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DVD Review: Back to the Future Trilogy (Widescreen)
All 3 movies have undergone audio and video re-mastering. Audio was updated to the de-facto 5.1 digital surround, and all film was not only digitally transferred, but cleaned up and rendered crystal clear. The bonus material not only gives additional value to the DVDs, but also helps to answer numerous questions about the movies, including time travel, plot lines, and the characters themselves. My intentions here are to generally review the DVD, but not reveal any of the specific deleted scenes, for those that still want something to remain a surprise.
To begin, the movies themselves are intact, as originally shown in the theaters. Unlike recent DVD releases of 80s classics (ie. the gun-to-walkie-talkie edits in E.T.), there were no political corrections made. While this is not usually something of concern, there were TV edits made that removed "the Libyans" from the first movie, shortly after the 9-11 events. All that aside, the DVDs are a pretty standard affair, with each one being themed after the respective movies: Part 1 in the 50s, Part 2 in the future, and Part 3 in the old west.
For a DVD box set that has been over 15 years in the making, Zemeckis and team definitely deliver. This set has all that you would expect of any feature-packed DVDs, including deleted scenes, outtakes, original trailers, and behind the scenes features. The movies themselves contain additional commentaries, and an option that pops up an icon for additional production notes and factoids during viewing. Even the deleted scenes have an option for viewing with commentary by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale.
The larger behind the scenes features include a "Making of" for each of the three movies, and an overall "Making of the Trilogy" that spans all three DVDs. Among the smaller behind the scenes features are the evolution of special effects, production Q&A's, making of the DeLorean time machine, and the original discussion of the time-travel plot lines.
Among the only drawbacks I noticed were a few minor flaws in the DVD menus. While viewing the bonus material, some features returned to a pure black menu. However, the problem isn't critical, as pressing the Menu button on your DVD remote will eventually take you back to the main menu. It's just distracting to have such a flaw that appears on each of the DVDs.
Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the conversion of the movies to DVD format, and even more so with the additional material on the DVDs. Personally, I know I've had questions about what I thought were plot holes in the whole time travel theory, and Zemeckis made sure to include plenty of notes, FAQs, and Q&As to clear up any confusion, or add to it, depending on your acceptance of his answers. Bottom line: if you've ever waited for an answer to your "whys" or "what ifs" --- or if you just want to enjoy the movies as they are, then look no further than the Back to the Future trilogy.
However, hang on a second: NetGyver writes with a reason to hold off on buying this trilogy:
"The Digital Bits is reporting that the widescreen matting has been done in error on the BTTF Part II and III discs in the trilogy box set. The results very from minor to extremely irritating. Here is a side by side frame comparison between the full-screen DVDs/Laserdisc/and widescreen DVDs for you to view.The widescreen DVD set is considered defective and Universal has an exchange program on the way where you can mail in discs II and III for replacements. But that won't roll out until late February 2003. There is no word for disc replacements for other regions besides North America, at least for now. This a fix for those who already own the widescreen DVD set. The corrected DVD batch will arrive in U.S. stores in late February according to Universal Studios."
Slashdot welcomes reader-submitted features and reviews, and thanks da3dAlus for this one.
To make this first post mine...
Ha!
Webmaster Wanted - Entropic Reactions
...we could all work together to make the world a better -- OOOH!!! SHINEY!!
Great, now that the DVD's are out, maybe I can begin to convert my 93 Accord into a time machine!
... and possibly buying another. In a few years, the "defective" discs will probably be collectors items. It seems that is the case with laserdiscs or CEDs (RCA Select-a-vision discs) etc.
Just my 88 miles-per-hour worth...
RickTheWizKid
While this is not usually something of concern, there were TV edits made that removed "the Libyans" from the first movie, shortly after the 9-11 events.
I can believe that overly-nervous TV executives would want to cut this out, but I'm at a loss to actually figure out how they would do it. The Libyans are sort of a central plot point to the film (after all, they are the whole reason that Marty ends up in 1955 to begin with!) Has anybody seen this edit?
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
From this story:
"Back to the Future redux - 12:43am
Thinking about picking up that Back to the Future trilogy box set this week for a stocking stuffer? You may want to hold off on that. Amid numerous consumer complaints over noticeably misframed shots in the widescreen edition of Parts II and III of the trilogy, Universal Studios Home Video announced yesterday that they will be repressing the discs with corrected framing, and these repressed versions will be included in all future runs of the box set.
While the shots - some of which ruin crucial jokes and visual gags - may be relatively minor to some, what to do if you've already picked up the set and want the corrected versions? A Universal spokesperson has told us that consumers unhappy with the current version (widescreen only - the full frame edition is not affected) can call the Universal Studios Home Video Consumer Hotline at (888) 703-0010 to request an exchange. While repressed versions of discs 2 and 3 (disc 1 remains unaffected) won't be available until February, Universal will provide corrected versions to those who have already purchased the set. Consumers will need to send the discs back to Universal at their own expense. Stay tuned for any further updates as the story develops..."
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Unlike recent DVD releases of 80s classics (ie. the gun-to-walkie-talkie edits in E.T.)
You know that the ET DVDs have both the original, unedited version released in 1982 and the modified 2002 release on them, right?
No, I didn't think you did.
Check out the Home Theater Forum for evidence.
Here is Universal's official response, as found on The Digital Bits:
Thank you for your email. Universal Studios will exchange Back to the Future parts 2 and 3 for copies with the updated framing in late February 2003. You may send the DVDs back now or wait until February. Please send Back to the Future disks 2 and 3, without the case, and a letter with the following information: Name, Full Mailing Address, Daytime Phone Number, Reason for Return and Return Address. Send to:
Back to the Future DVD Returns
PO Box 224468
Dallas, Texas 75260
Thank you,
Universal Studios Customer Service
Those in Canada can call 866-532-2202.
As for me, I'm waiting until February to get a correct version of all three films. The fanboy who reviewed this got a bit carried away.
I traveled back in the future to post this comment just today, knowing full well a Back to the Future post was on the way!
I still want my hoverboard. And my regenerated spleen. Never know when having an extra spleen could come in handy.
Must...wait...after...xmas....maybe...pare
And when I do get 'em, I can go into ubergeek mode and start showing people the resseblance between it and Buckaroo Banzai! : )
Joy
You can't take the sky from me...
> answer numerous questions about the movies,
> including time travel
We knew this all along. The flux capacitor. It's what make time travel possible!
----------
I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
Well, I am a card carrying member of the BTTF fan club, and I remember from one of the four magazine issues I recieved a Q&A section, where the magazine was given the question of why did the future family exist, when Marty and Jennifer were brought forward -- the future they traveled to should have been a future where they disappeared in 1985. The answer was a blunt "we messed up," with an explanation that the future HAD to exist, because the ending of the first movie had the statement "Something's gotta be done about your kids!" and they couldn't very well go back on that, eh?
We are a more diverse group of individuals than you may think.
Most of us, I am sure, have movie intrests that stem beyond the 4 series you mentioned. Besides, have you seen the trash the first two have put out recently(rheotorical)?
Crispen Glover owns your soul.
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
Dirty birds...
Why does Terminator get in while the Alien saga doesn't?
What with all the physics articles lately relating to small micron process using various organic materials, one would think the influence of Giger to be very important at a time like this.
His art, afterall, was usually based on a combination of the organic and the industrial.
I don't like your ambiguous list, I call for a poll!
Actually, Doc Brown is the only person that I've ever heard pronounce "giga" correctly. Yes, it's true. Look it up some time.
Insert offensive troll-style sig here. Please mod or respond appropriately.
Anyone with an oedipal complex knows what the triology was really about. How many times did we see Marty in bed with his hot mother (or hot maternal kin) next to him?
Anyhoo, I missed the second film, and the third got such bad reviews that I didn't even bother trying to go.
Still, my hat's off to anyone who can work a day job, a night job, and battle a degenerative nerve disease.
And "Mister Fusion" was inspired.
What do you mean, rambling? This is Slashdot!
Rather disturbing, that Universal knows that pretty much all copies of II and III out there are defective (ok, widescreen only), yet just today I saw several hundred being offered for sale in one store alone.
Isn't this the sort of situation that product recalls are for (I mean beyond 'this meat will kill you')? Why would Universal knowingly allow their dealers to sell defective merchandise? Is the Xmas shopping mania just that strong that we couldn't possibly pull a known defective product? Instead, they'd rather everyone go to the time and expense of mailing these 2 discs back and forth in February.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Ever notice that /.'ers get excited about DVDs and not new albums? RIAA, START PAYING ATTENTION.
I have seen each of these movies at least 3e6 times each. I have them recorded off TV. I own all three on videocassette. I try to watch them when TBS is running them. Even though I can probably recite each movie by heart, guess what: I was waiting for Target to open last Tuesday so I could be the first to own these. Why? I love these movies.
There's so much techological genius in these movies that the 'making of' stuff is worth the cost of the set to me. I haven't even watched the movies yet, I just opened disc 4 and started watching. GOOD STUFF.
My point? I paid $39.99 for something I already had. I did it VOLUNTARILY. I can download all this stuff off Kazaa I'm sure. Why didn't I? Because it's GOOD STUFF THAT'S WORTH THE MONEY. Most music that's out these days is pure crap. I had no idea that I could take a dump in a jewel case and sell it for $15.99. It's not rocket science: put stuff in the package that people WANT, and they will buy.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Hey, thanks for buying the new DVD set. We knew you guys wouldn't resists.
Universal Studios appreciates your business. Especially since $3 from every sale goes directly to a needy Senator, who is working hard right now to make sure the entire legal system in this country is designed to line our pockets with cold, hard, cash and take away your control over the things you buy.
That's right! Enjoy your DVD today, because tomorrow you may need to pay $4.99 to "re-key" your shiny new DVD+ player so it will play.
That's what we call progress! And you're funding it!
Thanks again,
Universal Studios
You can find comparison shots here, here and here, with more to be seen here (warning, that site is very intensive and not the best designed. It's also in German, but the pics are right in one of the frames if you let it load completely and scroll down a bit).
Keep in mind that those screenshots are just examples. The framing for ALL of BTTF 2 and BTTF 3 is messed up in the same way EXCEPT for special effects shots (those were hard-matted on the print, so there was no need to apply any matting to the transfer).
I've already called Universal and arranged my return, but the screwup is inexcusable given that it's been known for four months and Universal didn't acknowledge the issue until Wednesday.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
WOW! I just looked it up at m-w.com. I can't believe it. Jigawatt is actually the first listed pronunciation of the word "gigawatt". Incredible. Now I have really learned something. And now for you: The peak output capacity of Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State is 6GW! That's about enough for 5 deloreans!
Get a better DVD player. Yours is defective.
No problems with the menus on my system. (Pioneer, twin laser).
What's yours?
Simon
Coming soon - pyrogyra
The movies have been available in regions 2 and 4 for months, and they have the same misframing problem there. People noticed it as soon as they did comparisons to the widescreen Laserdisc (which has a slightly less wide and incorrect aspect ratio, but at least the matting that is there is applied correctly), but Universal allowed the problem to slip into the R1 release and they didn't acknowledge any problem despite repeated inquiries until Wednesday.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Was this story straight out of the mouth of a Universal Studios weasel or what?
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Well in that case, I'm sure that Scot is overjoyed.
Well this sucks. I just picked up a copy of the trilogy for my gf. She's been waiting for it for a long time now and here it is. All wrapped and under the tree. Then the next day I find out about the misframing. Yes kids, it's on the entire BTTF II and III films, not just select scenes. While I'm not a DVD afficiando, I do certainly appreciate watching a well produced DVD. Seeing all the example shots and taking a look at the film myself now proves that the misframing basically ruins the movie. Most of the gags are site gags and without the bottom or top of the frame, it's just not the same movie.
What really has me peeved is the fact that a) Universal knew about the problem as people in R2-R5 have been yelling about it without any resolution and b) you have to return the discs at your own expense to replace them. Sure, Universal is not going to spend whatever the cost would be to get everyone a copy but now to really enjoy the movie I'm going to have to shell out another $10US or something to get the updated discs.
And basically, even though they knew about it but might not admit it, there's not a damn thing any of us can do about it except eat up the cost of replacing the discs. Oh well, live and learn.
I wonder why they don't do similar edits and remove the Nazis from World War II movies.
Actually, in some video games, they have. Hitler shaved off his mustache and became the Staatmeister in Wolfenstein 3D for Super NES. (id Software was so frustrated at the actions of Nintendo's censors that id sold a Wolf3d engine license to Wisdom Tree, an independent console software publisher, in retaliation.) The USA version of Bionic Commando for the NES had "Badds" instead of "Nazis".
Hate Dubya? Vote Libertarian-Nazi-Green in 2004!
Will I retire or break 10K?
Well, someone has to do it right.
If I recall it's just "great scot", not "great scots".
Yes, I'm a pedantic bastard.
Funny how in BTTF, the bad guys were Muslim terrorists after nuclear weapons. How little has changed in 20 years ...
Joe
http://www.joegrossberg.com
I did.
/ji'ga/ or /gi'ga/ "
from dictionary.com:
"-
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The easiest thing to workaround. Right-click desired image, keep mouse button pressed, dismiss warning dialog with SPACE. Menu appears.
That must be what Will Smith calls Gigawatts
Chances are that the print itself was soft for the first BTTF (and that one isn't being replaced). BTTF2 might look fuzzy because the bad transfer was also zoomed (for absolutely no conceivable purpose), but apart from that I doubt you will see an improvement.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Pedantic is fine, just that you're a little late. See first reply.
Check my previous posting. I provided three individual links to direct side-by-side comparisons (between 'fullscreen', the WS Laserdisc and the WS DVD) and another link to a site with a few more pics.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Sorry, dude. I call them as I see them. And Doc Brown pronounces "gigawatt" correctly. Since when has the english language been so straight-forward that you can say something like "Whomever came up with it in 1962 was wrong."
Example: "ghoti" spells fish. "gh" as in "trough". "o" as in "women". "ti" as in "station".
Insert offensive troll-style sig here. Please mod or respond appropriately.
As a student of film and animation, watching the old 20's and 30's cartoons with betty boop and heckle & jeckle and the watermelon eating negros of that time certainly show the changes that have happened. (except with Trent Lott :)
To go and CHANGE that and show it is wrong. It's important to know where we came from and what attitudes were. Its fine to understand that these attitudes were wrong, but denying that they existed is just horrifying.
Perhaps charlie chaplin's imitations of hilter should be altered to not offend people. Perhaps all our references to iraqi's as friends should be stricken from the record.
It's not like I have much expectation from the king of sugar coated movies, steven spielberg, but for him and zemekis to allow the content to be edited for non language (swearing) reasons is just frightening.
Actually, both pronounciations are right, according to The jargon file, but it's really a matter of preference.
01101001 01100001 01101101 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110111 01111001 01100101 01110010
There is a means of adding in 'pan and scan' cues so that a DVD player can 'zoom' and pan around a widescreen image to produce a panned and scanned image, however those cues must exist within the datastream or you just get the entire picture. Only a handful of DVDs actually support that feature (I believe, but I am not certain, that Brotherhood of the Wolf supports it). Also, the DVD must be anamorphic (ie, 'enhanced for widescreen TVs'), and 2.35:1 movies will still have little black bands at the top and bottom.
BTTF wouldn't work with that, though, because it was filmed at 1.37:1 and then matted down to 1.85:1 for the theatrical presentation. Most 1.85:1 movies are filmed that way, so you actually get 'more' picture on 'fullscreen' transfers of those movies. Mind you, that 'extra' information is usually not intended by the director and it can make the composition of a scene look less professional as a result (sometimes even showing set equipment where it shouldn't be visible). Also, most special effects are done on a hard-matted 1.85:1 frame, so they are still panned and scanned.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Great Scot! You're correct.
I can't be held responsible for what happens between my page refreshes damn it.
That's really funny, you know if the MPAA gets its way, pretty soon none of us will actually get to *see* movies (or at least if we do MPAA execs will use the flashy things on us) we'll just go pay 14.95 at the theatre to sit there. At then another 49.95 for the DVD that won't play.
:)
Might as well enjoy them now
The Anti-Blog
...that Hollywood seems to have forgotten? When I think about BttF, I think of those wonderful days back in the 80's when movies were fun and intruging. Remember Ghostbusters? Indiana Jones? Star Trek IV? (heh)
Anybody else feel like some of the fun spirit of these movies was lost when the 90's rolled around?
I guess there are some early, practice footage of the hoverboards on the dvds. I remember how nuts everyone went after BttF2 came out, and how almost every kid I talked to wanted on (if only someone had been able to capitalize on that!)
I've been waiting 17 years for this to come out (check the user name, and my website), and now I only have to wait a few more days to see if someone got it for me for Christmas! WooHoo!
Ed Wedig
Graphic design services
docbrown.net
Back to the future brought the concept of Time travel to a mainstream audience. The movie is inherently geeky. It has the geeky skater kid. Geeky dad. Geeky professor with a Delorean. It has garage science!
And while I agree with you that it isn't stand out Sci Fi, but for the time (1985) it was a reasonably good mainstream SciFi movie and I think it had at least a little bit of bearing on my own personal devlopment as a geek (as well as other geeks of our era). It wasn't all Star Wars.
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
Its not the corporations responsibility to inform you of defective products. The only loophole is for products with safety concerns. And many people had to die to get those laws passed, and its rather limited product range.
-
My government supports terrorism.
I'm referring to the fact that people in regions 2 and 4 have been 'informing' Universal of the defect in the product for months, and Universal did not act (and allowed the defect to slip into the R1 release) on it at all.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
The DTS track was stripped from the R1 release so that more extras (I believe at least one commentary track, amongst a few other featres) would fit.
Also, the R2 release is PAL and plays at 50Hz at 720x562 resolution while the R1 release is NTSC and plays at 60Hz and at 720x480 resolution.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Huey Lewis and the News will be releasing a DVD video box set of their greatest hits... It's speculated to be only half as annoying as the botched widesceen conversion of the back to the future (BTTF) Trilogy...
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
There are FOUR DISCS.
BTTF I
BTTF II
BTTF III
BTTF - Stuff we couldn't fit anywhere else
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
He's right in that it's missing the top and bottom of the picture, because it should actually be missing only the top.
Widescreen represents the image as it was shown theatrically and typically as the director filmed it. Even when a movie is filmed at a 1.37:1 ratio and matted down, the director is typically only paying attention to the 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 section of the filmed frame that is intended for its theatrical exhibition. Opening up the mattes for a 'fullscreen' presentation can destroy well-composed shots as well as reveal things that should not be in the frame (set equipment, anachronisms in period pieces, etc).
Also note that the special effects shots were hard-matted to 1.85:1, so those ARE panned and scanned on the fullscreen release.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
One thing you'll find is that many of the most vocal proponents of the 'misframing' of these DVDs are people who've never seen them. I watched all three over the weekend and counted about half a dozen shots which looked like they could have been framed better, most of them in the first future sequence of BTTF2... that's it. Frankly, I was so utterly unconcerned by the slightly odd framing in those shots that I doubt I'll even bother sending my disks back for replacements if they release a version with those few shots changed.
Most, if not all, of these comparisons have been between the movie and the laserdisk. Yet the laserdisk apparently wasn't even released in the correct aspect ratio, so who's to say how it was supposed to look other than the director? Until and unless the director or one of the other major creative production staff actually come out and say 'no, they were framed wrong, thanks for getting them to fix the movie', I'm going to presume that the version we got was the version intended and keep it, rather than a new version that's been edited by committee. Oddly, some of the people making the most fuss about these disks are some of the people who make a big fuss whenever a movie is released in a different form to that which the director intended... yet now they want to control how the movie is framed regardless of what the director may think.
I gain amusement from the fact that moderators rate all of my comments "-1, Overrated" before anybody has actually rated them yet.
I still remember watching the original film on VHS back in '86 or '87, and I always told my folks that there would be a sequel. Well, after watching the special features, I learned that originally the whole "We gotta do something about your kids, Marty!" was more of a closing joke than a setup for the next film. Anyway, no matter how many times I saw the original film, nothing was cooler than watching the DVD and seeing the DeLorean roll off Doc Brown's truck for the first time. The audio was great, and my floor shook to the rumbling of the engine. Also, hearing Alan Silvestri's work in CD-quality sound really makes the movie come to life even more. I highly recommend anyone who liked the movies to watch them again on DVD. It really is a whole new experience.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
"Except that you sound like a retard when you say jif"
:)
I always thought that people that said GIF with a hard 'G' sounded like the people who pronounce Warez "war-ezz"
People to whom it sounds silly to speak proper grammer are they themselves the intellectually inferior.
Yes, this is true, though I think directors today have to intend for both framings.
If you compare a widescreen DVD with the same movie on TV, you'll find that pan-and-scan doesn't just chop of the sides. They are forced to chop off less of the sides if they also reveal more of the top and bottom, since both changes make the frame closer to the 1.33:1 of TV.
Directors know this is going to happen, and they have to account for it. They can't let a microphone or a dolly track appear right above or below the frame, though sometimes (as the parent indicated) one slips by. The viewfinders that they use don't have just one rectangle, but several: one for theatrical release, one for TV, and now ones for HDTV and other "future" scenarios, all superimposed.
This is a little sad because it means directors can't explore the edges of their frames any more. They're forced to compose every shot so that the characters appear in the intersection of all the rectanges -- in trying to please every distribution scenario, everything has to be in the boring center of the frame.
I'm glad the general public is starting to come around to letterboxing, so maybe we can eliminate pan-and-scan once and for all.
A side note too: the prints that are shipped to theaters aren't matted; it's up to the projectionist to use the correct lens (anamorphic or no) and the right set of physical mattes. Whenever you see a boom lower into the frame it's almost always the projectionist's fault. I actually went to complain to the usher at a neighborhood theater that the movie wasn't matted right, but she looked at me like I had two heads.
the first time i saw back to the future in the theatre, marty followed up his dad's explanation about the alien that told him he would melt his brain with, "let's just keep this brain melting stuff to ourselves." the next time i saw it in the theatre and every subsequent time i've seen it in any format (tv, vhs) that line was not in the movie. has anybody else out there seen a version that had that line in the movie?
you probably shouldn't have read this.
"For a DVD box set that has been over 15 years in the making"
Am I the only one wondering how a DVD box set could be in the making since before DVD's existed? Maybe this guy just meant that was the last time the movies had been seen in the theaters, but it sounds a little silly.
$45 per U Colocation Special
Giga is from the Greek word "gigantes," "giants." In Greek, gamma (=g) is always pronounced as a hard G like in Greek, not as in Giant. So, no, it's not jiga.
The ghoti example is from Shaw. And the novelization was probably written by a dimwit who didn't know how to spell gigawatt. And the "jigawatt" pronounciation would be entirely a modernism (and mostly an English/French thing), as the word it is from is from a language that never pronounces the "g" softly (Greek).
Hmmm... And there's evidence to suggest that John Bigboote survived his gunshot wound and the subsequent destruction of the transport ship, and went into hiding as eccentric inventor Doc Brown. He built the time machine to go back and destroy Buckaroo before he was even born by aiding Hanoi Xan back in the 50s. That would allow Yoyodyne to complete the ship unhampered, and he'd get to return to Planet X.
But it went wrong, as meddling with history often does. In the non-Buckaroo timeline, Lord John Whorfin didn't build the ship, but was successfully treated and released from the asylum. After that, he and a few of his Red Lectroid friends began studying the earth by masquarading as Prof. Dick Solomon and his family.
Things become weirder as Lizardo/Whorfin/Solomon falls for someone he believes is an Earthling, but who is actually another alien by the name of Prymatt Conehead!
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
In one message by scorp1us: This soft 'g' has origins lying in French...
In a later message, also by scorp1us: Giraffe is French
From these two statements I would infer that the "gi" soft-g construction is valid.
Besides, m-w.com lists the origin of Giraffe as Arabic.
Complexity is Easy. Simplicity is Hard.
But WHY did CompuServe insist on pronouncing it with a soft G, when the word the G stood for (Graphics) was pronounced with a hard G?
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
I always thought that people that said GIF with a hard 'G' sounded like the people who pronounce Warez "war-ezz"
Ditto. Plus:
GIF was invented by CompuServe.
The people at CompuServe say "jif".
Therefore.
Because 'rowter' might be pronounced like 'rotor' and get people really confused.
Hey kids, there's only 5 days left 'til Yak Shaving Day!
Including, I might add [since not everyone has access to it] the OED.
ar, ar.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Huh. interesting. I once projected "The Usual Suspects" in a 16m theater. I thought that the boom mikes regularly dropping into the frames was an interesting touch, but never saw it in any other versions.
The middle mind speaks!
...Can be seen on Home Theater Forum.
No, I'm glad you corrected me - I'm not so sensitive that I feel bad when somebody points out that I got a line wrong from a film which I haven't seen in quite some time. :)
Hmm... I bought the DVD set last week (2 days after it was released. I would have bought it earlier, but I was hung over....)
I'm not sure I recognized any section that was "castrated". I've watched the whole series, and didn't see anything that struck me as castrated. Except, possibly, the few scenes that had been deleted, but they were missing from the original theatrical versions, too. I love the documentaries, and the commentary tracks are good, too.
To set aside your fears, the Lybians are still in it. The doc still gets shot with the AK-47, which then jams when they point it at Michael J. Fox. And they still crash when they pull out a rocket launcher and point it at the DeLorean. I don't think they could cut that out and keep the feeling.
Unless you Americans are getting the shaft on it. Mine's the Canadian version, with the French-language track available as well. I'm also not noticing the widescreen matting problems that are reported, so that could be a region-specific problem, too.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
gigantic, based on the same root as giga
I don't read or respond to AC posts
What's funny is this is also exactly what happens with the new Justice League show on Cartoon Network. Have a look at the normal and widescreen versions. They just cut off the top and botton, and viola, it is 'widescreen'.
By the way, let's see, how are we doing WRT the predictions for 2015? Let's see:
Not a great strike rate, I have to say
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
A great deal of English words come from French, I think it is probably #3.
That's what is so frustrating for people learning English, to spell or pronounce something correctly, or to make the "correct" plural, you have to go back to the origins, but the thing is that much of English has German, Latin and French as its primary origins, then there are words from Greek and who the hell knows how many other languages.
Because of the diverse background, I think there are 3000+ phonetic sounds in English, which I think is the highest in the world. A lot of word meanings I think are subverted from their root meaning. I would love Japanese (~106 sounds) but they have a scary tendency to borrow a foriegn word, usually English and subvert _again_ to suit their own needs. I actually don't mind the Chinese characters, it is a lot more straightforward than English.
Smart people invest their money in stock portfolios. Rednecks invest in commemorative plates."
You can look for my other comments in this topic, or you can check out the message boards at http://www.bttf.com/
I can already tell you, however, that your BTTF 2 and BTTF 3 are mismatted.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
It was not 'a few shots'. It is 'every scene in both movies except for special effects shots, because those were already hard-matted on the print'. Further, the screenshots given show excess ZOOMING that isn't even present in the fullscreen release. There no evidence of any 'problems' in the original widescreen laserdisc transfer that would be covered up in the mismatting, though there is strong evidence that some visuals are screwed up as a result of the misframing in the DVD.
The shots were misframed. The transfer was not made correctly, and Universal has finally admitted as much.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
yea, but maybe your TV is at fault. remember, these films have been reformatted to fit YOUR tv, not mine. duh
(yes, it's funny, laugh)
He's not a number. ;)
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
You got yours at walmart too? I have a theory but i haven't tested it yet.
Could you go to walmart, complain to a manager, and as long as you have a reciept, could you exchange your defective boxset for a corrected version due out in late februrary?
I was thinking of doing this so I didn't have to wait however long Universal decides on shipping the corrected discs out. I figured if i can return my boxset for a complete and corrected version in feb that that would be the ideal way to go. What do you think?
I never returned a dvd, let alone a boxset in this fashion to a retailer before, and i'm unsure that walmart would be able to do this.
I bought widescreen because I wanted to "see" all of the movie--not hacked up pan+scan. I read examples about the differences online and I knew I must have widescreen. And now i get messed up widescreen versions on Part II and III. Isn't that irony? As if the space-time continuium was trying to keep me from seeing the movies like how the director envisioned it.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
Actually, the widescreen one is 'formatted to fit my screen'.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
(sometimes even showing set equipment where it shouldn't be visible)
Like Arnie's boxers in the fullscreen T2, IIRC...
Hmm, I'd have the set bought a few months back in Australia and I haven't seen the problem, at least playing under Ogle on Linux. I'll check again now I know specific scenes to look at.
Besides the widescreen mishap, R1 discs have a LOT of features to enjoy. I can't find the comparisons of R1 and other region discs, but I have region 1, so i'll list what it says and you can compare for yourself:
BTTF: Part I:
1. The Making Of Back To The Future
2. Making The Trilogy: Chapter 1
3. Outtakes
4. Candid Q&A with Director Robert Zemeckis And Producer Bob Gale
5. Enhanced Conversation with Michael J. Fox.
6. Feature Commentary With Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton
7. Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes (pop up factoids throughout the movie, over 150 of them)
8. Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Producer Bob Gale
9. Original Make-Up Tests
10. Production Archives (which include: "Marty McFly's Photo Album, Behind The Scenes Photographs, The Delorean Designs, and Time Travel Designs)
10. Excerpts From The Original Screenplay
11. Theatrical Trailer
12. DVD-ROM Features With Total Axcess Including the original script, exclusive behind the scenes info, interview, excerpts and more
13. Michael J Fox Foundation For Parkinson's Research
BTTF: Part II:
1. The Making Of Back To The Future Part II
2. Making The Trilogy Chapter II
3. Writer/Producer Bob Gale Discusses The Filmmaking Process (production designs, Storyboarding, designing the DeLorean, and time travel)
4. Outtakes
5. Candid Q&A With Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton
6. Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes (more pop up factoids)
7. Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Writer/Producer Bob Gale
8. Hoverboard Test
9. Evolution Of Visual Effects Shots
10. Production Archives (including: Marty McFly Photo Album, Behind The Scenes Photographs, Futuristic Designs, and Vehicles Of The Future)
11. Huey Lewis & The News "Power Of Love" Music Video
12. Theatrical Trailer
13. DVD-ROM Features With Total Axcess Including The Original Script.
BTTF: Part III:
1. The Making Of Back To The Future Part III
2. Making The Trilogy: Chapter 3
3. Designing The Town Of Hill Valley
4. Designing The Campaign: Bob Gale discusses the original theatrical advertising and marketing campaign.
5. Outtakes
6. Candid Q&A With Director Robert Zemeckis And Producers Bob Gale And Neil Canton
7. Did You Know That? Universal Animated Anecdotes (more popup factoids)
8. Deleted Scenes With Commentary By Writer/Producer Bob Gale.
9. Production Archives (Including: Marty McFly Photo Album, Behind The Scenes Photographs, Production Designs, The Trilogy Poster Concepts.)
10. The Secrets of the Back To The Future Trilogy.
11. ZZ Top Music Video "Doubleback"
12. Most Frequently Asked Questions, Answered.
13. Theatrical Trailer
14. DVD ROM Features with Total Axcess Including The Original Script.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
Or John Cleese's pants in A Fish Called Wanda (showcased on quite a few 'widescreen advocacy' pages).
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
All Part II and Part III widescreen dvds are defective, and will be sold defective until Universal gets the corrected batch out in stores in late Feb 2003. Since you bought yours prior to late Feb 2003, that means your eligable for a product replacement program that Universal will roll out in...you guessed it..late Feb 2003.
See article for details.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
In Four Wedings and a Funeral the very first line is "Fuck fuck fuck" as Hugh Grant realises he's slept in for another wedding. In the TV version he says "Bugger bugger bugger". Think for a moment of the literal meanings (vaginal vs anal sex) and wonder if this is cleaner?
Note I did say handle like a sports car, but not accelerate and top speed like a sports car.
Well, if it dosn't accelerate like a sports car, how would you know if it 'handles' like one?
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Actualy, the film was shot with the 'i hate everybody' sign, and then replaced with 'niggers' for the cinema. I doubt the TV production crews would really have enough money to to a nice replacement, so you're probably seeing the orgional shot, not an alteration
:P
That said, I did see a TV edit of showgirls Where they had the most rediculous painted on bra on the character in her stage performances. It looked like a "My first photoshop" excersize
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
What do you think you're doing right now?
Aditionaly, higher gravity = slower time. So, if you were to go into orbit around a black hole without spinning apart (for example) and then leave most things would be advanced along farther. Or, if you traveled near the spead of light, etc.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
people have mesured the time-speed diffrence between the ground and an airplane flying at 60k feet using atomic clocks.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Do you understand what I'm saying yet?
Why would we? All you're doing is ranting and raving like a madman. As far as I can tell, you're whole argument boils down to "He's stupid, damnit, can't you see he's STUPID!??!!"
A paradox dosn't mean something can't happen.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Actualy, I think Starwars was created of its own. And indeed, it stands on its own, as does ROTJ. Obviously, if you write a story your mind will spin with alternate and future ideas for it, but that dosn't mean that the whole was created in one step. (like LOTR, or the Matrix).
Also, the whole LOTR trillogy is a 'sequel' of sorts to the Hobbit.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Which is obvious BS. The reason brothers and sisters don't enjoy eachother 'sexualy' has to do with the fact that they grew up together, not that they are geneticaly related. The same behavior can be found in many types of animals (such as birds, etc). Animals that are 'rased' together simply won't mate with eachother.
On the other hand, brother/sister pairs who are not rased together are often attracted...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
It's not back to the future, but remember the scene in Ferris Beuler's Day Off, when Ferris is describing his friend and says 'if you put a piece of cole in his ass, in a few weeks you'd have a diamond' (great line, imho). Well, the tv edit changed the line to 'if you put a piece of cole in his hand, in a few weeks you'd have a diamond'.
Sigh.
The quote is wrong. It should just go: "DVDs are made in widescreen to reflect the artist's true representation of the movie".
Many 1.85:1 movies are shot in full frame (1.37:1) and then matted. Zemeckis almost always does it. The artist's intention of the movie is still the widescreen one, even if it shows less picture than the fullframe one.
Repo Man!
They replaced 'fuck' with 'flip', and 'motherfucker' with 'melonfarmer', so...
"Flip you, melonfarmer!"
"Don't flipping call me a melonfarmer, you flipper."
The director Alex Cox said that he liked the TV edited version, as the bowdlerised dialogue made the film seem even more surreal.
"Information wants to be paid"
True, Buckaroo kicked much butt, but I didn't get to see that until it was on cable.
To tell you the honest truth, I wouldn't be that surprised to see either of those stars in the next Star Wars, as it has inflated to more of a mainstream movie than anything else I can think of. That still won't stop me from going to see the next one.
(/local/home/curiosity)-#who -u|grep thecat|cut -c 44-49|xargs kill -9
Tough luck, I get to read your sigs, you get to read mine.
First of all, I don't have a sig. Second of all, If I did you could go turn it off in your preferences because I'd put it in the sig field instead of pushing my off topic adgenda on people who have explicitly opted out.
I stand corrected on all counts. Thanks for setting me straight.