Man o man how annoying is this.
I got the new DVD of Hannibal Rising on Tuesday. It cost about 22 bucks pre order and the movie was pretty good. Now here is the problem. It came with nothing else. NOTHING! Just box and disc. No extra disc not insert no nothing. God this ticks me off. By contrast I bought my Mom a Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do for $14.99 and that came double boxed (cardboard cover that the box slides into) 2 discs loaded with content and a 2 page insert with actor info and scene numbers. What the @#$% are these company's doing? Hey if I buy a movie for $9.99 I don't mind if it's in an empty box with just a disc or even in a snap case. At least those have scene selections and nice artwork.
Now here is an example of when they do it right.
VIDEODROME
Now I understand this is a old film and a cult ****c but there are lots of others done this well and this is just the first one that came to mind while typing this. To give just a little background VIDEODROME is a movie about a guy that runs cheap cable company in the 80's and they snag programming off satellites to show on their network. They accidentally intercept this weird feed that basically consists of women being tortured and killed in all sorts of kinky ways and it gets pretty freaky from there. That's enough of that. This isn't a movie review but, you kinda needed to know about the movie to understand the rest about the packaging. Back to the subject.
This movie is available in 2 versions.
These versions are polar opposets and perfect examples of a good value vs.a value added product. One version is for the "hey I've heard about that and always wanted to see it" bunch and one is for the hard core 'this is the best movie ever made, I'm a huge fan and must have it" group.
The first version cost $8.99 and I think it comes in a regular box not a snap case. The artwork is original and looks like the secondary movie poster one might find in the newspaper or magazine ad instead of in the window at the theater. This version doesn't come with much and why should it for 9 bucks. It's a standard print but at least its a widescreen DVD and it will look fine on your TV. It's got the movie and I think it might also have a theater trailer or two but I'm not sure.
The other version is The Criterion Collection version. $35.99
NOW THIS IS THE **** I mean poo ;).
First off about the box. The box is sweet, super sweet. All black with a shot of the scene when the guy gets sucked into Deborah Harry's lips on the TV. The top of the spine looks like a TV test pattern and the side has the logo and an old school digital barcode like what you see on a modern DVD in the center. When you take the box out of the sleeve it looks like a Beta Max video cassette complete with writing on the spine VIDEODROME and on the face the now famous catch phrase "Long Live the New Flesh" all looking like it was written in sharpie pen. The box is a 2 DVD box. Now let me be clear this is not the standard kind of 2 disc box that when you open it both DVD's are inside and you flip one over and the next one is under it. A two DVD box that you open one side and one disc and the book is in it and you open the other separate side and the second disc is in that .
Then there is a booklet, all 40 pages of it.
The first page is the chapters and the next two are cast and credits.
Next comes three essay's about the film.
The first "Make mine Cronenberg" was written by Carrie Rickey that originally appeared in the Village Voice in 1983. It was updated for this booklet in 2004. The essay goes into detail about this and other Cronenberg's movies.
The second "Medium Cruel: Reflections on Videodrome with too much stuff to list includes details an in depth interview with Croenberg including a discussion of the original draft of the screenplay.
The final one is "That Slithery Sense of Unreality" by Garry Indiana explores the impact of the movie and it's relationship to prior subsequent films. The Carrie Rickey essay can be found at Criterion dot com under in the Videodrome dvd section
What else do you get for your extra money?
High-definition digital transfer
Unrated with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen TV
All the extra content you could want and more.
Two audio commentaries, one with David Cronenberg and director of photography Mark Irwin
One with James Woods and Deborah Harry
Short films:
Camera (2000) nothing to do with the movie but written by the director
Forging the New Flesh, a new half-hour documentary about the movies video and make-up effects
Effects Men, a new audio interview with the effects guy
Bootleg Video: the complete footage of Samurai Dreams and seven minutes unedited transmissions from "Videodrome," the creepy stuff they pirate in the movie.
Fear on Film, a 26-minute bs session from 1982 with filmmakers Cronenberg,
John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris
Original theatrical trailers and promotional featurette
Stills galleries featuring hundreds production photos and publicity photos.
Special effects makeup tests
Now I know what your saying.... "Yeah sure sleepy, but they put that kind of high priced fancy crap out cause they know that old people like you can afford it and will buy it to replace your crusty old VHS copy."
Ok, fine, I can accept that and will give you another more modern example.
Alien vs. Predator
This movie comes in 3 flavors of DVD excluding sets and came out in 2004
The first version comes in a regular keep case not a snap case and has a surprising amount of content for the price of $11.99 including 2 commentaries and both the theatrical version and an uncut version . Take that for what it's worth, un-cut usually means crap you didn't miss anyway but on occasion it can be an ok addition. If you were lucky enough to get the first run of this one like I did it came double boxed. Those are still out there but you have to be careful if you order it online. Other content includes DVD ROM content with comic book covers artwork and lots more. A very very good value.
The second version is the latest one ( The Lenticular Edition) doesn't come out till next week June 5, 2007 for $13.49 Pre order. And what do you get for your extra buck fifty? Same as above in a fancy box. Yes it's just a fancy box with one of those images that changes when you tilt it. But, that's whole point of this article now isn't it? If you like fancy boxes then well worth the price, if not better get the cheap one now cause I doubt they will be around after they sell out.
The last one is the Two-Disc Collector's Edition. $19.99
SIDE RANT: Stop calling crap a "Collectors Edition" when it's exactly the same as the standard version! This movie doesn't fall into that category and that's a whole other story.
This version is Loooooooaded with content rivaling if not more than the Criterion Videodrome. Super snazzy cover art and double boxed also. I'm not even sure what all the extra stuff is because I own the first one but IMHO all of the stuff in the standard version would be plenty enough content for a collectors edition and in fact is way better then many "special edition collectors blah blah" copy's. I'm pretty sure it has fan created video's and making of documentary's and so on.
Need more examples?
**** off
I did enough homework for one day.
Look at your own collection and you tell me if the price you paid for any title had anything to do with what content you got or how it was packaged. I'm guessing it absolutely did not.
I own hundreds of movies and Damm this ANNOYS the heck out of me!!!
What makes this burn even more is you don't know what your going to get till you get it home and open the box most of the time. Sure the extra content will be listed in a tiny little box on the back but what's really in there is hidden by shrink wrap. There just isn't enough pages I can write or enough bandwidth to carry it to express how ripped off I feel when I pay 21 dollars for a DVD that one tiny little piece of printed paper inside it could have made me not even notice how much I over paid for it.
Get it together DVD distributors!!
Signed
An angry consumer who knows you don't care because I'll still buy your crap anyway.....add vulgar gesture here.
