The Mummy Not In Widescreen?
Dear Gary: I suggest you revise your review of the subject DVD. There is a full-screen version— my local video store had about 75 of them today available for rental (yup, I did rent one)—in fact, that is the ONLY version they are renting. Looks like I will wind up buying it—I planned to anyway, but wanted to watch it first. Now have to settle for pan-and-scan. Oh well, such is life.
Paul Riley
Research Editor and Staff Writer Michael Coate Comments:
I’m curious why you are suggesting we revise our DVD review of The Mummy Returns? I see nothing incorrect with it. Perhaps the confusion stems from the fact that Universal Studios Home Video has elected to offer two separate versions of this title: a widescreen (Catalog #21100) and full screen (Catalog #21379). Same price, same supplements. Widescreen Review magazine does not review full screen/1.33:1 releases. The review copy sent to us by Universal was the widescreen version, and was reviewed accordingly. In our DVD database, you probably are aware of the many data fields, two of which are “yes”/“no” fields for “widescreen” and “full-screen” formats included on a given DVD. In double checking our The Mummy Returns review, those fields were correctly filled in: “yes” for “widescreen” edition, “no” for “full-screen” edition. Our filling in the “full-screen” category with a “no” is correct, as it relates to the disc we reviewed. It’s not meant to indicate the format of a separate release (if the full-screen version had been included on the same disc, as they often are, then that field would have been ID’d as “yes”). We typically note multiple versions and other related info in the “special notes” field, though in the case of 1.33:1 editions, we simply ignore them...which is what I would have suggested you had done as an informed consumer. Renting the version you did from your local video store sends a message to the store and the releasing studio that there is consumer demand for such versions, which runs counter to what our magazine’s goal has been over the years. Yes, there is some consumer demand for 1.33:1 full-screen versions, but it is WSR’s belief that that preference almost always stems from consumer ignorance or indifference. My suggestion to you if you are still interested in purchasing The Mummy Returns would be to locate a retailer who stocks the widescreen version and purchase from them.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ mailto:editorgary@widescreenreview.com