Gregory's Girl issue #2, Fever Pitch issue #3! Why??

[feverpitch96]

Is there any appreciable difference that anyone knows of between the previously-available R2 DVD releases of "Gregory's Girl" and "Fever Pitch" and their upcoming December 3 reissues, besides new catalogue numbers? Any extra features or improvements over the old ones? If not, what's the point?

This will be the third time around the block for "Fever Pitch" on R2 DVD, and neither film seems to be gaining any extra features on reissue, or a price drop for that matter (they were both already pretty cheap). If Cinema Club (or Bill Forsyth) are looking to make some extra cash from the back catalogue, why haven't they hit on the idea of a first DVD release for "Comfort and Joy" or "That Sinking Feeling" instead (or "Tumbledown" for the Colin Firth fanatics)? I'd be there like a shot!

On the same day they're also reissuing "Gregory's Two Girls" for half the price of last time, but IMHO they'd be better off just trying to give it away as a freebie with the original...
:rolleyes:

Just wondering...

[jonathan.e]

Gregory’s Girls is getting an anamorphic release in R1 at a low price also.

[feverpitch96]

Originally posted by jonathan.e
Gregory’s Girls is getting an anamorphic release in R1 at a low price also.

Read about that, to be anamorphic it must be severely cropped from the 4:3 original first, surely? And Mr Brooke has warned me about the R1 most severely...

Your comment about Carlton seems to have vanished? Are you saying I've wasted my money on Genevieve SE? :(

[Michael Brooke]

My warning concerned the fact that the R1 may be dubbed - the US version was revoiced throughout by different actors in an attempt to tone down the Scottish accents, but a side-effect is that it completely destroys the freshness and spontaneity of a film whose chief virtues are precisely those things!

I don't know for certain whether the R1 has been dubbed, but you'd be a fool to order it without checking. Trust me on this, it's not worth seeing as a curiosity - I suffered about 15 minutes on US telly before giving up in disgust.

[feverpitch96]

Blimey, Mr B...that was quick! :)

I think I have the version you describe, taped in 1989 from late-night commercial telly here in Sydney. It's not completely dire, but it's absolutely not good either (they clearly thought sticking in a few English accents would go unnoticed, for example! Why would Gregory's father sound like he was from the Home Counties, and why would Andy's voice come out that way??). It would, sadly, make sense, in the country where they subtitled Trainspotting, for them to release this dub.

[Michael Brooke]

Ironically enough, the fact that the US version of <I>Trainspotting</I> wasn't too bad was because the film-makers had seen the US <I>Gregory's Girl</I> and were determined not to wreck the film in the same way!

[jonathan.e]

Originally posted by feverpitch96


Read about that, to be anamorphic it must be severely cropped from the 4:3 original first, surely? And Mr Brooke has warned me about the R1 most severely...

Your comment about Carlton seems to have vanished? Are you saying I've wasted my money on Genevieve SE? :(


I read somewhere that the MGM release will be 1.66:1 so not too much of a crop from 4:3 although I am unable to verify what the original ratio was anyway. I’d heard about the dialogue changes but the UK effort is pretty lame in terms of quality that I figured it was worth the risk to see if the original dialogue had been re-instated. However it is MGM we’re talking about so it’s unlikely but I found a very low price on it so will easily make my money back on EBay if it proves to be unwatchable.

I edited the post because I was confusing Carlton with Cinema Club - d’oh!

[feverpitch96]

Originally posted by jonathan.e

I edited the post because I was confusing Carlton with Cinema Club - d’oh!

I've done worse...I confused Avenue One with Anchor Bay.... :o

Still, it drives me nuts, here are two films getting multiple reissues and one of them is a Bill Forsyth standard when at least two other key Forsyth films are yet to be released even once! :mad:

[Michael Brooke]

<B>I read somewhere that the MGM release will be 1.66:1 so not too much of a crop from 4:3 although I am unable to verify what the original ratio was anyway. </B>

I watched the 4:3 R2 DVD in 14:9 zoom mode, and it looked absolutely fine - and there's every historical reason to assume it was open-matte 4:3 designed for cropping to 1.66:1, so I think that's a very safe bet.

[jonathan.e]

Originally posted by feverpitch96
Still, it drives me nuts, here are two films getting multiple reissues and one of them is a Bill Forsyth standard when at least two other key Forsyth films are yet to be released even once! :mad:


I know what you mean. I have the two other Forsyth films on tape fron off-air recordings but I’d love to have Comfort & Joy in particular on disc with a Forsyth/Paterson commentary track. IMHO Bill Paterson is one of the UK’s finest actors and I’d happily pay to see him reading the phone book. The only serious blot on his copybook is the risible Spice World but we’ll forgive him the one slip particularly as he also appeared in Hidden City which I adore beyond all reason. Stephen Poliakoff wrote and directed this fantastic movie which I urge everyone to see. That it too remains unavailable on any home video format is similarly shameful.

[Michael Brooke]

<B>The only serious blot on his copybook is the risible Spice World</B>

I've never really understood all the abuse hurled at <I>Spice World</I> - it delivered exactly what it promised on the poster and was much more intentionally funny than many people expected, quite apart from being one of the very few <I>bona fide</I> late 1990s homegrown box-office hits.

So why is it regarded with such loathing?

[feverpitch96]

Originally posted by Michael Brooke
<B>The only serious blot on his copybook is the risible Spice World</B>

I've never really understood all the abuse hurled at <I>Spice World</I> - it delivered exactly what it promised on the poster and was much more intentionally funny than many people expected, quite apart from being one of the very few <I>bona fide</I> late 1990s homegrown box-office hits.

So why is it regarded with such loathing?

After all, everyone seemed to want a cameo in it!
:D

Mr Paterson seems to have had a penchant for such things in recent years; I saw him last year in an episode of "S Club 7 in Miami"......
....erm, briefly....while changing channels, like....
:rolleyes:

[feverpitch96]

Originally posted by jonathan.e
I know what you mean. I have the two other Forsyth films on tape fron off-air recordings but I’d love to have Comfort & Joy in particular on disc with a Forsyth/Paterson commentary track.

D'you think we'd get one anyway? I've yet to see a Forsyth film released with any kind of commentary from him...

To add to the frustration over these reissues, not only do both versions of GG and all three versions of FP appear identical, at the same time R2 is yet to score an anamorphic version of Local Hero!
:mad: