Casino Question
 

I picked up the Casino DVD as a blind buy at Target tonight, but I wanted to know: Why is the "Special Edition" so bare? I look on DVD Empire and the disc is loaded up the wazoo. What gives?

5 featurettes, 1 documentary, commentary by multiple people,
what made it so bare to you?

i think you need to flip over the disc...

Okay, this might seem kind of confusing so bare with me. In 2005, Universal released the 10th Anniversary Edition of Casino on a dual layered dual sided disc (the movie was on one side and the supplelments were on the other side). Apparently, a lot of the initial discs had trouble playing (side note: I never had any trouble with my disc so the issue varied).

To rectify this, recently Universal released the Casino DVD as a "Special Edition" with the film now situated on a dual layer single sided disc. Considering that the film is three hours long, there was no way they could have stuffed all of the special features onto the dual layer single sided disc. Thus, most of the special features from the 10th Anniversary Edition were omited and only a few remain on the new "Special Edition." I have no idea why Universal didn't just rerelease the DVD on to two discs, but this is Universal were talking about here.

Thus, there are two Casino DVDs still on the market. There is the 10th Anniversary Edition (which is still a double sided disc) and the Special Edition (which is a single sided disc lacking most of the bonus features). The only real perk of the new Special Edition is that it retails a few bucks cheaper than the 10th Anniversary Edition. I hope that it explains it.

Casino Anniversary Edition: http://homevideo.universalstudios.co...?childId=35042

Casino Special Edition:
http://homevideo.universalstudios.co...?childId=35968

I have the 10th Anniversary from when it was released, but have one of the defective copies that freezes up at one point during the film. I guess for me, I'd be best off getting the SE for the film and hanging onto the 10th Anniversary disc for the extras. God, I loathe Universal.

I went ahead and bought the 2 disc version instead.
I don't like flippers as they can easily get scratched.
Both are dual layer discs.

2-didsc? Is this a non-U.S. release you're talking about?

In Target's Sunday catalogs, "Casino: Special Edition" was listed at $4, pretty damn good price and certainly well worth the double dip if you're like me and own the first release DVD.

The "Special Edition" is a single-sided disc; basically the "Anniversary" without the second side, right? What a crock.

Atleast the Special Edition will play the movie without freezing for the most part.

Yes, I got the Japanese release.

Does anyone know where the movie freezes up on the 10th AE? I PM'ed this at Best Buy earlier today and want to make sure that my disc is not one of the defects.

People were reporting freeze-ups at various points in the movie or special features. Basically you have to watch everything all the way through to be sure. And then even if everything appears well and good, you could pop the thing in your player 6 months from now and suddenly find it's exhibiting the problems. Thank you, Universal.

I pm'ed this earlier at best buy. They had the 10th AE & the SE. I weighed the pros and cons, then decided on the SE over the AE.

SE: Disc cover art , loses some features, glitch free.
AE: Dvd-18, may have glitches, no disc art, extra features