Commando / The Marine Double Feature DVD Review
By Paul Rudoff on Jul. 7, 2010 at 12:00 PM in Home Video
This review was originally written on July 7, 2010
Avoid At All Costs! Inferior Video Formats, No Anamorphic Widescreen!
Avoid At All Costs! Inferior Video Formats, No Anamorphic Widescreen!
The other day I saw the Commando / The Marine Double Feature and several other titles in the "20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary Double Feature" series at BJ's Wholesale Club, each priced at $6.99. I was tempted to buy a few of them, but since they don't give any DVD specs (video format, languages, subtitles, extras) at all on the back, I did not want to take a chance getting ripped off in a major way. This is the first time I've seen a DVD release from a major studio that didn't give the DVD specs on the back of the case. I guess Fox didn't want you to know what you were buying until AFTER you opened the case and played the discs.
I decided that I'd chance it with just one selection and hope for the best. Unfortunately, I didn't get the best, I got the WORST!
Neither movie is 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. The Marine is 4:3 fullscreen, which is bad, but Commando is even worse - it's 4:3 LETTERBOX! The Commando disc was originally mastered and released in 1999 - OVER TEN YEARS AGO! Why haven't all of the studios destroyed their 4:3 letterbox masters (and the DVDs made from them) so they never see the light of day again? Fox should not keep putting this pathetic Commando disc, or any of their old 4:3 letterbox DVDs, out in new packagings.
Neither movie is inducive to viewing on a widescreen TV, with Commando being horrible to watch due to the movie image getting windowboxed (blackness on all four sides) since there's black bars in the video above and below the movie image, and the TV will add black bars on the sides due to the video being 4:3.
What makes all of this really sad is that widescreen masters of both films exist - and in theatrical and director's/unrated cuts, too. The Commando "Director's Cut" DVD is in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen and includes both the R-Rated Theatrical and Unrated versions of the film. The The Marine "Unrated" DVD is in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen and includes both the PG-13-Rated Theatrical and Unrated versions of the film. Both DVDs also have more extras than the discs included in this release.
I'm okay with only getting the theatrical versions of both films, and having practically no extras, but to not have both films in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen when those masters DO exist, is not acceptable.
I was tempted to buy the Mr. & Mrs. Smith/True Lies double feature (and maybe Garfield 1 & 2 as well), but after getting ripped off with cruddy letterbox and fullscreen versions, without any real bonus features, I certainly won't be buying any more titles in the collection.
By the way, some (all?) copies in the "20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary Double Feature" collection have a sticker on the front advertising a "limited edition movie poster". Unfortunately, this is NOT a freebie included in the case. You have visit the website listed on the back of the sticker and enter the code found on the back of the sticker. You can choose which poster you want, but you will need to pay $4.95 for shipping/handling ($11.95 for Canada). The posters are nice - various film icons atop the 20th Century Fox logo - but are not worth the price to some (like me). There's an insert card included in the case which shows the design of eight of the posters, so you can see what some of them look like without visiting the website.
COMMANDO
* Year: 1985
* Runtime: 1:30:08
* Video Format: 4:3 Letterbox
* DVD Production Date: February 22, 1999
* Region: 1
* Layers: 1
* Audio Languages: English, French
* Subtitle Languages: English, Spanish
* Extras: Theatrical Trailer
THE MARINE
* Year: 2006
* Runtime: 1:31:16
* Video Format: 4:3 Fullscreen.
* DVD Production Date: December 5, 2006
* Region: 1 (presumably)
* Layers: 2
* Audio Languages: English, French, Spanish
* Subtitle Languages: English, Spanish
* Extras: Making Of Featurette, Theatrical Trailer.
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