Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › $5 Movies at Wal Mart; are they editted?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

$5 Movies at Wal Mart; are they editted?

post #1 of 8
9/25/11 at 10:09am
Thread Starter 
I don't go to Wal Mart often, but I was there this morning and found a huge bin of $5 DVDs. Titles like "Talledega Nights" and "Tropic Thunder" had me interested, but the packaging looked odd; cheap cases and odd artwork. I then noticed (in very small print) they were both "unrated', but it didn't strike me as the typical "unrated" versions one normally finds.

Being as this is Wal Mart, I wondered if these titles were edited for language and content. Pure supposition on my part, but does anyone know any more about this?
Reply
post #2 of 8
9/25/11 at 10:52am
Quite the opposite. According to imdb.com both of those films are available in extended versions which are unrated.
Reply
post #3 of 8
9/25/11 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 
I don't know Mark, from the packaging they didn't look like "Director's Cuts" or "Unrated Extreme Editions". There was also no MPAA warning of "adult language" (which both of those movies have).
Reply
post #4 of 8
9/25/11 at 1:47pm
Here's the back cover art for Talladega nights from DVD Empire:
http://cdn3b.dvdempire.org/products/09/1223009bh.jpg
Tropic Thunder only has a more expensive 2-disc director's cut from most retailers, but it's not unusual for Walmart to get cheaper packaging for their bargain bins.
There's really nothing to worry about. I've never known anyone to interpret the label "unrated" to mean "family friendly," If anything, it means you're getting stuff that wouldn't have been approved under the MPAA's guidelines for the existing rating, but truthfully it just means that the newer cut was never submitted for a rating.
Reply
post #5 of 8
9/25/11 at 1:55pm
I don't think walmart has offered any edited movies in years.
Reply
post #6 of 8
9/28/11 at 6:21am
While the films may not be edited, Walmart's bargain bins tend to have cropped (i.e., pan and scan) editions of films....

"Formatted to fit your TV, assuming your TV is several years old" LOL

The screen shot posted a couple of comments ago shows it is a 1.33:1 presentation, or a pan-and-scan edition. Half the price, half the picture!
Reply
post #7 of 8
9/30/11 at 6:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichMurphy View Post

While the films may not be edited, Walmart's bargain bins tend to have cropped (i.e., pan and scan) editions of films....
"Formatted to fit your TV, assuming your TV is several years old" LOL
The screen shot posted a couple of comments ago shows it is a 1.33:1 presentation, or a pan-and-scan edition. Half the price, half the picture!

I am not an expert on cameras or film, but my understanding is that most movies since the late 1970s were shot so that the widescreen theatrical image is a matted image, and they could displayed open mat on television without resorting to the pan and scan technique. I think most "Full Screen" DVDs are actually open mat displays and not pan and scan. So, in fact, you often get more picture than you do with the theatrical release.
Reply
post #8 of 8
9/30/11 at 7:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeDoakes View Post

I am not an expert on cameras or film, but my understanding is that most movies since the late 1970s were shot so that the widescreen theatrical image is a matted image, and they could displayed open mat on television without resorting to the pan and scan technique. I think most "Full Screen" DVDs are actually open mat displays and not pan and scan. So, in fact, you often get more picture than you do with the theatrical release.

That's true in some cases but it's not about getting the most picture, it's about seeing what the director intended you to see (which is generally the 1.85 or 2.35 image that you'd see in a theater and not the image opened up to 1.33/full frame).
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › $5 Movies at Wal Mart; are they editted?