Previously Non-Anamorphic, Now Anamorphic?
 

I was at my favorite DVD purchasing place this week and noticed that the copy of Ever After that they stocked now listed on it's back cover that it is 'enhanced for widescreen tv's'. I came home, checked my copy and it's not. So this got me thinking... are there any other films out there that got a rerelease/reprint/reissue with a new anamorphic transfer? I've got alot of Fox titles that are like that. So, does anyone out there know of any other titles, or a place where we can check on this phenomenon?

Well, funny you should mention this.

For years now, I have put off buying the mid-'90s flick Rob Roy, because I could've sworn that all the on-line sites just list this as "widescreen letterbox" either that or just DD 2.0. So here I am today going into the local CVS drug store to get some other stuff, and I walk by their DVD rack and find Rob Roy there and I pick it up to look for myself as to its specs. I find, "DD 5.1"...good...looking...looking...no mention in the "special features" box, where the hell is the aspect ratio notation? Finally I find it in the lower left hand corner. It says "Screen Format: WIDESCREEN version "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" Great! I decided to buy it.

Well, checking around my usual on-line sites, DVDEmpire just states "Widescreen 2.35:1" , DeepDiscountDVD just says "Widescreen" as well. Amazon states "Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1" So there is some inconsistancy. However, I checked DVDEmpire's "back view" of the case and it does indeed states "Enhanced for widescreen TVs". So I don't know where I got the idea that this wasn't anamorphic.

The Thing

Boondock Saints, Outland, to name two.

Wow, speaking of Rob Roy...terrible transfer. Ain't much better than VHS. Probably a LD port. Very bad black level and VHS looking grain in most scenes. This movie and Braveheart could use an SE upgrade.

Boondock Saints isn't anamorphic. Any any one else confirm?

Christian

Pillow Talk

The thread is asking for titles that have been remastered into anamorphic widescreen. Both of those two titles are still non-anamophic only at this point.

There are a lot of them. For example:

Pulp Fiction
Reservoir Dogs
Time Bandits
2001: A Space Odyssey
Swingers
Beaches
The Silence of the Lambs
JFK
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Hunt for Red October
Goodfellas
The English Patient
Weird Science
The Princess Bride
Born on the Fourth of July
Top Gun
Speed
all three Die Hard movies
Romeo + Juliet
Mulan
Pocahontas
Predator
The Crow
True Romance
The Rock (Criterion is anamorphic)

Sling Blade and later Titanic are on the way

Patriot Games,clear And Present Danger, Amityville Horror, The Great Escape, Planet Of The Apes, Several Of The Pink Panther Movies, Tombstone, Videodrome, The Funhouse, Some Of The Halloweens, Dawn Of The Dead, Some Star Treks

I know it's a shitty movie, but wasn't "Phantoms" quietly re-released as anamorphic? I know I have seen one that says that on the back of the case.

From My Collection

Previously Non-Anamorphic, Now 16x9 Enhanced....

The Amityville Horror (1979)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
The Breakfast Club
Carrie (1976)
Dazed and Confused
Deep Impact
Fargo
The Funhouse
Halloween
Halloween II
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Heathers
I Spit on Your Grave
Office Space (non-anamorphic right now, but 16x9 re-release scheduled for August 2nd)
Porky's
Predator
The Princess Bride
Return to Oz
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Se7en
Showgirls
Smokey and the Bandit
Spaceballs
The Terminator
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (non-anamorphic right now, but 16x9 re-release scheduled for Fall 2005)
Thelma and Louise
There's Something About Mary
The Thing (1982)
Total Recall
Scream 2
Vampyros Lesbos
Weird Science
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I picked up "The Apostle" the other day because it had a slightly different cover than my current copy and I noticed on the back that it said, "Enhanced for Widescreen Tvs." The original copy was non-anamorphic. Well, I got it home and it was the exact same non-anamorphic transfer. I took it back to Best Buy and they didn't want to allow me to return it, and not a single person in there knew what "Anamorphic" or "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" meant. I was pissed!

That's really lame, I've been waiting to pick that up too.

A question slighty off the specific topic - but does MGM release some DVDs anamorphic even though they don't indicate on the back that they are?

Slightly off topic, but not altogether different....

I would love for Dimension to re-release Scream with anamorphic enhancement. But because I'm not anticipating that anytime soon, I went ahead and picked up The Ultimate Scream Collection. Guess I grew tired of waiting, and I found a mint condition copy. (Ever notice how so many of those boxes have terribly smashed corners?)

So Scream is the only DVD I have that's non-anamorphic. But I will gladly double-dip whenever Dimension chooses to act. And while they're at it, how about a director's cut, too?

--THX

Anybody know if the MGM version of Krakatoa, East of Java is anamorphic? I've got the Anchor Bay but it's lettewrbox.