Disappointing Movie Releases

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Starlight99

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This involves a lot of geekspeak, so beware.

Have you ever either bought a movie where the release itself disappointed you, or you went to see one of your favorites at a theater and was disappointed with the results? I don't mean the movie itself, I mean did you not like the release of the movie?

I was messing with my uncle's 4K TV, and I decided to pull all of my old movies up on it. When I got to Metropolis, I noticed how amazing the 2010 Blu-Ray looked looked and decided to play the "restored" version of Giorgio Moroder's version as well. However, I quickly found out that my 33-year-old VHS tape looks better than what they call a restored digital print. For someone who considers Metropolis to be the greatest film ever made (the 1927 version, of course, not the 1984 version), I felt kicked in the ass, and I was thankful I hadn't bought this on a DVD or a Blu-Ray.

That being said, are there any disappointing releases of a movie that deserve some mention? Theatrical release, home video release, anything like that? I have a bit of a shortlist, but maybe you know some I don't.

P.S. The bad transfer is on DVD and Blu-Ray under the title Giorgio Moroder Presents Metropolis, released by Kino Lorber. Here it is on YouTube for free, taken from the "restored" print. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPbjefBqRPE&t=1221s -_-
 
Much like Blade Runner which doesn't even try to show the theme... the Bounty Hunter kills the Androids because they have no empathy nor sympathy, like deliberately programmed to be sociopaths. And by killing them, the Bounty Hunter loses his own empathy. Philip K Dick, author of 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", the foundation of the movie... said in an interview that he was inspired by the trials of Nazis. Killed because they were killers, but so were the American, Russian, Polish, French, British etc executioners. How do you film that concept? They made a sequel of it...
 
The only thing I can really think of is the random bits they've added into the original Star Wars trilogy over the years in various re-releases.

Don't worry, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan who thinks the original is untouchable or anything, but even as a casual fan, the random extra bits and touch ups they've added really just don't blend in to the point of being distracting. I'm of course not the first person to complain about this by a long margin, this has been the subject of fanboy rants all over the internet (the RLM guys probably doing the best job).

Counter example of something I was expecting to be mediocre but blew me away would be ST:TNG. The blueray remaster of this is absolutely glorious.
 
I've read reviews on Amazon on DVDs I was going to buy but didn't because they said the sound and/or resolution was terrible.
 
Actually I guess it probably counts, there are a lot of less than official DVD releases of old VHS movies done on the cheap that are absolutely terrible.

The Trinity trilogy (My Name is Nobody, They Call Me Trinity, Trinity is Still My Name) comes to mind. I can't remember the name (and google is failing me), but there was a company that basically specialized in buying up rights to old movies and releasing cheap DVD versions. They all had identical title screens and all that, basically the same background image (very generic, like a default Nero template) with just the title and maybe a still picture. No special features or anything like that, and the quality was grainy and generally garbage. I remember actually hooking up my old VCR and re-watching my VHS copy of one just to confirm it wasn't in my head (it wasn't).

EDIT: apparently the company I was thinking of is called "Hen's Tooth Video". Apparently they are still around, and a quick google says they are still doing the same thing, and have moved on to bluray.
 
BoundCoder said:
The only thing I can really think of is the random bits they've added into the original Star Wars trilogy over the years in various re-releases.

Don't worry, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan who thinks the original is untouchable or anything, but even as a casual fan, the random extra bits and touch ups they've added really just don't blend in to the point of being distracting. I'm of course not the first person to complain about this by a long margin, this has been the subject of fanboy rants all over the internet (the RLM guys probably doing the best job).

Counter example of something I was expecting to be mediocre but blew me away would be ST:TNG. The blueray remaster of this is absolutely glorious.

The Star Wars special editions would get my vote as well. The added stuff wasn't so bad most of the time, although it was typically unnecessary or sometimes a distraction. The biggest irritation about them for me was that it didn't remove the one thing that detracted from my enjoyment in those movies: the fringe/aura around ships flying in space. This wasn't so bad in the original theatrical release but as video standards improved, the fringes became more apparent. This was really the only thing I wanted out of digital correction and for some reason it wasn't addressed at all. I prefer the originals.
 
Honestly their has been a few movies that have had the blue ray treatment that just break your suspension of disbelief as you can now see the wires on the models and that the scenery doesn’t blend together properly now that you can see it clearly.

The Simpsons being lazily recut to widescreen is some places kills me as some of the close up scenes have just been stretched, they eyes go from round to egg shape and that kills it for me.

I can tolerate most of the Star Wars buggery except of course Gredo shooting first, that was really badly done and didn’t do the character development any favours.
 
Wow...a lot of good ones here:

2. I haven't seen Blade Runner yet, nor have I read the original story, but maybe the bad results had something to do with the studio practically hijacking the movie right out of Ridley Scott's hands. (Excuse me if I talk out of my ass here, this is a noob's theory.) The studio made multiple versions of the film, each one fairly different from the other. That might be what happened. I haven't seen the sequel yet either, but I hope for all they hyped it that it's good.

3. Yep, Star Wars is definitely another big one. Most of the stuff did nothing to the plot except distract you from it. If he's gonna change it, at least make a good-quality copy of the original available as well. Do what they did with Blade Runner, Metropolis (in some copies), Terminator 2, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and a slew of other movies, and release both cuts on DVD and Blu-Ray. Also, the shitty limited edition from 2006 doesn't count as good-quality, since my VHS tapes look better than that. As for Star Trek, I haven't gotten into that yet, although that's one of the next franchises I plan to invest my time into.

4. Bad picture and sound is a big problem with DVDs, despite them being a format hailed for its theater-like quality when it came out. The notable worst-quality DVD in my collection at the moment (minus bargain-bin DVDs) is the 2002 DVD of Reservoir Dogs. The blood looks black, the suits look dark gray, and there is dialog missing throughout. Also, the features are very hard to navigate and don't play properly, and the two Easter eggs on the discs aren't even worth finding. Aside from the special features (which should really just get ported over to Blu-Ray and upscaled), there's nothing redeeming about that DVD.

5. Every company aside from the major studios (and even the major studios, over 100 years ago) was completely unknown until they made that one movie or that one release. Nobody knew Triangle until Birth of a Nation, nobody knew Prana until Nosferatu came out, nobody knew Disney until Snow White came out, and so on. The problem is, everyone expects that's gonna happen. The biggest after-market companies I know of are The Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, Shout Factory, Twilight Time, and Anchor Bay (to an extent). They all have become known for their movies, as in movies with an S. They didn't release that one movie, they released hundreds or thousands of movies, and that's why they are where they are today. Unfortunately, the little fish shows up in the pond and thinks he's one of the big guys, and that's where it begins. All of the cheap companies do poor releases like that, including Goodtimes, Madacy, Viking, Nostalgia Family Video, Alpha Video, Miracle Pictures/Passion Productions, and the new Allied Artists. I have DVDs that boast "Special Features", "Dolby Digital 5.1" "DTS Digital Surround 5.1", and a slew of other claims, only for them to be bare bones DVDs with MPEG-2 2.0 audio and shitty picture. I found the Trinity DVD on eBay, and that seems like a typical low-budget release. "Anamorphic widescreen" for these two is probably letterbox at best or fullscreen at worst, "English dubbed" means they used an American print of the movie or an American VHS tape, and "Technicolor" and "Original negatives" is just bullshit. Hen's Tooth Video fits right in with the other bargain-bin distributors. All I can say is, you're certainly not alone there.

6. Star Wars again, not surprising. The graphics don't really get me, I guess only because it's 70s-80s technology. I prefer the originals as well, not only for the original effects, but also for the original storyline. The edits throw the original story right off track, and that's not even almost cool. They should release a copy with multiple cuts on it, just like they did with dozens of other movies. Also, the 2006 DVD doesn't count, since it's extremely rare and the quality isn't worth the cost and effort.

7. Yep, I've seen that. The 1989 Batman movie works like that, as does The Exorcist. Also, when it comes to bad widescreen transfers, whether they're stretching, cutting, or re-filming altogether, they're destroying the content they're trying to present. And, of course, back to Star Wars. I think we should email this thread to Lucas. Basically, as everyone except George Lucas knows, metaphorically castrating Han doesn't work. It never worked, it doesn't work, it never will work. The only scene that will work is the original one, and it will work just like it has for 40 years.
 
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