Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes BD set March 29

[Eric W.]

I'm pleasantly shocked and amazed to see something like this coming to Blu.




Maybe there is more hope for catalog titles and such getting cleaned up for Blu than any of us thought if this is anything to go by.

[Monterey Jack]

I'm pleasantly shocked and amazed to see something like this coming to Blu.

You know it only has to do with the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock movies.

[Eric W.]

I'm pleasantly shocked and amazed to see something like this coming to Blu.

You know it only has to do with the Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock movies.

I'm sure that's a factor but really: For all the doom and gloom and hand wringing I've seen and heard about the potential fate of catalog titles and such for BD...I think this is downright incredible to see something like this come to Blu.

I never thought I'd see the likes of something like this come to Blu. I like the potential ramifications here in a big time way.

[AndyDursin]

I never thought I'd see the likes of something like this come to Blu. I like the potential ramifications here in a big time way.

I love the ramifications -- if it sells. If it doesn't, labels like MPI won't try it again the same way Shout is dumping Blu-Rays after their Roger Corman titles didn't do well.

But, we're definitely off to a nice start with the tons of MGM content flooding retailers and the like. Hopefully it'll all move and they'll keep it coming...it's only taken 3-4 years to reach this point!

[Eric W.]

I never thought I'd see the likes of something like this come to Blu. I like the potential ramifications here in a big time way.

I love the ramifications -- if it sells. If it doesn't, labels like MPI won't try it again the same way Shout is dumping Blu-Rays after their Roger Corman titles didn't do well.

I'm going to buy it myself. Vote with my wallet. The best I can do.

But, we're definitely off to a nice start with the tons of MGM content flooding retailers and the like. Hopefully it'll all move and they'll keep it coming...it's only taken 3-4 years to reach this point!

Agreed, but that's typical. You never see stuff like this show up in the early years of any format and especially in the wake of any kind of format war. Some of this has shown up faster than it did on DVD or at about the same pace.

[AndyDursin]

MPI sent me a review copy that I've been going through the last couple of nights and I've really enjoyed it -- I've made it through the two Fox movies and started the first Universal last night.

Take into account that UCLA spent 10 years restoring the Universal Holmes movies (the latter 12 entries) from sources that weren't always pristine (sometimes they had the original negatives, but mostly they didn't), and you couldn't ask for anything much better than this. Good definition, especially on the UCLA restorations (the first two Fox movies weren't restored by UCLA and look good-to-mediocre, with a lot of damage coming around reel changes), AVC encodes, PCM audio and all the extras (a bunch of commentaries and interviews) from the prior MPI DVDs, and I think a fair price for everything that's in this 5 disc set.

Of course it'll go on sale eventually, but 14 movies for $90 isn't a bad proposition at all.

I would love to see Universal do a whole anthology for the Classic Monsters and charge $100 or so for it -- but we all know they won't have the foresight to do something like that. Yet, I think doing anthology releases for catalog titles like these is the way to go to sell units. Don't bother with individual releases -- just go full on and release them all, charge a bit more, but deliver a quality presentation like this one for the price.