Princess Bride 5 days early!+Who else cant wait to hear the commentary? (1 Viewer)

[Charles J P]

Well, I just got my shipping notice from (I would never disclose such information)for The Princess Bride. I though this was due out on the 4th. Oh, well. This is one of my favorite movies, and I cannot wait to hear the audio commentary. I think that will be the first thing I watch since I have already seen the movie 100 times at least. I remember reading the commentary about the making of the movie that is the preface/forwared/whatever-the-term-is to the current princess bride hardcover book and thinking, I WANT MORE. This is going to be awesome. This also marks a milestone for me as it is the first movie (and only until TPM comes out in november) that I will now own on DVD and VHS! I must really like this movie.
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My Website: Link Removed
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My DVD Profiler
Paradigm Lover
[Edited last by Chris Maynard on August 30, 2001 at 12:52 PM]

 

[MikeSerrano]

A word to the wise:
If you receive a title early, do not "brag" and do not say where you got it from. Industry execs and other people related to the studios frequent this forum, and if they find out about a retailer that is consistently breaking street date, action will be taken. (You do want to keep receiving the occasional title a bit early, don't you?

)
Consider yourself fortunate, and if you want to post an early review, I'm sure everyone on this board will appreciate it.
-Mike
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.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o 0o.
void *: Finger to spiritual emptiness underlying everything
.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o 0o.

[Edited last by MikeSerrano on August 30, 2001 at 12:39 PM]

 

[Charles J P]

I guess you are right

I wouldnt expect an early review from me though, if you look at another thread on the forum about *******, the main topic of discussion has turned to how long it takes for their free shipping method. Some people are reporting up to two weeks.

I guess I will see.
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My Website: Link Removed
e-mail me: [email protected]
My DVD Profiler
Paradigm Lover
[Edited last by Chris Maynard on August 30, 2001 at 12:52 PM]

 

[Steven L]

I can't wait for the DVD. William Goldman's commentary should be interesting, but I'm not holding out much hope for Rob Reiner's commentary. I was really looking foward to his commentary on When Harry Met Sally but I was disapointed and found him to be very dry and pretty boring.
Who knows though, maybe it'll be better on The Princess Bride.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yes, Charles, thanks SO MUCH for tipping off the studios so they can crack down on (DVD Store X)and wrecking it for everyone.

And you don't even have a review or anything to say other than 'look at me, I got a disc that broke street date.'

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"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."
Edited by Administrator to protect the guilty...
[Edited last by Chris Maynard on August 30, 2001 at 04:19 PM]

 

[Will Ernst]

The irony is that his post no longer lists the vendor that shipped early. Your rebuke is the only record of whom released prior to the release date...

-will

 

[Charles J P]

Damn Mark, I guess I got you pretty steamed. I didnt intend to set anybody off. By the way, you missed the whole point of my post. All I was trying to say is that I am very excited about this release, and for myself (and I think other big fans of the movie) I think the commentaries will be a bigger treat than the movie (notice the whole part about being dissapointed about the lack of info in the book). So no, it was not a 'look at me, I got a disc that broke street date.' post.
OTOH, thank you mods for fixing my short-sighted mistake. I would have fixed it myself, but the name was already in the title which I cannot edit.
Part of the reason I am so pumped about the commentary, is from the snippet over at The Digital Bits. It seems like Reiner is going to be pretty interesting, although I havent heard the commentary from WHMS.
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My Website: Link Removed
e-mail me: [email protected]
My DVD Profiler
Paradigm Lover
[Edited last by Charles J P on August 30, 2001 at 04:50 PM]

 

[Guy Martin]

Pciked it up this morning from a retailer who will remain nameless (it was not a place I usually shop) to protect the guilty. Do not doubt my excitement. Two pertinent pieces of background for you 1) I went to college at William and Mary where the old theater's annual midnight showing in the fall was one of the major events of the year. Nearly the entire campus turns out for it (sadly the Theater has been closed for renovations this past year so there was no screening my senior year arg!). And it's full-on audience participation, everyone quoting the lines and so on. 2) I love William Goldman's writing; we studied, PB, Misery and Butch Cassidy in screenwriting class and on my own I've read his books The Big Picture, Adventures in the Screen Trade and Which Lie did I Tell. And now for the first-time ever he's doing a commentary. I repeat: do not doubt my excitement.
Watched it tonight, although not in my main HT, but upstairs on my parents old (5 years at least) 20" Sony TV with Pioneer 414 DVD player connected with composite cables. Not the best viewing conditions, but not the worst either. I didn't buy the earlier barebones release so I can't compare the image/sound quality, but I will say that the picture was quite nice. There's some grain but it looks natural and is probably due to the low budget nature of the film. Overall the picture is very close to the prints that the old Williamsburg theater would get. I sampled the soundtrack on my main dobly setup in the basement (Sony STR-DE725 receiver connected to a Panasonic DVD-A110 DVD player via fiber-optic cable, with Energy Take-5 speakers with 8" sub and my brother's 25" Samsung TV, again with composite connection) and it sounded fine, with good score and clear dialogue, but only a few surround effects, and no split surrounds that I could detect. Basically it sounds like a discreet version of a dolby surround master. Nothing wrong with that.
The extras so far are fantastic. I managed to watch the entire retrospective "AsYou Wish" documentary, and it's terrific, reuniting all of the players except the late Andre the Giant and for some strange reason, Wallace Shawn and Peter Falk. There's some wonderful tidbits here, especially when Mandy Patankin explains how the "you killed my father..." line had tremendous personal resonance (his own father died just a few years before the film was made) and a very moving segement of clips of Andre on set. I also watched the original 1987 featurette, which was surprisingly good given its short runtime. Better than the usual EPK junk. Finally I sample the first fifteen or so minutes of Goldman's commentary and it's everything I'd hoped. There are a few awkward silences in there, but he generally keeps the comments coming. There's some nice info on the long history of the film (it took more than a decade for the book to make it to the big screen) and some wonderful insight into why this is his personaly favorite of all the things he's ever written. In fact for most of the parts I listened to he sounded quite happy, which seems unusual given the few other interviews I've seen with him where he comes across as a bit grumpy.
Overall this DVD is everything I'd hoped and then some. I can't wait to listen to the rest of Goldman tomorrow, as well as Reiner, and watch Cary Elwes' home movies from the set!
Now it's late and I need to sleep.
- Guy

 

[Guy Martin]

A few more thoughts: Like I said Wallace Shawn was noticeably absent from the "As you Wish" documentary. And come to think of it, so was Peter Falk, although both Reiner and Goldman talk at length about casting him. Fortunately the good old fashioned 8 page MGM "collectible Booklet" is back and has some nice notes and some quotes from Shawn (but not Falk). Also the booklet artwork is very similar, if not the same, as the film's original poster art, while the cover is the same close-up of Buttercup, with painted castles and Westley with sword drawn as seen on the cover of the earlier DVD release (and the most recent VHS editions too). Go figure. Another voice missing from the supplements so far is Mark Knopfler. No mention in the documentary, although Reiner seems to talk a bit about his contributions to the film in the parts of his commentary I've listened to. There's also a brief snippet on Knopfler in the aformentioned booklet, but no interviews or such from the man himself (I can only assume he was on tour when the DVD was being authored).
However if it seems I'm disappointed in these omissions, that is not the case. Sure I would've loved to hear from these people, but all things considered the team at MGM did a great job in assembling nearly everyone in the cast and crew to talk on camera. Certainly this isn't like Silence of the Lambs where Demme and Foster weren't available. Kudos to MGM for a wonderful DVD!
- Guy

 

[Jin E]

Hopefully my copy will not be lost is USPS limbo like my copy of Goonies is!
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-Jin
My Theater

 

[Joel Noble]

Is the commentary the same one as on the previous LD? (Or was that a Criterion?)
I once tried to purchase the LD to get the commentary, but didn't know there were two LD versions, and got the plain one instead. Oops!
j
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[Guy Martin]

Just found a brief interview with Wallace Shawn is part of one of the two original 1987 featurettes. Elwes' video diary is quite facisnating too.
- Guy

 

[Richard Kim]

Why oh why did they use the same butt ugly cover art from the barebones edition for the SE? The artwork for the linernotes booklet looks much better.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

The foldout booklet has a very amusing archival quote from Wallace Shawn that almost makes up for his absence from the documentary. He talks about how throughout his carreer people have found him funny even though he has no idea why since he claims to have no sense of humor at all. It's probably just B.S., but it is literate & amusing B.S. which makes it choice.
Regards,
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Ken McAlinden
Livonia, MI USA