Universal MOD and DVD

[domino harvey]

Universal has been collecting some originally MOD titles along with pressed titles and never released titles to make quite an interesting grab-bag collections for dirt-cheap (and not on flipper discs!)

Westerns 10-Movie Collection

When the Daltons Rode, Texas Rangers Ride Again, The Spoilers (1942), The Virginian (1946), Albuquerque, Whispering Smith, Comanche Territory, Sierra, Kansas Raiders, and Tomahawk.

Whispering Smith, Albuquerque, and When the Daltons Rode all had stand-alone releases
Kansas Raiders is in Classic Westerns Vol 1
the Spoilers is in Universal's John Wayne collection
Texas Rangers Ride Again and Tomahawk were released on MOD
Sierra is in the Audie Murphy TCM Vault Collection
the Virginian is in the Joel McCrea Westerns TCM Vault Collection
Comanche Territory is unreleased


War 10-Movie Collection (Out June 4th)

The Eagle and the Hawk, To Hell and Back, In Enemy Country, The Last Outpost, Battle Hymn, Raid on Rommel, Wake Island, Jet Pilot, Ulzana’s Raid and Bengal Brigade.

The Eagle and the Hawk and the Last Outpost are from the now DVD-R Cary Grant TCM Vault Collection
Raid on Rommel and Ulzana's Raid were released as MOD titles
Battle Hymn, To Hell and Back, and Wake Island had individual releases and are also 3/4 of an existing Universal war-themed four-pack (the fourth, Gray Lady Down didn't make the cut)
Jet Pilot was in Universal's John Wayne collection
In Enemy Country and Bengal Brigade are unreleased

[warren oates]

Universal has been collecting some originally MOD titles along with pressed titles and never released titles to make quite an interesting grab-bag collections for dirt-cheap (and not on flipper discs!)

The info on Amazon seems to indicate that each set will contain only 3 DVDs, which means 3-4 feature films per disc, all compressed onto one side if they really won't be using flippers.

[domino harvey]

I have the Westerns set and it is indeed three single sided discs. I can do some comparison screen grabs to some of the discs I already own when I get home

[vsski]

Am I understanding this correctly - while some of these movies used to be MODs all are now pressed discs, just that they are squeezed on 3 discs rather than each movie having its own disc?

[domino harvey]

Yes, exactly, these are pressed discs. It's important to remember that Universal DVDs are often low bit rate and single layered while still looking okay, so the difference is unlikely to be too drastic. And at about $10 a set on Amazon, that's a buck a movie!

[vsski]

My experience with Universal DVDS outside of the dreaded flipper discs has been very decent, so if these don't show significant problems due to so many on a single sided disc, even if one is only interested in a couple of the titles, it's a steal.

[Feego]

Universal is releasing a 6-disc Film Noir 10-Movie Spotlight Collection on DVD November 4. The following movies are included:

This Gun for Hire
The Glass Key
Double Indemnity
Phantom Lady
The Blue Dahlia
Black Angel
The Killers
The Big Clock
Criss Cross
Touch of Evil

None of these are new to DVD, but three of them were previously exclusive to TCM Dark Crimes set.

[domino harvey]

We'll that's a total fuck you to TCM Vault buyers, that is a total inclusion of the Dark Crimes set. Still, if you don't have the movies already, that's a great set

[Gregory]

I never bought the Dark Crimes set, as I could never get too excited about this TCM Vault model—too much else competing for my time and money—and now I'm damned if I'm going to re-buy 7 films I already have in order to get those three. I guess this will be another holiday season when I have no use for any of the box sets that the major studios come up with.

[domino harvey]

Universal has now issued some of its back catalog in new "Family Friendly" editions with all questionable content edited out/sanitized. The ones I've seen so far are Bruce Almighty and Bring it On but I'm sure there's more

[Ashirg]

Looking forward to their sanitized edition of Inglourious Basterds...

[domino harvey]

That one's not out yet, but I checked and the other titles are Blue Crush, Mamma Mia!, and Notting Hill. Looks like a low initial output to test the waters. I suppose Mardel has already ordered a crate of each

[knives]

[this post in not available in the family friendly edition of this forum]

[Professor Wagstaff]

Do these edited versions do well in the marketplace? I remember New Line Cinema releasing a bunch of titles in family-friendly versions at least a decade ago, but I haven't noticed this trend in elsewhere.

[warren oates]

I can imagine that if this trend continues it's going to piss off the Director's Guild too. This is a much bigger deal than reframing for older TV aspect ratios or creating TV or airline ready deliverables. Even a "this film has been modified from its original version" card at the front end doesn't seem like enough. There ought to be big banner disclaimers on the front and back of the package that don't simply tout it as "family friendly" but as "not what you saw in theaters, not what the director signed off on, not what's available on other home video releases."

[ccfixx]

It sounds like a more legal (since it's coming from the studio) version of what CleanFlicks out in Utah started doing with movie rentals, which I was completely unaware of until seeing the CleanFlix documentary. I find the whole thing hilarious, yet upsetting.

[warren oates]

The studios are the legal copyright holders and sole creators of the films they own, so, unlike in France (wherein legit "moral rights of artists" are enshrined in the actual law), here they can do whatever they want with the films. But, like I said, they'll risk alienating an important constituency. And there can't be a huge market for these borderlline sanitized PG-13ish films that already in their very DNA (a few swear words or not) appear to espouse values that would be questionable to the presumed consumers. So concessions on doing this at all or more strictly regulating how it's done in the future would be much easier to give to directors in the next round of contract talks, and probably way cheaper, than the rate hikes that would be on the table. This seems like a weird time to be doing this, with so many good newer family film options available.

[domino harvey]

For whatever it's worth in the argument, these are DVD-Rs like their single-title MOD Vault releases (which are truly the most inexplicable releases on the home video market-- why pay more for one Carole Lombard film on DVD-R when you can get five on pressed DVDs for cheaper? Bizarre and idiotic)

[Gregory]

I'm also seeing "Family Friendly" versions of:

The Hulk (Ang Lee)
Scorpion King
Blue Crush
Meet the Parents
Land of the Lost
Mamma Mia
The Mummy
Notting Hill

Apparently these came out a few years ago.

[domino harvey]

Well, as NBC used to say, if you haven't seen it before then it's new to you! But yes, I guess these have been around for a couple years and the collective moral fiber of the movie industry has remained relatively untouched in the interim

[Shrew]

I assume these are just primetime TV edits marketed toward Family groups now that the TV-edit market on cable has probably dried up. I can't imagine the DGA getting that upset unless they're somehow even more sanitized than you'd get on TV (like if a gay character were entirely cut out to avoid offending "family" values).

Also, wasn't there a "school edit" of Schindler's List on VHS in the 90s? I assume there were probably other similar cuts for important historical films.

[Movie-Brat]

So I see Universal opted to go for the "ClearPlay" concept for some of their films. I dare them to try the Fast and the Furious and Riddick movies next.

[captveg]

I would wager that these are the versions already approved by filmmakers for airline and broadcast.

[AfterTheRain]

Universal is releasing a Bing Crosby box set on November 11. Like the upcoming Noir box set, nothing new here, but Variety Girl was previously a Universal Vault Series release.

[domino harvey]

Now that is a stupid set. 24 films for $199.99 MSRP, 11 of which you can buy in the previous Bing Crosby collections for ~$17 total right now, with almost all of the other titles available as cheap singles or double-features or as part of equally thrifty sets. There's no way it would cost you even $100 to collect the vast majority of the titles, much less whatever its lowest price point ends up at