So Nice I Bought It Twice
After a couple discussions with friends I got to thinking of what it takes for the average person to purchase a movie multiple times (either on the same format or not). I put together a small list of examples of reasons why I think it’s worth purchasing a movie again (some from personal experience). Maybe you’ll find that I’m not so crazy in re-purchasing films and maybe you’ll even find a reason to re-purchase a film for yourself.
Reasons to Buy it Again:
Format:
Obviously the major reason to re-purchase a film is to have it on the newest format (ie VHS -> DVD -> Blu-ray)
The first one that pops into my head is The Matrix. When it came out with all that bullet-time and 5.1 surround it was a home theater must own, and now with a Blu-ray release, it will be another must own. You will probably see very similar features in both the DVD and Blu-ray but the hi-def video and audio in the Blu-ray makes it stand out and warrants another purchase.
The Ultimate Matrix Collection DVD:
The Ultimate Matrix Collection Blu-ray:
A quick little side-note, with the digital age upon us another new “format” seems to be the digital format. With everyone carrying iPods, digital media players and phones capable of playing video it seems lots of people are putting movies in their pocket. I don’t know about you but it seems easier to just convert your DVD for pocket viewing instead of purchasing a separate digital copy (luckily many films are coming with digital copies right off the bat now). But that whole discussion is for another post.
Restoration:
Another reason that pops into mind is film restoration. And no I don’t mean like where they added additional CG work in the Star Wars films, but when they go over the original stock film and restore the picture and possibly audio. The most recent to do this is the Godfather Series:
Here is a quick comparison of the films to show what a film restoration might look like:
The Godfather Collection: The Coppola Restoration:
Director’s Cuts: (AKA Unrated, Extended Cuts)
You know about these, sometimes they add in 5 minutes of additional footage, or sometimes they just recut (ie reorder) the film but when you’re really lucky they add somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes of additional footage. My personal favorites are the Lord of the Rings Extended cuts where Peter Jackson added back in 30-50min of additional footage that adds in more memoriable scenes of the book. They films are so long that it is split into two-dvds per film which gives you a nice break in between and can even be thought of as six seperate films if you wish.
The Lord of the Rings Series:
557 Total Runtime: (9hrs 17min)
6 Discs
The Lord of the Rings Extended Editions Series:
681 Total Runtime (11hrs 21min) (Over 2hrs longer)
12 Discs
Another popular Director’s Cut is Blade Runner:
The Many Cuts of Blade Runner:
All of these cuts are available in the Blade Runner 5-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition
Workprint Version (113 min)
- The first version of the film that was shown to test audiences and was re-released in the 5-disc Ultimate Edition in 2007
U.S. Theatrical Cut (116 min)
- The original version that was shown in the theaters
International Cut (117 min)
- This cut had more violent action scenes than the US version. Re-released in the 1992 “10th Anniversary Edition”
Ridley Scott’s Director’s Cut (116 min)
- Significant changes from the theatrical version include: removal of Deckard’s voice-over, re-insertion of a unicorn sequence and removal of the studio-imposed happy ending. Available on DVD in 1997
Ridley Scott’s Final Cut (117 min)
- This is the only version over which Ridley Scott had complete artistic control; the Director’s Cut was rushed and he was not directly involved. Released in 2007.
And one final film that popped into my head is Sin City because of the new and weird recutting of the film. The film is based on a series of comic books but in the theatrical release the multiple books are mashed together into one large film. Thanks to DVD, they were able to recut the film into the seperate “books” thus making multiple short films at around 30min each. I thought this was pretty cool, being able to see the story as a large film or to watch each story individually.
Sin City:
126 min Runtime
Sin City - “Recut, Extended, Unrated”:
126 min Theatrical Release
147 min Extended Cut
Special Features:
These features can include an combination of additional commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, photo galleries, etc. This one took me a while to think of anything amazing but recently when I was blogging about the re-release of Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween, I found that it had a 4.5 hr “making of” documentary which is pretty much a movie by itself, and that’s a pretty awesome special feature.
Halloween: Unrated Collector’s Edition
Limited Edition Packaging (AKA Gift Sets):
Ooo…it’s so shiny and plasticy…I must have it. So another reason might be to get a special piece of plastic to show off on your DVD shelf. Usually the gift sets are released on the day of the original release but every once in a while they will release a new gift set (usually to tie in with a sequel that’s being released).
Recently we had The Big Lebowski release with a miniature bowling ball that opened up to store the DVDs. I must say if I was a fan of the film it would be a pretty cool piece to add to my DVD collection.
The Big Lebowski Bowling Ball Gift Set
Here is one where I did end up repurchasing just because of the packaging. For the film Transformers they released a transforming DVD package that was in the shape of Optimus Prime and it held the DVDs on his back, so that was my first purchase. Then many months later, they re-released the film (with no extra features) but now with a Megatron transforming package. I didn’t want the film again (since it was an exact duplicate of the films I already had) but I loved seeing Optimus Prime standing in my DVD cabinet and I really wanted Megatron to “complete the set”. So I bought it anyway and gave the discs to my sister (since I didn’t need duplicates of that.
Transformers: Optimus Prime and Megatron Transforming Packages
(picture of my personal set, sorry for the crappy quality but it’s a cellphone pic)
I mean, how cool is that? You know you want it.
Two copies, now what?
So you have two copies of your film, so what do you do? Do you keep both, do you give one away or do you sell it? Usually the newer copy of the film will have everything the original had and more but some times one will have the features missing on the other. Most of the time I sell off my old copy of the film for a few bucks at my local Blockbuster, offsetting my recent purchase. I suggest you do the same but if you’re feeling generous, give one to friend or family member, I’m sure they’ll thank you. One time I did keep both copies, and that was for Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 2.1, where the newer version was an extended cut and being a huge Spider-Man fan I wanted to have both versions to watch.
Have any of you re-purchased a film? And why did/didn’t you?
What do you do with your extra copy?
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