DVD Review HTF REVIEW: American Wedding - Extended Unrated Party Edition (1 Viewer)

[Adam_ME]

Quote:
Someone in an earlier post was wondering about seamless branching and I don't think their question was ever answered. This is a guess, but based on the PQ I don't think they used seamless branching.
So are you saying Universal went the same route as Disney with Beauty and the Beast and stuffed two separate versions of the movie on one disc? Why should I be surprised by a bonehead move like that?

Wait a sec, does this mean the R-rated DVD has a better transfer since there's only one cut of the film?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just watched this....

On the plus side, it's great to see that
Universal finally got the hint and stopped
the usage of forced trailers. There are options
to bypass the three trailers on this DVD.

On the down side, I was rather disappointed in
this movie. It's certainly the most profane of
all three films, and perhaps that's the problem.
I think I'm getting tired of vulgarity, sex and
toilet humor trying to pull itself off as comedy.

Jason hit the nail on the head -- Stifler is a
major profanity-spewing annoyance. He used to
be a welcomed character in this series, but now,
all I wanted him to be was somewhere else.

The transfer is overly soft and dark, taking on
a rather dull look. Nothing to write home about.

It's worth buying American Wedding only
to add to the rest to the collection. Rent it
otherwise.

 

[Dick White]

Quote:
On the plus side, it's great to see that
Universal finally got the hint and stopped
the usage of forced trailers.
Thanks for mentioning that, Ron. After reading the review, I thought I would have to continue my boycott of Universal and pass this one up. I'm assuming the options to bypass them are something other than fast forwarding.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Quote:
I'm assuming the options to bypass them are something other than fast forwarding.

(laughing) Uhm.....no.

Actually, I thought Universal putting a title card
at the beginning of the DVD saying Press Fast
Forward to Bypass Trailers was something new.

On prior releases, they just threw the trailers
at you with no mentioned options.

Guess this might not be anything groundbreaking
after all.

 

[WillG]

I think "Seabiscuit" indicated the Fast Forward option as well. It's still pretty lame.

 

[Christian Preischl]

Fast fowarding to get through the trailers? Ah yes, I remember those days. Great to see that Universal is doing everything to reduce the functionality of DVD to VHS-level.

Chris

 

[WillG]

Can anyone tell me if the gift set is worth it. I am inclined to buy it because a 3-hour documentary on the series seems valuable, but the only place I could find it was Best Buy for $30.99 which is a bit pricey for a "just ok" movie. Do we know yet if it is just the "Beneath the Crust" Material cobbled together?

I must chastise Universal for this. Gouging people for extras when many other studios (Fox, New Line perhaps even Warner Bros. and MGM) would have probably just made this a 2-disc special edition. I'm getting sick of these Universal Deluxe Editions and Gift Sets with more features for a significantly higher cost.

 

[Christopher D]

I am not at *all* a stickler for PQ, but I immediately noticed that it is quite subpar.

 

[Dave H]

I just finished watching this tonight. What in the hell happened with the transfer? This is, without a doubt, the worst transfer I can remember of a new release since I have been buying DVDs (1999). The transfer is awful. I mean it's quite obvious someone really screwed something up again - something that seems to be continual at Universal.

The movie itself was better than I expected, actually. I rented it tonight, but I might have to pick this up through Columbia House one day down the road. I just wish it looked better.

 

[jonathan_little]

In my Pioneer player I've found that I can to press stop quickly as the disc spins up. Then I can press the menu key and it will skip the damned trailers and bring me directly to the menu.

Hasn't anybody in Universal's DVD department watched a DVD from Disney? If the studio must show trailers at start up, Disney seems to have figured this "feature" out the best with the clearly published ability to push the "menu" button to skip the trailers. Telling us to press fast forward to "bypass" them has got to be a joke!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Picture quality was disappointing, but the movie itself was better than I expected it to be.

I was expecting a lot of gross-out comedy set-pieces and they were definitely there but unlike the Scary Movie series some effort was made to tell a story and develope the characters and the relationships between them.

Along with Eugene Levy, the addition of Fred Willard added a different and more subtle level of comedy to this movie that I really enjoyed.

 

[WillG]

Ok Question Two:

How much better is the unrated cut? I'm sick of unrated versions of films promising "Addtional Outrageous Footage" when it reality it only amounts to some extended dialogue and about 10 additional frames of nudity. But this DVD specifically mentions the Bachelor Party. I guess it doesn't matter though as the only place I have even seen the rated verion for sale was Wal*Mart. And I guess the Unrated version has the Rated cut option anyway. So, I suppose it's not exactly a tough decision.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

In the unrated edition there are a few extra scenes, extended jokes, and as for the bachelor party just a lot more boobs, and the same boobs over and over again. The deleted scenes and extra features do show even more mayhem at the bachelor party and I don't know if that is all 'intact' in the rated version. But seeing as you get both on the unrated might as well go for that.

I watched this on my front projector and wow a HUGE to picture quality. I thought something was wrong at first. What happened to Universal? Forced trailers (having press fast forward is still forced) and now bad transfers?

I am curious to find out if the rated and unrated versions differ in the picture quality. I think that the unrated is seemless branching because they give a warning saying it may not function in all dvd players as soon as you hit 'Unrated'.

I got the gift set and will watch the extra doc. in a bit.

 

[David Illingworth II]

There seemed to be a lot more to the bachelor party, and I think I remember about two extra scenes, which were both pretty good. For an unrated version, they really did put more back in.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Just watched both versions, which played glitch-free except for the pause during the layer change. The major additions were the bachelor party and a new scene with Stiffler and Finch at the hotel's front desk, and a couple other scenes had some new lines put in. The MPAA logo was also not in the end credits of the unrated version, but is in the theatrical version. Kudos for including both cuts and hope they do this more often in the future. Didn't see anything wrong with the picture quality, but I don't have a 16x9 yet so I may notice later.
Not buying any of the movies advertised during the forced trailers though!

 

[Jason Adams]

You know...one detail I found odd. In the special features, they show dildos and strap-ons, curse up a storm, but yet you cant say god damn. Interesting.

 

[Carlo_M]

Quote:
Picture quality was disappointing, but the movie itself was better than I expected it to be. Ditto.

Wonder why Universal can't seem to put out a good American Pie trilogy DVD (in terms of pic quality).

 

[David Illingworth II]

I guess I'm gonna be the first one to talk about the bonus disc, "American Pie Revealed."
In short, it's great! Covers all the films, plus they have features covering the creation of the first one, and especially cool is a Reunion Dinner with most of the cast (no girls, except January Jones I think. Maybe Allison Hannygan too) and all the directors and the writer. Filmed just for the DVD, they reminisce and laugh mainly about stuff from the first film. Everything is cut up into lots of different menus and you can play all or whatever for either the whole thing, or different menu sections.
A good deal of it is hosted by Eugene Levy in a droll, funny way, and there are tons of behind the scenes footage and outtakes. Something that's cool is when they do interviews and someone mentions something from a different film or something a little icon pops up telling you where you can find more information.
Something that was really cool is all the information on American Pie 2! There's a huge section of "lost storylines" that features tons of footage of stuff that didn't work which had to be re-shot within like two weeks. This has a lot of stuff with Stifler's Dad (!) and a subplot where Oz and Heather cheat on each other! I was practically stunned to see this stuff.
Haven't watched the stuff on the making of the first movie, but I watched just about everything else.
Really detailed, tons of behind the scenes and new footage, and pretty honest. One of the best "behind the scenes" I've ever seen. Seeing the Stifler's Dad footage was a big treat since you almost never get to see this stuff--it's like the Eric Stoltz footage from BTTF, or Stuart Townsend from LOTR.
RECOMMENDED

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Just finished watching all 3+ hours of the "American Pie Revealed" as well. I was pleased with it. Tons of great stuff, and many scenes cut that haven't shown up in the past dvd's. Besides being informative, it was entertaining and fun to watch these guys and gals mess around.

Would have been nice if they just made American Wedding a 2 disc special edition like every other studio out there, but I'm glad I went with the gift set.

 

[Mike Heenan]

I seem to recall the theatrical version (I'm talking about seeing it in a theater) itself was rather poor. Before that, I remember watching the teaser with Terminator 3 and noting how poor the trailer looked. I believe it was just poor photography and a bad look, rather than a bad transfer.