October 26, 2004
Tuesday October 26, 2004

Savant's new reviews today are

Damn Yankees Warners
Animal Farm Home Vision and
Dawn of the Dead The Ultimate Edition Anchor Bay

With Castle Keep now being released in Widescreen in response to the outrage engendered by a Pan-Scan disc last July, I'm informed that Universal may be pulling the same thing with at least two new releases under their 'Studio Selections' banner (like, somebody else would do the choosing?). Colossus: The Forbin Project is a Panavision film that looks crummy Pan-Scanned, and Charley Varrick: The Last of the Independents a very wide 1:85 film that also needs to be letterboxed and enhanced. If my information is correct, both discs due out next month will be flat-adapted to 'fit' outmoded 4x3 television screens. One's a superior science fiction movie and the other a terrific Don Siegel thriller, but neither have a high-profile talent like Sydney Pollack to cause a ruckus and get some changes made. Universal's been very good about aspect ratios and the like in the last couple of years, and we hope they don't intend to start dumping cruddy flat transfers on the market as a common practice.

I have to stress that my information is from a reader and isn't verified by Universal, so this alarm possibly qualifies as uninformed web gossip. Just figured it was in our own best interests to pass this info along ... and I hope it's incorrect!

Three exceptional titles reviewed today; hope to have more by Saturday ... thanks again, Glenn Erickson

Posted by DVD Savant at October 26, 2004 07:26 AM