'The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco'
A place to talk about movies--Old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
24 Hour Party People
I've got this, among others, as well. I suspect because this one was shot on video that it may not be an issue.
Some of the items on the list I know have been reviewed in Video Watchdog, and they usually spot crop-boxing (as they call this manouver) a mile away. I wonder if they missed it, or if some of these aren't as bad as others.
Princess Bride, Dr No and Fish Called Wanda. Interesting.
I suspect because this one was shot on video that it may not be an issue.
But it was released theatrically in 35mm. I'd be very surprised if it wasn't shot in widescreen.
I have a couple, but as a Canadian, I don't think I'm eligible. Should I start my own class action lawsuit.
It looks like you have to have purchased the DVDv before Sept. 8, 2003, to participate. I have no idea when I bought any of the three I own -- I wonder how they'll know?
So - let me get this straight: Instead of putting out a widescreen version (as the DVD case claimed) they put out a panned-and-scanned version (with the right and/or left side of the picture cut off). And then, to make it look like it was a widescreen version, they chopped part of the top and/or bottom off?
Fuckers.
Also, stupid, fraudulent and cheap. I have 7 on that list, although only 2-3 are actually worth making a fuss over. From the site, it's not 100% clear that they will actually replace the crap versions with good versions of the same movies.
H'rmph. Zmayhem has Bull Durham, Ghost World, The Princess Bride, and The Producers. But I went to the settlement site and read every damn thing on it, and the settlement doesn't sound so great. It doesn't sound like you turn in your DVD and get back another copy of the same film in the proper aspect ratio; you turn it in and get to choose from a list of 385 other MGM DVDs.
Which I guess is okay (assuming they're not lying about the aspect ratio on all their DVD releases), but what about these particular titles? Was the problem fixed in editions after 2003 so we can exchange the old copy for the new, or are we just SOL? I don't want some other MGM movie, I want these movies, dammit.
Off to Google up more info.
And be careful with that DVD of Pajama Game.
From the article:
"My wife and I were very shocked but we watched it until the end because we couldn't believe what we were seeing.
Oh yeah, that's why you watched the whole thing anyway....