The Kino Lorber Studio Classics Sale on Amazon

As you may or may not know from having read this bl-g, I’m a media junkie. I am also a huge proponent of physical media and supporting the continued release of DVDs and Blu-rays. As my sentiments about digital music have shifted (necessary evil) not so have my feelings about digital movies (not unless I have to). If I *can* own the best possible presentation of a film on physical media I will. I also invest in Blu-rays from certain select companies as a way of supporting their endeavors during “the twilight of physical media.” I put that phrase in quotations not because I’ve heard that specific phrase necessarily, only hundreds of others just like it predicting the end of physical media. Everyone likes to question the continued ownership of DVDs and Blu-rays. They take up space. They collect dust. They take time to organize and maintain. I stand behind the fact that a library of books, movies or music means something. It’s a place of solace. It’s a representation of your tastes and personality. Digital files are bits and bytes. They’re not real. Though all of this will disappear eventually (just like all of us, the physical consumers of said media), digital files will only reside somewhere up there in the Cloud or the Interwebs. What happens when that company or that storage device disappears? What’s left?

My labored point here is this: if you want to see the continued distribution of obscure and lesser and interesting catalog titles, we’ve got to support these releases when they happen. Despite Blu-rays becoming an increasingly niche market, studios and distributors have offered a wider variety of releases. Some of the prices have increased accordingly (see Twilight Time’s release model, for example), but lest we forget how much DVDs once cost us. Genre titles, specifically, have experienced a sort of resurgence because fans are looking for the next great oddball or discovery and they’re willing to pay the premium. Fewer units sold means these distributors must charge a slightly higher price. Check out the catalogs from distributors like Code Red, Mondo Macabro, Vinegar Syndrome, Scorpion, Arrow Video, Cohen, Twilight Time, Olive and Kino Lorber Studio Classics… just to name a few. Many of these companies are doing yeoman’s work restoring films that have no business being restored. But that’s why we love them. And why we should support their efforts.

One of these companies, Kino Lorber, has joined forces with Amazon to offer an amazing sale on a large portion of their catalog (all discs in the sale are $10-$16). Kino rescues old catalog titles from obscurity. While there are dozens of titles available through this sale, I’ll list a few of my recommendations in the hopes of encouraging you to pick up a title or two and provide some new support for the Kino line. I’ll link some below, but ultimately I’ll get tired of linking and just list some favorites. Kay? Kay. There are plenty of worthy flicks in this line. Go beyond the ones I’ve mentioned. This is meant as just a sampling.

For 80’s Nostalgists:

Modern Girls (if you long for the days when Daphne Zuniga and Virginia Madsen were stone cold foxes)

Running Scared (Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines in an action comedy that only the 80’s could produce)

Miracle Mile (Goose gets real in this pre-apocalyptic (?) thriller)

Cherry 2000 (Melanie Griffith’s best 90-minutes this side of Working Girl)

Desperately Seeking Susan (The hair, like, oh my god, the hair.)

Grab Bag Sleeper Picks:

Rush (Jason Patric and Jennifer Jason Leigh’s underrated thriller/crime flick about drug officers getting sucked into the drug culture)

Prime Cut (Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman deal in sausage and sex.)

The Satan Bug (Solid sci-fi thriller about nasty, rampaging germs.)

Cops & Robbers (Underseen cop comedy that I discovered via the lists at www.rupertpupkinspeaks.com.)

Real Men (James Belushi as a C.I.A. agent teams up with John Ritter, professional dad, to avert a global crisis! Obviously!)

Bank Shot (George C. Scott steals a mobile home/bank. It’s ridiculous and pretty funny.)

Foxes (Adriane Lyne’s teen drama – with 1980 Jodie Foster! – dotted with killer tunes and rampant substance abuse.)

Busting (Eliot Gould and Robert Blake go after a badass crime boss in 1974 L.A.)

Sabata (First of two Lee Van Cleef Sabata Westerns.)

Across 110th Street (More than just the slick Bobby Womack soul anthem.)

Cotton Comes to Harlem (Loose cannon cops Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson take on charismatic black nationalist leader Reverend Deke O’Malley.)

Unforgettable (Nobody saw this slick 1996 thriller starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino but that won’t stop me from plugging the hell out of it.)

Malice (Alec Baldwin and Bill Pullman chewing scenery. Nicole Kidman loving the camera. Better than you remember.)

Truck Turner (Isaac Hayes is a football star turned bounty hunter tracking a pimp in L.A. How can you not want to see this?)