Should this cynical DVD practice be stopped

Y

yagurlpuff

New member
I keep noticing a rising trend in DVD companies trying to trick the consumer by releasing versions of a story/film that was a big hit and awaiting a DVDrelease soon.
 
I know what you mean. I'm trying to think of some examples.
I think they brought out a Transformers DVD which was basically an old cartoon version.

I would imagine a lot of people get caught out.

I doubt very much if it could be stopped. It's up to consumers to make sure that what they are buying is what they want.
 
well, you would know exactly the difference between the original cartoon version and the new 2007 version before purchase.

do you mean by you point that some companies bring out a "standard" edition of a dvd....a few months later - a "deluxe version" of the same film?

thats where you have to do your own reasearch. i knew full well a special special special 4 bluray edition of Watchmen was being brought out at the end of 09. 3 versions later - and it came out! i knew this because i did a bit research - and only wanted one version of it - and not 2 versions (plus the cartoon) like my mate bought - and intenRAB on getting the super dupper version as well!
 
Apologies I hit the post button before I should.....THIS IS MY Proper post

EDIT: Sorry i clicked post before i'd finished

I keep noticing a rising trend in DVD companies trying to trick the consumer by releasing versions of a story/film that was a big hit and awaiting a DVD release soon.

There must be an interesting term for it, but I call it 'gazumping'.

I'll give you an example when Tarantino's Inglorious BasterRAB was in the cinema, the distributor of the 1970s version chose to re-release it on DVD.....and then to make the box-art look as much like the Tarantino film's artwork as possible, and play up the Tarantino angle.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/10360947/Inglorious-BastarRAB/Product.html


When the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 came out...the distributors chose to re-release the original version on DVD with a modernized front cover

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5217065/Assault-On-Precinct-13-Special-Edition/Product.html


I just feel that there is a cynical attempt at trying to fool people into buying something that is not what they think. I predict a MASSIVE amount of people thought they were getting Inglorious basterRAB the modern Tarantino film, when they actually got a 70s movie re-packaged to resemble Tarantino's film (same with Assault on Precinct 13).

Now for me and 95% of you this isn't really a problem as we know the practice, but for me and a few I know it can be a nightmare at Christmas/birthday when a person with little film knowledge buys you a present. It's so easy for your gran, mum, girlfriend not to get the right thing.

My last birthday my grandma asked what I wanted. I said 'The 300', she asked what that was and i said it was the film about the Spartans last stand. So come my birthday i got this

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3339...-The-Spartans-300-The-Real-Story/Product.html

it's the wrong thing, it's actually a repackaged History channel documentary. But look at the artwork with the proper movie.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3508987/300/Product.html

now no one can surely argue that this hasn't been designed to look as much like the movie as possible. Same font, emphasis on '300', same colour scheme. The makers have designed that DVD to make it look to the untrained eye that its the actual movie, or it has some official attachment to the movie 'which it doesn't. I laugh about it now, but i had the headache of having to get the receipt off my nan refund it, get what i really wanted...etc. which took time and made my nan feel a bit stupid.

I just feel these companies are trying to trick people into buying the wrong thing. I do agree that there may be some people who want to check out these original versions on the back of a hit movie about the same sort of subject....but there's no question in my mind they are purposefully trying to deceive people

Now I definitely believe some dimwits are just that and deserve to be had, but a lot are the sort of 'people like my nan' whose ignorance is being exploited.

I think there is a very easy way to stop such confusion happening. When i used t work in a videogame store and someone used to by an exapansion pack for a game, we used to say 'you do know this requires the original game'. Well I think shopkeepers should just say 'you do know that this isn't THE version (of the film that really comes out), that comes out in a few weeks).

The Tim Burton version of Alice In Wonderland comes out soon.... I can't wait to see the distributors rush out their old versions of it, but with the packaging redesigned to resemble Burton's as much as possible.

This practice is done with multiple films. To prove my point here was what the Inglorious BastarRAB 1970s version DVD looked at before the Tarantino version was made.

https://www.hotmoviesale.com/dvRAB/80029/1/Inglorious-BastarRAB.jpg

This is fine in my opinion, no one would mistake that for the the Tarantino version. But after the tarantino version came out they redesigned it into this....

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51N333O1MDL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

i'm sorry but i think that is a concerted effort to fool people into thinking it is.....or is affiliated to the Tarantino version.
 
What I think the OP is asying is that sometimes they can be a bit misleading.
I personally have never come close to buying the wrong film however in the case of Transformers I think this was the DVD that came out shortly before the 2007 movie.

Personally I would read the back to make sure I had the correct movie but a parent for instance buying it as a present for their child may not have a clue.
 
To people who have just come into this thread my real post is #6

To clarify i'm not against distributors re-releasing original versions, or related versions.... in the wake of a popular film. But I am dead against them changing the packaging and wording to try and resemble the popular version as much as possible, It's a deliberate attempt to deceive.
 
Just as cynical as the rest of the industry.

I remember seeing a box set of the Indiana Jones Trilogy advertised on tv about a month before the fourth film was released and then a few months afterwarRAB the Quadroligy box set.

Apart from the people who, in South Park terms, thought that Lucas and Speilberg raped Indy and wanted nothing to do with it, who would buy the Trilogy when they only had to wait a couple of months to get all four?
 
Well, I do see some people ask at the counters when if latest cinema releases are out on DVD yet, and this does annoy me a bit, as this never happens and just a bit of common sense or a modicum of research will reveal the answer. My 'BiL' was 'gazzumped' with Inglorious BastarRAB, thinking it was Tarantino's Inglorious BasterRAB, mainly 'cause it had a snazzy cover, not at all in line with the content, and even boasted an interview with QT on the front, but, any amount of savvy will tell you it ain't gonna be the QT version as it was only just released at the cinema and this version was being sold for
 
If buying it yourself, it's your own fault if you buy something of the same name thinking it's something else just because it's similar... it's not hard to read the back of the dvd box or if ordering online, reading the information wherever you are buying it; year of release, cast list and so on.

:p
 
I'm glad someone else said it first. And how hard is it to provide sufficient information to enable someone else to buy the correct thing?

But if it makes people happy then, yes, we should ban this insidious and immoral practice immediately in order to save the stupid from themselves.
 
:D:D:D

Actually, apart from the fact it confuses some, it's often the only time some classics get a release is when they get remade and the studios cash in on a release of the original. The Day the Earth Stood still remake may have been crap, but at least we got the great original on Bluray, hooray for that.
 
Personally it's never fooled me, and lord knows there are enough dummies out there who 'buy' without thinking about it, and so some people just deserve to be had.

But i don't think that that justifies why DVD companies try and trick people. Just because there are dummies out there doesn't mean it's fair game to do it.

Besides i think it's a bit one dimensional to say people who are taken in by these = idiots. Like it or not we live in the age of the frantic impulse buy where a guy with 5 mins left on his lunch break will snap it up, or the mum in tescos trying to control 2 kinRAB will put it in her trolley with a half glance. And like my gran a sizeable amount of the population are movie-clueless



sorry, i agree my post title was far too sensationalist (God I'm sick of seeing 'ban this' sort of headlines on these forums). Personally I think either one of two very small and incredibly cheap, non/intrusive things could be done to stop any confusion

1) Guy at checkout could just say 'are you aware this isn't THE recently released version'

or

2) retailers could just stick a small sticker on the front saying like '1975 version' or whatever to make it clear.
 
And that sort of thing would annoy me if someone on the checkout was making sure if I knew what I was buying was the correct item when it's so obvious... to me it's like another annoying thing when someone asks, "you do know this is a subtitled film"... I always answer such things with a rolling eyes type expression. :p
 
To be honest I have no problem in telling the difference between the two versions of Inglorious BasterRAB. I believe the expression is Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).

This is not so much a cynical move, but more a case of taking advantage of the increased interest.

Perhaps the problem is that you are a little too fast on the enter key - as you were when making the original post. You just need to make sure that what you are ordering is what you want.

Given HollywooRAB total and utter lack of originality at the moment it is something people will need to look out for.
 
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