I'm new to Stooge Fandom. I watched the Stooges when I was a kid, but I barely remember any of the shorts. I only really remember the PD shorts now, because I have them on DVD. Now I'm considering doing the Columbia House "DVD of the month" deal to get the Columbia DVDs. I've read alot of critisism about those DVDs, so I was wondering: Are they really that bad? Also, any opinions on the upcoming Fox releases?
It's not that the DVD's are so
bad (after all, we're still talking about the Stooges), but that they've been cheaply packaged and thoughtlessly put together. If you've read a lot of criticism about them, you probably know that some footage was left out of "Three Little Beers"— the scene where all the golf balls fall out from under Curly's jacket— and there's no excuse for sloppiness like that when it comes to re-releasing classic film material.
I'll make a comparison; I just got volumes one and two of "The Franchise Collection: The Best of Abbott and Costello." With these, you get a total of eight full-length movies per two-DVD set, the packaging is beautifully designed in full color on glossy paper, and you get extras like the original film trailers and production notes on the discs.
Also, I've only watched two of the films so far, but the prints have been really well-restored and look nice and clean.
I guess, the bottom line is that some companies care about what they put out and they take some pride in it, while others are only out to make a quick buck.