So far, I have bought all of my Region 1 and Region 0 bootleg DVDs from eBay
and other bootleg sites. These bootleg DVDs are titles that have been
abandoned in Region 1 by the studios that own them, such as _Song of the
South_ (1946), _Girls Town_ (1959) and _King Kong_ (1933). Ducking in and
out of eBay in an attempt to grab bootleg DVDs before the sales are
cancelled can be a real challenge.
But, all of this cloak and dagger stuff may be coming to end because bootleg
DVDs are gaining acceptance as a viable alternative when legitimate studio
releases are not available. I hope that as bootleg DVDs gain widespread
acceptance the quality of bootleg DVDs will get better and their prices will
drop.
Now that Amazon is selling bootleg DVDs, the day may soon come when we can
walk into Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Costo and buy high-quality, well-packaged,
reasonably-priced bootleg DVDs. Better yet, when the studios that are
refusing to release popular bootleg DVD titles see the huge popularity of
these movies, they may actually release official studio versions.
I am glad to see that bootleg DVDs have now become an acceptable offering in
Amazon's video lineup. The negative customer feedback on some of these
titles will provide an incentive for the bootleggers to find better source
material from which to make a better product. An Amazon search has turned up
27 homemade DVDs from Cheezy Flicks Entertainment, including these titles,
complete with customer reviews:
Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster (1964)
"This is a cheap bootleg. Do not even waste your time looking at
anything beyond this review. Why is this even on Amazon?"
Death at Love House (1976)
"The quality of the DVD, it is just awful, even a old vhs would be
better !! It is just a shame to sell a DVD with such poor quality, the
sound is terrible and the image is even worth !! 5 stars for the movie,
0 for the quality (only because you can not give negative rates !!)"
Star Knight
"Unfortunately there is a flaw, and it is a huge one. The producer's of
this DVD should have spent a little more time on it. The audio and video
don't track together, with the audio being about one second ahead of the
visual. This renders the entire movie into bad comedic farce.
Unfortunately the effect is not entertaining, but rather is a headache.
I would have to recommend that you avoid this film, at least until some
other company creates a viewable version."
King Kong (1933)
"The video quality of this _King Kong_ (1933) DVD from Cheezy Flicks
Entertainment is about the same as the NTSC VHS source from which it
appears to have been copied. The DVD has a pasty looking picture which
suffers from a total lack of contrast and there are occasional VHS-style
video dropouts. The picture is off centered to the left and has
excessive overscan. The "deleted" scenes are all way too dark. The crude
cover art is composed of fuzzy screen shots. This Region 1 NTSC disc was
made on a DVD burner."
Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster (1964)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...125699-6530320
Death at Love House (1976)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd
Star Knight
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd
King Kong (1933)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...v=glance&s=dvd
http://store.cheezyflicks.com