Rating: Summary: Ugh Review: Let me chime in on this terrible idea by Universal to include commercials at the beginning of the DVD that cannot be disabled. You must watch them each and every time you start the DVD! Whose brilliant idea was this? This is a classic flick, with some average extras, but the force-feed commercials make this a wasted purchase.
Rating: Summary: Put Universal on Double Secret Probation for this mess Review: Unbelievable.....this is one of the greatest comedies of all time while simultaneously being one of THE WORST DVD's of all time. Every time I want to watch the movie I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH FIVE MINUTES OF PREVIEWS????!!!!???? Oh the friggin' humanity. They pulled the previous DVD off the shelves in order to produce this? This dreck? No commentary? No deleted scenes? But hey! We get to watch a new video of "Shout" by some anonymous no talent band that has absolutely nothing to do with the actual movie! My life is complete! Shame on Universal for being so utterly stupid, incompetent and uncaring.
Rating: Summary: Life, Liberty, And Fraternity Review: Animal House is a rowdy and riotous look at college life in 1962. Faber College is home to the infamous Delta Fraternity. Known for its wild parties, peeping toms, food fights, and practical jokes at Dean Wormer's (John Vernon) expense. Director John Landis assembled a great cast for this film. Aside from the late John Belushi as "Bluto", there's inspired lunacy from Tim Matheson, Tom Hulce, a very young Kevin Bacon, Stephen Furst as "Flounder", Mark Metcalf, Peter Riegert and Karen Allen, all have a memorable moment or two. The script, written by Harold Ramis, Douglas Kennedy, and Chris Miller, gives us plenty of laughs. Anyone who watches this will identify with at least one character in the film. Many people that have seen Animal House has their favorite bit in the movie. As for me, it has to be the horse in the Dean's offce, I laugh every time--Belushi was born to play "Bluto" To celebrate the film's 25th Anniversary, the Double Secret Probation DVD, boasts some solid extas. A somewhat funny "mock-u-mentary", catches up with the cast as their characters. Some of the jokes work better than others. But everyone gives it the "old college try" and has fun. Instead of an audio commentary, there's an animated anecdotes trivia mode that's fun. The cast and crew gather again for a retrospective documentary about the film. This 45 minute feature is filled with great stories about the production-ala the Caddyshack DVD. The song "Shout", sung by Otis And The Knights in the film, gets a video from MxPx. The theatrical trailer, additional production/cast+crew notes and DVD-ROM material tops off the disc. Because Animal House is set in the past, it is timeless, and holds up quite well. It was the first of its kind and remains a comedy classic. If you have never seen this, do yourself a favor...if you already have seen the movie before...this is one reunion use should not miss.
Rating: Summary: Classic movie, bad DVD Review: The movie is an absolute classic, BUT this DVD forces you to watch several minutes of commercials at the beginning with NO way to skip them. I don't mind if they have the commercials, just give me the ability to skip them....bad marketing IMO. I think I'm going to buy the out-of-print version of this DVD from eBay.
Rating: Summary: Forced Advertisements - don't buy this disk! Review: This disk forces you to sit and watch appoximately 5 minutes of promotional materials for a half dozen other Universal releases - each and every time you use it! The "Menu" key and others are disabled until the prom has run it's course. Let's not encourage this trend - don't buy this disk and return it if you have. BTW, the picture and sound quality ARE a bit better than prior editions, which makes this more of a shame. The "Special Materials" are unimpressive. The movie itself, of course is one of the best.
Rating: Summary: National Lampoon's Animal House - Double Secret Probation Review: GREAT movie, bad DVD. Beware, they have put commercials for 3 other movies in front of the feature and will NOT allow you to skip them.
Rating: Summary: Skip the cheap imitations, this is the real deal Review: There isn't much to say about Animal House that hasn't already been said. Except to say that this is one DVD that truly deserves a special edition, and it's nice to see that Universal has pulled out most (but not all) of the stops in bringing it back to life. Animal House is one of those rare films that truly set a new standard in comedy, not just in the sense of clever storytelling, but in raising the bar for celebrating the underdog rebelling against the establishment. I've thought about buying this DVD for a long time, but glad I held out for this edition. However, besides the previously mentioned advertisements for upcoming releases, I have a few questions: Why do we need a new video of Shout by some artist most fans of the film probably don't even know? Seems like an unnecessary extra and certainly doesn't match the performance of the song in the film. Where are the deleted scenes or audio commentary? I read that John Landis didn't feel like doing one, opting instead for the "not-bad but not great" where are they now short film. But couldn't someone at Universal at least have assembled a few cast members and writers to provide commentary instead? Seems like a no-brainer. Last but not least, where is Tom Hulce? He's not in any of the special features and is barely mentioned. Maybe it was his choice to be absent, but it's a glaring omission. Also missing are Donald Sutherland and James Daughton (Greg Marmarlard). Any ideas? Despite these issues, I still think Animal House is one comedy that belongs in everyone's collection. Having watched it again, it hasn't lost any of it's charm. There are just too many classic lines worth repeating.
Rating: Summary: Great movie, improved picture quality... Review: The picture quality was a great improvement over the older version. Lots of extras. No, my copy did not skip, nor did my Vacation DVD. This is a great movie.
Rating: Summary: The College movie to end all college movies Review: Pivked the DVD up today, it's good but was hard to find, It was also offsetting to find there are no inserts with the DD, I would think a chapter list or look back by John Landis would have been great, oerall a great ovie with a funny Mockumentry and a good real look at behind the cameras..... Still haven;t gotten through the special Features..... TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! TOGA! Solid Disc but needs a insert, a handy fellow could make there own (like me) but why go to the trouble. I guess Universal has some other specialer version for the 30th anniversary. I gie it a 7.
Rating: Summary: Great movie, bad DVD Review: In short, my only gripe with the film is the 3 advertisements (totaling about 10-15 minutes) at the beginning that play before the menu loads. There's no way to skip over them and if I OWN the disk I feel like I shouldn't be held captive by ads before getting to enjoy it.
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