to most consumers
VHS was lot cheaper than laserdiscs.
That's why VHS sold huge amounts of units in the 90's

DVD still outsells Blu-ray by a huge amount.
 
DVD still outsells Blu-ray by a huge amount.

You're missing the point of what I'm saying about laserdisc. It was a niche market from day 1. It was never intended or expected to be a wide consumer product. It was a specialist product. It was aimed at people who wanted the best picture quality and sound as well as serious extras. it was never aimed at the normal consumer who just wanted to get the six pack out on a Friday night and watch rat arsed the latest blockbuster. That's what VHS and then DVD was all about....
 
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