"Sci-fi 4-pack: The Galaxy 1 Collection" coming from VCI

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

Not sure if anyone would be interested in this (especially considering the company's past performance), but VCI is releasing on October 13 a quartet of titles they previously offered via VHS:

https://www.amazon.com/Sci-fi-4-pack...vies-tv&sr=1-3

I know a couple were made available on disc already, and I'm pretty sure LIFEPOD (with Kristine DeBell) was not amongst those. It is probably accurate to state these are not A-grade films (nor maybe even B-grade), but I'll be picking up the set, especially at the price. And sorry, apparently no Blu-ray at this time.

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

STAR ODYSSEY looks promising. LIFEPOD sounds like it could similar to Aniara which I loved.

This is the time when I wish Film Aficionado (dvdaf.com) was still with us. I'd like to know if there are any other releases of these films and if I already own them.

[Lorne Marshall Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lorne Marshall]

Watched all of the selections here and once again, VCI succeeds in failing. I'm not one for complaining about quality, but even I was appalled by how these admittedly Z-grade sci-fi offerings were treated. I checked LIFEPOD against my VHS copy and TIME WARP against VCI's own release of it (when it was paired with WARP SPEED), discovering that in both cases, they merely blew up the none-too-impressive image to make it widescreen, oftentimes leading to actors' heads being lopped off. I'm confident they did the same with the other two movies in this set, THE KILLING AT OUTPOST ZETA (which I didn't have in any format but had rented on tape years ago) and STAR ODYSSEY (my favorite of the "Al Bradley" outer space quintrilogy). In the case of the latter, they used the version that has some scenes out of order, most notably the planetary auction (the Mogul release of this under the title CAPTIVE PLANET has it in the right place). They even had the temerity to include a notice prior to the menu on both discs that proclaimed, "This Special Edition motion picture has been digitally restored to its present condition."

I had considered purchasing their "Scream Theater Double Feature Volume 9," which came out last week and pairs HOUSE OF THE LIVING DEAD (I believe this has been included in PD sets before) with NIGHT OF THE BLOODY TRANSPLANT (an obscurity that hadn't ever been put out on DVD). After checking out this 4-film collection, however, I decided I wouldn't bother, and will just settle for my VHS copies of both.