Shame on Warner for releasing The American President again in non-anamorphic (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

Three-Year Resurrection..............

Via Digital Bits, a nice-to-hear announcement re. this fine flick:

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"And here's a bit of good news...the studio {WB} is finally releasing a decent DVD version of Rob Reiner's "The American President" on April 18th, 2006.

"There won't be much in the way of extras, but the new DVD will at least include both full frame and newly-remastered anamorphic widescreen video (the previous DVD release was non-anamorphic letterbox only).

"Audio will be Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0. To make up for the lack of extras, the SRP is just $12.76. Nice."

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http://digitalbits.com/

 

[Keith I]

The release date of April 18 is soon here but no other major retailer that I frequent besides Amazon has it listed. Even Amazon's listing is strange. Mother's Day?

Can anyone confirm it is being released next week and anamorphic?
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[Jonathan_]

According to Best Buy's ad next week Warner Brothers is going to be attaching Mother's Day cards to copyies of select movies. Best Buy is advertising Phantom of the Opera, You've Got Mail and a few others for only $6.99. No mention of The American President, but Best Buy does show a new edition coming out next week.

 

[Jonathan_]

Anybody pick this up?

 

[David Von Pein]

A Major Disappointment! This Is NOT A "New" DVD At All! :frowning:

Warner Home Video's April 18, 2006, DVD re-release of "The American President" is a huge disappointment.

Why? Because WB has given us the exact same non-anamorphic disc that was first released in 1999!

This 04/18/2006 re-release, according to Warner's own website, was supposed to include a brand-new Anamorphic Widescreen transfer of the film, plus a second "2.0 Stereo" soundtrack (in addition to the 5.1 track as well), and new "Amaray"-style Keep Case packaging (to replace the old snapper case). And -- a Full-Frame version of the movie was also supposed to be included on the new DVD, per WB's pre-release info.

But, alas, none of this is on the disc I received from Amazon.com. Instead, I received the very same 1999 DVD of the film that I already have, which comes in the "snapper" type of cardboard case.

The 2006 package does include a Mother's Day card and some wrapping paper -- but that's hardly a major consolation to counter the disappointment of not being able to watch this very good movie in the far-better "16x9-enhanced" format of Anamorphic Widescreen like I was looking forward to doing.

So, buyer beware when purchasing this item. It's not a "new" or "improved" DVD product at all.

I was wondering why virtually no online store except Amazon had this item available for ordering. I guess now I know -- it's because there's nothing really new here at all. Just a re-release of the fairly-inferior non-anamorphic DVD from several years ago.

But I now cannot understand why Warner's website shows this info (linked below) for this product?? I can accept a simple re-release of an older DVD; but I don't particularly like being lied to. Do you? .....

http://whv.warnerbros.com/WHVPORTAL/....jsp?OID=13419

 

[Craig S]

Same thing they did with Bruce Willis' In Country a few months ago. Promised a new anamorphic WS transfer; what we got was the old P&S disc in new keepcase clothing.

Unfathomable behavior from a studio which is usually so exemplery.

 

[David Von Pein]

And we don't even get the new "clothing" for "American President" ... it's the same old Snapper case (with the same 1999 copyright date too).

You get a Mom's Day card, envelope, and a hunk of wrapping paper (actually a little "baggie")....but I couldn't care less about the Mother's Day stuff. I wanted the pristine 16x9 transfer.

Very disappointing indeed. :frowning:

I'm callin' President Andy Shepherd right this minute to see if he can slap some sense into WB asap! Anybody got Michael Douglas' private number?

Oh, btw -- the Mother's Day card is wrapped up so tightly in shrinkwrap that it's virtually impossible to open it up without "slicing" into the envelope or card in some fashion. At least I couldn't manage it. But, then too, I shouldn't have been allowed to wander free with a pair of sharp scissors at that exact point in time, after having just discovered that this "new" DVD was really the same "old" el-crappo version once more. .... Now, if only I could get the bleeding to stop.

 

[Jace_A]

Even more unacceptable is the fact that a decent anamorphic DVD of this film has been available in R2/4 for several years... from Universal.

 

[DaveCTB]

Wish I'd seen this thread earlier- I assumed BestBuy would have it and was somewhat annoyed to find only the old snappers. Something else odd is going on with this release- in Best Buy's system they list an upgraded version, with a release date of today, but its not available in stores. Same thing for Circuit City and others who list a Widescreen/Pan-Scan new edition. I wonder, did this really get delayed or something?

 

[Joel C]

Bizarre and annoying. I didn't mind the old edition until I finally got a widescreen TV, and... it's isn't even a GOOD non-anamorphic transfer. Why in the world wasn't it 16X9 in the first place?

 

[Jonathan_]

At this point I am going to hold out for a HD-DVD version.

 

[Keith I]

Since WB made The Digital Bits look like fools, TDB could look into it and ask if TAP will eventually be released in anamorphic widescreen. Update: TDB did ask WB about it and WB said the original press release was an error. I wonder if the person/people responsible for that press release were reprimanded in some way? "You don't bite the hand that feeds you."

I also went to Best Buy, they had only the original copy. You couldn't do in-store pickup. Glad I didn't order it from Amazon.

 

[Jason_V]

This isn't just disappointing, it pisses me off. I went to five (count 'em...five) different stores between Tuesday and Wednesday this week to look for the reissue. No one had it (shock of shocks). I saw MAYBE three copies of TAP at the stores max. This is just pathetic...and crummy, since I love this movie.

 

[ZackR]

This is very disappointing. I was really looking forward to picking this up. The American President is a very enjoyable film. Come on, Warner. Give this an anamorphic release at least. You guys generally are the best out there, but this is pretty lame. :frowning:

 

[Thomas T]

It seems Warners is doing this with several of their other catalogue titles. I've seen The Betsy advertised on DVDEmpire as coming soon (April 25) with new cover art but the back jacket shows it's still full frame.

 

[Chad R]

Well, I have this coming from Best Buy.com so I'll just return it there. I was so excited to get an anamorphic copy of this movie, and now nothing.

Very disappointing indeed.

Bad Warner Bros., no cookie!

 

[Brian Little]

One big boo to Warner over this along with a loss of a sale.

 

[David Galindo]

MAN, I am angry. I was really looking forward to this too. :frowning:

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Wow....I'm not a huge fan of this film and would probably not purchase this DVD. However, this is ridiculous, IMHO. As many years as DVD has been around, major studio widescreen releases (and re-releases) should always be anamorphically enhanced. No exceptions!

 

[ZacharyTait]

Bumping a 2 year old thread for this:

I was at Wal-Mart tonight and saw this title on the American Summer endcap. I noticed it had a slipcover on it and checked out the back. It said "Widescreen version. Enhanced for 16x9 TVs" I got excited and started to put it in my cart when I decided to check the case itself.

Sure enough, the snapper case DOESN'T say "Enhanced for 16x9 TVs."

Is Warner Bros. trying to scam people here?

Slipcover has 2008 packaging copyright date on it. Snapper had 1999 packaging copyright date on it. Aargh!