Home Video Exclusives

[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Doin' The Truffle Shuffle Part I


We kick off 2017 with a brand new entry! Prepare to get all wobbly despite having a Rock foundation in San Andreas...



The motion picture opened on May 29th, 2015. It was made with a budget of $110,000,000 (estimated) and grossed over $155 million during its U.S. theatrical run; counting foreign receipts it made $473,990,832. The film opened number one at the box office, the following week it dropped to number two.

The feature opened against "Aloha", "Mad Max: Fury Road", "Pitch Perfect 2" and "Avengers: Age Of Ultron".

This release came in three DVD versions, two single discs and a two disc special edition - which I'm covering. No slipcover was issued for them or insert.

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Welcome to "Disaster Month" where I'll cover exclusives to catastrophe themed movies. Indeed!

Let's begin with a good shake...

The DVDs (and BDs) streeted on October 13th, 2015. The two disc DVD set retailed $28.98. There was no store exclusive for it at the time. It did have the same extras on both formats, which is good.

The exclusive happened later during a promotional period for Father's Day.



Wal-Mart added a slipcover on May 10th, 2016 for the two disc edition. The re-release as it were, sold for $9.96.

The slipcover was matted and not embossed. The back mirrors the DVD rear. The idea here is simple; you fill out the blank spot on it as a gift for the holiday. The store has a history of slapping similar slipcovers for Holidays like Mother's Day, Valentine and such; done for years (and will be the topic of future Past Tense).

In fact the store did it again this past Halloween ('16) with new glow in the dark slipcovers for existing single disc, Universal horror movies: "Child's Play" (1988), "An American Werewolf In London" (1981), "Halloween" (1978), "Phantom Of The Opera" (1943), "Frankenstein" (1931), "Bride Of Frankenstein" (1935), "Dracula" (1931), "Dracula" (1979), "The Mummy" (1932), "Creature From The Black Lagoon" (1954), "The Wolfman" (1941) and "The Invisible Man" (1933). For both DVD and BD. Yeah, now doing it Blu-Ray too.

The slipcovers has a stylized image of the monster in red, green and yellow on a black background and glows green under the right conditions. When I say that, I mean each slipcover has one of those colors, not a mixture. Being a collector, I took home the ones for '79 "Dracula" and "Phantom". Haven't decided yet, these could be future write-ups.

Yup, if you were expecting a better exclusive this outing, you might as well close this window. *nods*

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Rant.

There is a serious issue here.

As I wrote there are three DVD editions. The problem is that none of them told what it was.



Can you see it?

What's missing?

Which edition is which??? If you didn't know better, you could take home the single disc edition not knowing there is a better version for sale. Whoever did the DVD cover art should be smacked - lacking vital information.

You know which one, since you saw the exclusive slipcover.

Now I want to address something that I suspect, but am not 100% sure. Wal-Mart has a history of selling a single disc edition if there was a two disc sets from Warner Bros. - which this is. It could be that the DVD on the right is another store exclusive. I never bothered with it, so I can't say for certain. I don't even know their price. I can say it streeted on the same date. And tell you the back had no listing for extras, bare bones. I remember read it.

Wait, the DVD on the right did come with an extra, instructions for the digital copy; UltraViolet. Didn't buy it, so I can't give an expiration date.



There is other, I saw the above at Best Buy, also on street. Sorry, I don't know the price either. The difference here is that it has a single extra, commentary by director Brad Payton.

I suspect this is disc one on the two disc set.

Why was it done this way? The lack of clarity is either incompetence, stupidity or some kind of store logic to trick people into buy their copy.

No real answers. But it things get further muddled. *shakes head*



"San Andreas: The Next Megaquake" is a BBC documentary. It streeted on May 12th, 2015 for $19.98. And came with a slipcover (matted, non embossed).

Man, so many people bought this doc thinking it was a feature and were super pissed. I have that and I don't understand, just flip it over - it's pretty clear it's not a movie in the description.

There should not have been any confusion.

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Next I want to address the lack of real extras. Yes, a two disc set, but all the bonus contents on that DVD could've fit on disc one. All and all it has 35:38 minutes of extras (minus that commenary). And I'm being kind to here.

It has 4:41 minutes of deleted scenes which are listed twice, the second time with director's commentary - which should be an option on the Deleted Scenes menu screen, not presented separately.

The real time is more like 30:57 minutes of bonus features.

All of this is fluff - as if it was for their website promoting the movie, short bits with little substance.

No featurette(s) on the making of the quake effects, Los Angeles falling apart. We don't even get the film's trailer.

I'll be honest, I'm quite disappointed. This was a profitable hit for Warner, you would think they would do a proper home video release.

Nope.

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Before I get into my review. I want to talk briefly about her. This occurred to me while in the bathroom. It's my thinkin' place.

A question popped.

Who is a good role model for young women, divorced from SJW/PC hype?

It's Alexandra Daddario as Blake Gaines in "San Andreas".



Her character is self-confident, bright and proactive; never arrogant.

And the times where she had to be rescued were in situations where it was so above her; had it been a man in her place it wouldn't make a difference. The events were not possible to have foreseen, not the result of dumb decisions.

She's the one who finds the food (MREs), the emergency radio, gets a working phone, patched up her would-be boyfriend, has the plan to get them all rescued; knows to get to high ground. Plus is quick witted to come up with a plan-B when the main goal was beyond reach.

Blake is the embodiment of a modern woman, minus third wave feminism. Strong, brave and intelligent without losing her femininity.

Good job Alexandra, you picked an excellent role. Very sway.