MovieChat Forums > Trancers (1984) Discussion > A quality DVD...one day?

A quality DVD...one day?


Seriously, the R1 and 2 releases of this great little cult film have been crappy full frame affairs with rubbish audio. There has to be a good print of this film somewhere!

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Lexx-2 - the reason for this is that the DVD's have been badly copied from the old laserdisc rather than from the original theatrical negative. Full Moon themselves released such a second-rate DVD, despite not owning the rights to the movie itself!!

The rights to Trancers currently lye with MGM, who own pretty much the entirety of Empire Pictures' film catalogue. They've sneaked out a few Empire titles (Crawlspace, Troll, Ghoulies) but not the ones that really count (Trancers, The Caller, Stuart Gordon's From Beyond, Renny Harlin's Prison). Personally, I'd love to see one of MGM's 'Midnite Movie' double bills of Trancers and Zone Troopers, with both films released in their original aspect ratio and remastered (with Trancers' boom-mike problems sorted out!).

This may have been possible with MGM as was but, since they've been taken over by Sony, I doubt it'll be top of their 'to do' list!! Perhaps someone should sort out a petition to send to the company?

As it is, the best transfer of Trancers I've come across isn't on DVD at all. It's the 1992 VHS re-release of the movie that came out in the US through 'Avid Home Entertainment'. Ignore the PG-13 rating on the film-jacket: this is the uncut R-rated version with all profanity intact... It ain't perfect, but is preferable to those hideous DVD releases...

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Lexx-2 - the reason for this is that the DVD's have been badly copied from the old laserdisc rather than from the original theatrical negative. Full Moon themselves released such a second-rate DVD, despite not owning the rights to the movie itself!!

The rights to Trancers currently lye with MGM, who own pretty much the entirety of Empire Pictures' film catalogue. They've sneaked out a few Empire titles (Crawlspace, Troll, Ghoulies) but not the ones that really count (Trancers, The Caller, Stuart Gordon's From Beyond, Renny Harlin's Prison). Personally, I'd love to see one of MGM's 'Midnite Movie' double bills of Trancers and Zone Troopers, with both films released in their original aspect ratio and remastered (with Trancers' boom-mike problems sorted out!).

This may have been possible with MGM as was but, since they've been taken over by Sony, I doubt it'll be top of their 'to do' list!! Perhaps someone should sort out a petition to send to the company?

As it is, the best transfer of Trancers I've come across isn't on DVD at all. It's the 1992 VHS re-release of the movie that came out in the US through 'Avid Home Entertainment'. Ignore the PG-13 rating on the film-jacket: this is the uncut R-rated version with all profanity intact... It ain't perfect, but is preferable to those hideous DVD releases...

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Thanks Dave, gives me a little hope at least. I mean, if MGM can release Troll and Troll 2 then this has to be floating around with them. That R1 release has also turned up here in Australia, licenced through a local re-seller. As for any cuts, I was wondering about that. The Australian video release has a run time of 83mins (Pal) and all American versions seem to be listed at 76mins.... Little help?

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There's only two cuts of TRANCERS: one with a fair share of f-word profanity and one without. The original theatrical cut of the film was trimmed of profanity by Empire Pictures in order to secure a PG-13 rating, but since then the untrimmed version has sneaked out in various territories... sometimes under an R-rating and sometimes under it's theatrical rating of PG-13. To be honest, there's very little difference between the two - certainly no new scenes or cut violence. The large difference between the two running times you state must be misinformation...

Best, Dave.

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Oh, and MGM have DVD releases lined up for Empire's FROM BEYOND & DOLLS now, so surely the likes of TRANCERS & PRISON can't be far behind?

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i think Anchor Bay should get the rights to it. they would release it with the original theatrical poster(which is dope), commentary tracks, the works. it would be real nice!!

i watched this recently and was quite surprised at how well this movie has stood up. the atmosphere is great and i think the sequels just aren't as evocative. they come off as just cheesy, but fun anyway.

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No, MGM have rights to Prison.

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Prison, unfortunately, still qualifies as an Empire (rather than New World) title, most of which are owned by MGM. New World distributed the film when it came out, but the actual rights still belonged to Empire, which then went to Epic Productions following Empire's collapse, and then Epic's library was bought by MGM. If you don't believe me, MGM have even released Prison as part of a rare, very expensive boxset in Japan (http://www.sazuma.com/details.php?dcd_id=91552).

Anchor Bay might, however, be able to release some latter-day Empire films like Cellar Dweller and Deadly Weapon which are owned by the Lakeshore International Film Library. But Prison isn't one of them. Sucks balls, doesn't it?

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Just following up with a link to a blog posting I did recently about the DVD whereabouts of Empire's catalogue. I know it's not totally complete (didn't really bother with the Wizard Video/Urban Classics stuff, as well as films only distributed by Empire) but this should be accurate. You're obviously a fan of these films, so would appreciate your feedback.

http://terrorobscura.blogspot.com/2007/02/buyers-guide-to-empire-international.html

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According to Sazuma, it's NTSC Region 2, like most Japanese releases. If I had that kind of money to get it, I would!

http://www.sazuma.com/details.php?dcd_id=91552

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