p h a n a t | c

while he hasn't made it easy for me in recent years i am still a big steve martin fan.

these days i'm looking to fill the gaps in my collection and i am surprised that several films that could be considered 'classic' steve martin have awful dvd releases.

for example 'all of me', which i haven't seen in years but of which i have fond memories, is only available in 4:3. i couldn't find the OAR on imdb or anywhere else, but i'm quite certain it's NOT 4:3.
i'd rather not watch the movie before buying a crappy dvd like that.

maybe copyright issues are preventing a decent release? imdb had this piece of info:

19 January 1999 (StudioBriefing)
British media conglomerate Carlton Communications has purchased the ITC television and film library that Universal acquired as part of the PolyGram merger. It includes such British TV series as The Saint and Space 1999 as well as such movies as Eagle Has Landed, The (1976), Big Easy, The (1987) and All of Me (1984). Agence France Presse, the French wire service, said that Carlton had agreed to pay $150 million for the library.


further steve martin films with dvd issues:

The Lonely Guy - OAR only available on R2 - CORRECTION: OAR on R1 & R2, but only R2 is anamorphic
Mixed Nuts - OAR only available on R2
Father Of The Bride 2 - OAR only available on non-anamorphic R1, R2 is anamorphic but 1.78:1
The Man With Two Brains - R1 is 4:3, R2 is 1.78:1 (according to dvdcompare), but OAR seems to be 1.85:1
The Spanish Prisoner - R1 is OAR, R2 is 4:3
My Blue Heaven - R1 is 4:3, R2 not available, imdb lists OAR as 1.85:1
Pennies From Heaven - R1 is OAR, R2 not available
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid - only available non-anamorphic
Parenthood - R1 & R2 are 4:3, OAR is 1.85:1



i am surprised that steve martin hasn't tried to sort this mess out - after all it would be good source of revenue which, according to his recent projects, seems to be one of his main concerns. (alternate theories about his run of weak, 'safe' and boring movies welcome)

anyway, does anyone have more insight into why most of his films have gotten awful dvd-treatments?
i can't think of any one contemporary performer whose dvd-released movies are such a mess...

Rogue588

I'm thinking they don't want us to know that Steve used to make funny movies for adults..

Doughboy

At least they finally got L.A. Story right. And The Jerk before that. Maybe by 2011, the rest will be available in their OAR.

hiccup

I hope that as movie studios have released quite a bit, that they begin to work on Steve Martin's movies. Funny, but I was actually thinking about this recently. And I don't think that Steve Martin's recent run of movie have been as bad as most people say. I greatly enjoyed Bringing down the House and the first Cheaper by the Dozen wasn't that bad. I'll grant that the sequel was unneccesary, but at least he put out Shopgirl. Really, the main blow out of his that I can think of was The Pink Panther which was attrocius.

p h a n a t | c

yeah, i found bringing down the house quite entertaining, too. shopgirl was a nice film.
the pink panther was just a mindboggling waste of opportunity and talent. the 'parking scene' at the beginning had me shaking my head in disbelief.

The Infidel

So, 1.85:1 isn't the OAR of Lonely Guy?

p h a n a t | c

oh, sorry, i made a mistake - OAR is 1.85:1, but R1 is non-anamorphic

i edited my initial post to correct this.

fryinpan1

Three Amigos (Region 1) is non-anamorphic 1.85:1. (EDITED)

p h a n a t | c

hmm, dvdcompare lists the R1 as non-anamorphic 1.85:1 while 2 shops (DDD and dvdpacific) list it as 1.33:1...
i wonder who is wrong here.

i own the R2 myself, so i can't check ;-)

fryinpan1

I thought Three Amigos was full screen, but I just checked and it is non-anamorphic 1.85:1.

speedyray

Aren't alot of these titles Warner - it would be a great chance to release a collection of improved versions - kinda like the Mel Brooks collection Fox? did.

sinned

How about Housesitter (with Goldie Hawn)?

darmok

Bowfinger was pretty good.

p h a n a t | c

i loved bowfinger!
one of the very few steve martin films of the last decade that lives up to his potential IMHO


oh and the housesitter release seems to be OK
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=1102

dx23

Upgrades from Universal in several Steve Martin films:


http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=63205

bothanspy

Double features on 1 DVD? C'mon. Like a guy in a $7000 suit is going to buy a double-feature dvd. C'mon.

Seriously, I really don't like this trend of 2 movies on 1 disk. It cannot be a good sign for quality releases.

Rogue588

Yeah, you're not the only one.

Nicholas Vargo

Actually, when Mixed Nuts was originally released on DVD in December 2001, it contained both widescreen and fullscreen transfers of the movie. All pressings were like this until 2004, when Sony cut costs by removing the widescreen side. Shame really, it's one of my favorite movies. I'm glad I bought it the day it came out.

Peep

I agree, although as long as the two movies don't have much in the way of extra features, it's not really different than 2 DVD-5 releases. And I'm constantly surprised at how many studios are still releasing anamorphic DVD-5's. Does that second layer really add that much to the cost?

Jay G.

This is really a non-issue. Changing this AR of a film from 1.85:1 to 1.78:1 is a change of about 4%, which is on par with cropping a 1.37:1 film to 1.33:1, which happens all the time and which nobody complains about. In fact, it's less of an "issue" than 1.33:1 cropping, since 1.78:1 transfers are typically open matted instead of cropped, so you're getting slightly more image instead of slightly less. The extra vertical information typically isn't even noticeable on most WS TV's, since overscan eliminates it.

This aspect ratio change is also much more common than people realize. A lot of major studio releases are 1.78:1, even if they state on the back of the box 1.85:1. Releases like Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Body Heat, Dog Day Afternoon, Good Night, And Good Luck , and the first four Batman films all have 1.78:1 transfers in R1. Most people don't notice the change because it's such a minor and negligible one.

Just browse through or search this site:
http://www.widescreenreview.net/dvd_...tdata=Reviewed


The R4 release, which is also R2 coded, has an anamorphic WS transfer.
http://www.michaeldvd.com.au/Reviews...ws.asp?ID=3913

It's doubtful Steve Martin has much if any control over most of these titles. Although he's successful, he doesn't have the clout of say Spielberg or Lucas, so it's up to the studios to decide how to handle his releases.

Are you sure that it's really most of his films that have had bad treatments? IMDB lists 52 titles that he's acted in, around 40 of those are films. Your list is rather short, and also lists a number of titles that have been done right in at least one region.

However, I think two factors that affect the quality of the release are the age of the film and the age of the DVD. There haven't been issues with Martin films made since 1994, and most of the issue DVDs were made really early in the format's lifespan, some as much as 8 years ago.

johnbook

No love for "Roxanne" i'm not a big steve martin fan but have to say that movie was pretty good and available in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1.

Jay G.

Considering that the thread is about Steve Martin DVDs with problems, it's not surprising nobody mentioned a film that actually has a decent DVD release.

dx23

Please look at post #15 in this thread.

DJLinus

I'm still waiting for a proper release of The Man With Two Brains.

I'd do backflips down the street if they ever put "Comedy Is Not Pretty" on DVD. I'll most likely just have to convert my worn out taped-from-TV VHS, though.

A co-worker and I were just talking about this a couple of days ago. He REALLY fell off (although I did like Shopgirl).

Cameron

i hope warner will give an update on some of the fullscreen transfer re-releases they had promised in last years HTF chat. The Steve Martin films and grumpy old men at the top of the list.