physical media

That John Denver’s Fulla Shit, Man.

Luke RyanLeave a comment

“I like it a lot.“

Alright, alright, so… I’m flipping the script already. Look, I’m prone to do this, but it’s better to iron out these creases sooner rather than later, right? Instead of running a daily post (for posterity, the first four posts on this site made in July 2026 were titled The Razorwire Reviews Daily Bulletin #1, #2, etc.) I’m going to somewhat adopt the form in which I organise my YouTube channel’s videos. For any video that isn’t a part of its own dedicated series/project, I simply archive it by year and episode number. I’ll eschew the yearly system for this site though, and simply number most pieces numerically, so this will be Razorwire Reviews #5, easy enough? This way I can keep posting regularly but not feel tied to a daily schedule, especially as I have other things going on in my life at the moment. Really, this was the worst possible time to attempt such an ambitious pursuit, but again, this is me all over…

So what are we talking about today? Well. I was thinking about the film Dumb and Dumber To (2014) and how I often forget it even happened. People who didn’t grow up in the 90s will never fully grasp the phenomenon that was Jim Carrey in his heyday. In February of 1994, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was released. In July: The Mask. Before the year closed out, in December, a little film called Dumb and Dumber premiered. That’s what the kool kids today would call a “generational run.” When you consider how beloved each of those three films are, and how much of a vehicle they were for Jim Carrey’s manic zaniness, it’s hard to imagine a comparable break out year. I’m sure there are many examples, but that one, in a calendar year, feels incredibly rare to me.

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The Out of Print Dilemma

Luke Ryan2 Comments

“I’d buy that for a dollar!”

One frustrating element of being a physical media enthusiast and collector of boutique label blu-rays is the dreaded three letters: OOP. Often a blu-ray release will be limited to a certain number of copies and once they’re gone… eBay is your only hope. Though a friend of mine has grabbed a few choice out of print titles from places like Vinted or CeX too. I remember back in the early 2010s (what a weird sentence to type out…) the steelbook craze was reaching a peak. I think it was HMV who put out a steelbook release of The Wolverine (2013) and there was a picture floating around (that I probably have somewhere but can’t be bothered finding now) of someone lining up about 30 or 40 copies of them on a bed.

This may have possibly been part of a “group buy” where someone buys a bulk amount of copies, each for a specific person who might not be able to order or pick up a specific edition themselves. In this case, fair enough, each one is going to someone who wants it for the price it costs to buy. But scalpers run rampant too, and while I don’t think there’s a huge market for scalping in the blu-ray and 4K market these days, it definitely still happens.

I miss the days of a release coming out and being able to order it within a few months or go and buy it from HMV. The demand is so high for certain titles though, that you never know if that will even be possible, as I’ve found this week with the 88 Films release of Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), a brand new 4K limited edition. As 88 announced themselves, it was sold out from their own stock on release and a few copies were still available from other retailers. When I went to order one, it was gone everywhere I could look. I was able to place an order with HMV as it’s currently listed as “Back in stock soon” but I don’t know if I’ll secure one at this point. I do have the standard blu-ray that 88 put out a few years ago, but there’s a couple of new extras and of course, a 4K transfer of the film.

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