DVD Talk Forum - Universal... What's left to replace?

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Universal... What's left to replace?

Admittedly, I'm not 100% certain about what's left in Universal's classic film catalog, but bow that Happy Gilmore has been announced in anamorphic widescreen, most of their early "useless" full-frame dvd releases have been replaced.

If Universal releases the following franchise collections in anamorphic widescreen my Universal Studios Collection will be complete:

Ron Howard Collection:

Backdraft
Parenthood
Far and Away
The Paper

Arnold Schwazenegger Gubernatorial Comedy Collection:

Twins
Kidergarten Cop
Junior (Aleady Anamorphic Widescreen)

Van Damme Re-Hab Collection

Hard Target (SE)
Sudden Death
Timecop
Lionheart (Although, this would be the equivelent of Smokey and The Bandit 3 on the "Pursuit Pack." No one really cares.)

Hopefully The Thing, Fierce Creatures, Psycho and Vertigo will be re-released in anamorphic widescreen somewhere down the line, but they might just wait for HD-DVD.

Fitprod

Universal still needs to release the extended version of The Frighteners with the 4 hour documentary. You'd think that would have rode the Lord of the Rings wave by now, which just proves to me that Universal is run by idiots.

The Jerk.

This movie at least needs to be in widescreen with the scene involving the pilot's leather seats intact.

Death Becomes Her - preferably with all the deleted scenes with Tracey Ullman, and the original ending, but I'd settle for barebones, as long as it's widescreen.

Rob

I second the Frighteners. An often overlooked movie. They need and SE, not just a cover change!

Quote:

Originally posted by AOD
I second the Frighteners. An often overlooked movie. They need and SE, not just a cover change!

:thumbsup:

Wonder what's taking them so long for this re-release?

Universal should release those old sci-fi flick quickly out on dvd.

Tarantula
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Mole People
The Deadly Mantis
Monster on the Campus
Colossus: The Forbin Project
This Island Earth - OOP but need a release badly

Good lord... I forgot about Death Becomes Her and The Jerk. I suppose we need to add The Sting to that list. All of these should be SE of course...

As for The Frighteners... An SE will probably show up when the Extended Cut of Return of the King arrives, or when Jackson releases King Kong. (Remember in Hollywood re-releases must be linked to other projects...)

Considering Universal's track record with LD documentaries, we'll be lucky to get a 90-minute cut of 4 hour documentary.

Fitprod

How about a reissue of Jaws with the uncut documentary?

Oh and fitprod, I'd be all over a Lionheart/Wrong Bet SE re-release like Oprah on a baked ham.

the 4 hour documentary is on the Frighteners Laserdisc right?

definately would LOVE a Frighteners SE. might I add the new cover for the DVD looks terrible.

A correct 1:37 - 1 framing of "Jet Pilot". The current Goodtimes release is terrible!

After the debacle with Meaning of Life, and their subsequent accusations of all my DVD players being "incapable of handling" their masterfully crafted DVD, I feel quite dirty when I purchase anything by Universal, and I find all thier product to be sub-par in comparison to most other releases, they should take a page out of MGM's book. One film that needs a re-issue/new transfer is Flash Gordon, the Studio Canal french release is gorgeous but those forced subtitles are killing me!

ummm .. :D D.C. Cab would be nice.

Quote:

Originally posted by fitprod
Good lord... I forgot about Death Becomes Her (snip)
Fitprod

Yeah, you must be new. RobCA and I have been trying to see who can out post each other asking about this one for the past few years ;) Same with another non-Universal title, "The Rapture" (from New Line). And I'm guessing that one will never see the light of day. Which is a pity.

How about being able to walk into a B&M store and buying a corrected version of Back to the Future trilogy?

Surprised that no one has mentioned rereleasing the Hitchcock titles in anamorphic WS!!

The Thing - ANAMORPHIC!

Not sure if Universal still owns the rights to it, but their 1979 version of Dracula was released on DVD by Image with the worst transfer I've ever seen. I've heard that at director John Badham's request, the movie was presented as close to black and white as possible while still retaining a tint of color here and there. Looked absolutely awful. I so want a better version of this.

RobCA - You can use spoiler tags if you wish, but I'm curious, what was the alternate ending for Zemeckis' highly underrated Death Becomes Her?

Quote:

Originally posted by rennervision
RobCA - You can use spoiler tags if you wish, but I'm curious, what was the alternate ending for Zemeckis' highly underrated Death Becomes Her?

From IMDb:

Spoiler:

Tracey Ullman appeared in the trailers as a bartender who is also Ernest's girlfriend. After filming what director Robert Zemeckis referred to as a "saccharine ending": Ernest and Ullman escaping to Europe, Zemeckis decided to opt for a darker ending, and Ullman's character was one of seven or eight actors with speaking roles that was cut.

The movie was heavily edited for theatrical release after test screenings. The two major changes are the ending, which was originally a bit less bleak but still disappointed test audiences, and an entire subplot involving Tracey Ullman as a bartender who befriends the Bruce Willis character. Also, many scenes were shortened, including a lengthy sequence the day after Meryl Streep's character is released from the hospital with a broken neck. Also, character scenes by supporting players such as Jonathan Silverman as Meryl Streep's agent were cut to the point of becoming cameos, and a couple of scenes with Isabella Rosselini's character were also shortened. The reason for most of the changes was due to Zemeckis' desire to liven the pace, as well as cutting extraneous jokes that didn't further the plot or character. The reason for the deletion of the entire Tracey Ullman subplot had to do with the removal of the original ending. In it, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn are outfoxed by Bruce Willis and Ullman, who escape with the potion. Flash forward 27 years, and Streep and Hawn bump into a now-happily retired couple, Ullman and Willis. Though Streep and Hawn remain beautiful, they lack the love and life that Willis and Ullman created without the use of any magical youth potions. Hence the moral of the story was the same, but apparently, Zemeckis and the test audiences didn't feel the payoff was rewarding enough. When it was changed to the current ending (where the Streep and Hawn literally fall to pieces), the entire Ullman subplot seemed extraneous, so was cut. In all, quite a few minutes of deletions were made, and this test audience version was never released theatrically or on home video.

I love the current ending, especially the last line,

Spoiler:

but I'd love to see the original ending, not to mention all those deleted scenes.

Rob

12 Monkeys (Ultimate Edition)
Timecop (Widescreen)

Thanks RobCA -

Sounds like this movie could be released as a special edition with two completely different cuts of the film on DVD. The fact that this has only existed for years as a pan & scan barebones is, for me, one of Universal's greatest travesties.

(I agree that the theatrical version probably was the better one, however. Probably faster paced and a simpler way of telling the same story rather than adding Tracey Ullman's character.)

Ransom SE
Vertigo
Psycho

Universal is just getting worse and worse. It's too bad that Vivendi merged with NBC instead of selling off Universal.

And MGM is just as guilty of releasing bare-bones non-anamorphic discs of MANY of their catalog titles.

A better model would be Fox or Warner. Universal, MGM, and Paramount consistently deliver sub-standard discs, although both MGM and Paramount recently have shown that they can deliver great SEs... when they want to.

It's funny, because Universal started off being one of the best studios for DVD, and then went downhill from there.

Fox was one of the worst the first year or two of the format, and now they dominate the DVD market (in terms of quality).

I'd like to see Tremors revisited.

Quote:

Originally posted by jough
Universal is just getting worse and worse. It's too bad that Vivendi merged with NBC instead of selling off Universal.

Vivendi didn't merge with NBC. Vivendi Universal SA sold its U.S. media assets to General Electric Co., which merged those assets with its NBC unit. Not sure what you mean.