I rented Mishima from Netflix and received the Criterion

This is the most disheartening thing I've ever read on this forum.

If Mishima is placed in the wrong DVD cover, and in fact is the Criterion release, can anyone confirm or deny whether the Juliet of the Spirits DVD is in fact the Criterion or some other release?

Guys, if it's still getting shipped out, the odds are very good that you will be sent the most recent version of the film.

I rented Juliet of the Spirits about a month or two ago. I can confirm that the DVD was the Criterion edition. Does that help?

I got this email today:


So now I know why they've been throttling me again lately.

Is this really true? In my experience, when an OOP title was upgraded, if they got a reissued edition it would be integrated into their surviving stock of the old version, and you'd have know way of knowing which one you'd get. Whether or not they changed the cover art on the site was irrelevant.

For the most part, this has caused me to stop Netflixing Criterion (and other) reissues, and just rent them from brick-and-mortars instead, so I haven't had much recent experience with this frustration -- but I can report that a friend rented Shoot the Piano Player from Netflix about a month ago and received the old Fox Lorber, not the Criterion.

Weird, I received Shoot the Piano Player Criterion edition about a month and a half ago.

I didn't say it's infallible, but think about it for most cases: If the old disc is out of print and wasn't available on Netflix right before the Criterion was issued, why would you ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever assume you would be getting the old out of print edition that sells for $$$$ on second-hand sites? If the disc is of a film that was still available from Netflix before Criterion reissued it, the Criterion will get folded in and eventually replace the old disc because people lose discs, they get scratched, &c.

Right ... so the longer you wait before you try to catch a copy of the new one, the better. And I guess if you request all the copies of, say, Pierrot le Fou from your local distribution center and smash 'em all before returning them, you'll eventually receive a Criterion in the mail....

Pierrot le fou is a perfect example of what I was just talking about. It wasn't available from Netflix before the Criterion was released. So if you love otiose actions, by all means smash a Criterion to receive a Criterion

Um, yeah. I actually got Pierrot from Netflix the week Criterion released it, and it was the Criterion.

Just saw this notice at the top of my queue:

Aha, I see your misconception now, Domino. When Netflix's inventory on OOP DVDs drops below a certain level, they'll take it out of circulation and mark it as "save" instead of "add" on their website. But if a new edition comes out, they'll add whatever was left of the old versions back into the inventory along with the new ones. So you can still get a crappy Fox Lorber Pierrot Le Fou, although I guess your chances are slimmer than with something that stayed in print closer to its Criterionization (like those awful Pioneer Cassavetes DVDs).

Interesting. As I know little of Netflix's internal affairs, may I ask where and how you learned of such a OOP policy? I'm not saying what you state is not accurate, but I am curious.

What is this "certain level" below which an OOP title is taken out of circulation? Even with only 15 or 25 copies of a particular film on hand, hundreds of subscribers each year would have access to it. I could imagine some OOP titles becoming valuable and a few unscrupulous subscribers purloining the DVD, claiming they never received it. But I wonder how often this actually occurs?

It seems to be in Netflix's best interest to keep a title listed as "available" for as long as possible. Sadly, once a title has gone out of print, it could be years before there's a reissue. The longer Netflix keeps an OOP title available to subscribers, the more they gain in terms of competitive advantage.

Anyone else having Netflix problems right now? I saw on another message board that this thing is wide spread right now. They say theyll give credit for them not shipping out DVDs, but seriously this sucks, well at least I still have all the extras to go through on Mishima and Vampyr for the library.

Yeah, I got an e-mail about it, what do they mean by credits though?

Yeah, thats what I was wondering. I've heard it could be really slow moving the next 2 weeks, whether they refund money or give us an extra 2 weeks, I dont know.

Two weeks? Crap, there goes trying to time it so I get Salo before it becomes a Very Long Wait.

You can watch the most of the film of Salo on Youtube. That is if you so desire.

Jesus, two weeks? Thank God I have a backlog of movies here for just such an emergency.

Thats just what I heard on another board where someone who talked with Netflix said that this may be due to some new addition to the instant viewing.

I don't use instant viewing, gimme me my movies now!

Y'know, just in case Netflix is reading this

Instant viewing isn't bad, but it's not compatible with Macs goddammit. Netflix has promised compatibility ever since insta-viewing came out over a year and half ago.