Now, just 4 days later, DavisDVD has just posted news of the set but the specs are missing the director/cinematographer commentary, mention of "extended scenes" and the Monster Mania reunion featurette. Have any of you seen other varying newsbites on this set today?April 30: DVD update: MONSTER SQUAD, HELLRAISER, etc.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment gave Fango the official word on specs for its 20th Anniversary DVD special edition of Fred Dekker's THE MONSTER SQUAD (pictured), which we last reported on here and will be released July 24. The movie will be presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio for the first time ever on North American video; the special features are:
• Audio commentary by writer/director Dekker and cinematographer Bradford May
• Audio commentary by Dekker and actors Andre Gower, Ashley Bank and Ryan Lambert
• Wolf Man's Got Nards! The Making of THE MONSTER SQUAD documentary
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Monster Mania reunion featurette
• Vintage interview with Tom Noonan (in Frankenstein's monster makeup!)
• Poster and still gallery
• Theatrical trailer
• TV spot
Retail price for all this is just $19.98.
Lionsgate: The Monster Squad
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DrewReiber
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 3:27 am
Lionsgate: The Monster Squad
Hey, sorry if this has been covered anywhere. Recent news about the upcoming 2-disc 20th Anniversary Special Edition of "The Monster Squad" has been very exciting, but a bit inconsistent. Fangoria originally posted this, only to take them down and say they were not the final specs:
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denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
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DrewReiber
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 3:27 am
I've had a copy of it since the 90's. Depending on who you are, it should hold up. It's Fred Dekker's dark comedy (see Night of the Creeps), Shane Black's post-modernist genre ideas (the ending is PURE Black), and a great group of actors. In my honest opinion, it's one of the best movies of it's kind.denti alligator wrote:When I was 11 I loved this movie. Would it hold up...? Somehow I doubt it.
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Dylan
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm
I probably watched this minimally 50 times when I was a kid. For what it is, The Monster Squad is a fun, clever film with a bright cast, terrific old school visual/monster effects, and a wonderful score. It's no Ghostbusters, but I do prefer it to The Goonies, which it is often compared to (and which I enjoy too, but not nearly as much). Great news this is happening; I've never seen it in 2.35:1 (hardly anybody has), so I look forward to how that will look, as well as scoping out all of those extras (which should be a blast, as watching any cast reunion from a film you loved as a kid is).
From what I understand, in terms of final cut, it was a situation similar to Army of Darkness and Dekker lost at least 15 minutes of crucial material so Tri-Star could get the running time (including credits) down to something like 82 minutes. I believe the deleted material consisted of more scenes with the lead character's family, and a few more continuity embellishments that are currently missing (not sure what at the moment, though, as its been a while since I've seen it or read anything about it). Dekker has said that these scenes still exist and that he planned to put them on the DVD, so let's hope that comes through. Sadly, this was also the problem with Night of the Creeps, which not only lost its original ending but also many, many scenes and shots (when it's on the sci-fi channel, though, you can see the original cut, albeit edited for content).
Meanwhile, I always liked the shot in The Monster Squad of the lead character sitting with his father on the roof of the house, which (via a terrific old fashioned matte painting) not only overlooks the entire town but also offers an impeccable view of a drive-in theatre showing horror films, which they scope in on with their binoculars: undoubtedly the fantasy of a young Famous Monsters reader brought to life.
From what I understand, in terms of final cut, it was a situation similar to Army of Darkness and Dekker lost at least 15 minutes of crucial material so Tri-Star could get the running time (including credits) down to something like 82 minutes. I believe the deleted material consisted of more scenes with the lead character's family, and a few more continuity embellishments that are currently missing (not sure what at the moment, though, as its been a while since I've seen it or read anything about it). Dekker has said that these scenes still exist and that he planned to put them on the DVD, so let's hope that comes through. Sadly, this was also the problem with Night of the Creeps, which not only lost its original ending but also many, many scenes and shots (when it's on the sci-fi channel, though, you can see the original cut, albeit edited for content).
Meanwhile, I always liked the shot in The Monster Squad of the lead character sitting with his father on the roof of the house, which (via a terrific old fashioned matte painting) not only overlooks the entire town but also offers an impeccable view of a drive-in theatre showing horror films, which they scope in on with their binoculars: undoubtedly the fantasy of a young Famous Monsters reader brought to life.
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Person
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 3:00 pm
An archetypal American scene - Norman Rockwell be damned!Dylan wrote:Meanwhile, I always liked the shot in The Monster Squad of the lead character sitting with his father on the roof of the house, which (via a terrific old fashioned matte painting) not only overlooks the entire town but also offers an impeccable view of a drive-in theatre showing horror films, which they scope in on with their binoculars: undoubtedly the fantasy of a young Famous Monsters reader brought to life.
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domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
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Dylan
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm
The fact that the film is finally getting out there on DVD in 2.35:1 and the wealth of DVD extras they've committed to the release is enough for me, but man, that is a bad cover, like token throw-away art for a young adult horror novel. There is absolutely no comparison to the original poster art:patrick wrote:I'll be buying this for the nostalgia factor, but good lord is this cover art terrible:
DVDEmpire
I don't know why they didn't just go with the original poster/box art, which I love.
It sounds like you already made up your mind, but still, I'm compelled to say that you might be surprised.I can almost guarantee this one won't hold up to my memories of it, and so I think I will leave this film safely stored in my fondest childhood memories
In any case, I look forward to revisiting it, and I also look forward to comments on here about it.
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Roger_Thornhill
- Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:35 pm
Like others on here, I have fond memories of watching The Monster Squad as a child. I'll definitely be picking this up even though I'm not quite sure I'll like it as much now. One thing that always bothered me about that film was that it was simply too short and it's climax never really worked for me. I understand that it was chopped up by Tri-Star and thus it'd be nice to incorporate that cut footage back into the film. Are there any plans to do that at this point? I'll look at the DVD details again but it seems it's being released in it's theatrical cut only.
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DrewReiber
- Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 3:27 am
I'm under the impression that nothing critical was cut from the film. Night of the Creeps was completely screwed over, though, because Dekker made the mistake of showing the producer the ending before it was done. You can only see the director's cut of the movie on select cable stations.Roger_Thornhill wrote:Like others on here, I have fond memories of watching The Monster Squad as a child. I'll definitely be picking this up even though I'm not quite sure I'll like it as much now. One thing that always bothered me about that film was that it was simply too short and it's climax never really worked for me. I understand that it was chopped up by Tri-Star and thus it'd be nice to incorporate that cut footage back into the film. Are there any plans to do that at this point? I'll look at the DVD details again but it seems it's being released in it's theatrical cut only.
What was it about the climax that didn't work for you? As a kid, I didn't understand how Eugene managed to call up the entire military with a confused message written in crayon. Now that I'm older and I've seen what 50's monster movies were like, I think it's utterly brilliant and completely fits within Shane Black's post-modernist framework.
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patrick
- Joined: Sun Mar 11, 2007 12:15 pm
- Location: Philadelphia
The new issue of Rue Morgue has a great cover article about the movie, with a lengthy interview with Fred Dekker, shorter interviews with the actors who played the monsters, and plenty more (who knew that Stan Winston designed the Wolfman's face to resemble his own?). Plus, the cover itself is a reproduction of the great original poster (as posted above) - probably the biggest you'll ever see it unless you have an actual poster. Very cool, and I'm happy to see such love devoted to the film by this magazine amid all of today's single-minded focus on upping the gore ante.
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Person
- Joined: Sat May 19, 2007 3:00 pm
Got my copy yesterday (saturday).
The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is clean, with a high degree of detail, vibrant color and fairly solid black levels. However, it is interlaced, ie. not a progressively-scanned transfer. This won't be noticeable on CRTs, LCDs and plamas, but will be on video projectors. When the amulet projects its prismatic beams of light, I would imagine that there will be pretty bad break-up in the image. I have a 42" plasma and seeing the film for the first time in 12 years and for the first time in 2.35:1 was a huge thrill, as it is a beautifully designed and edited film.
I haven't checked out any of the extras yet, but I'll post my thoughts as and when, but the original poster artwork is used for the insert. The other side of the insert has a preface by Fred Dekker.
The 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer is clean, with a high degree of detail, vibrant color and fairly solid black levels. However, it is interlaced, ie. not a progressively-scanned transfer. This won't be noticeable on CRTs, LCDs and plamas, but will be on video projectors. When the amulet projects its prismatic beams of light, I would imagine that there will be pretty bad break-up in the image. I have a 42" plasma and seeing the film for the first time in 12 years and for the first time in 2.35:1 was a huge thrill, as it is a beautifully designed and edited film.
I haven't checked out any of the extras yet, but I'll post my thoughts as and when, but the original poster artwork is used for the insert. The other side of the insert has a preface by Fred Dekker.
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Dylan
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:28 pm
I spent yesterday evening watching this film again in it's proper aspect ratio as well as exploring all of the DVD extras, and yes, this release is terrific and fun, especially if you grew up with it.
Although I expected the film to hold-up well enough (although it had been quite a while, I remembered almost every scene verbatim because I had watched it so many times on VHS as a kid), a lot of the film I didn't think would hold-up well (the use of the word "dork," among other things) felt surprisingly natural and unforced...I believe it's partly the newfound cinematic grace of wide and colorful 2.35:1 photography that really helps this film escape a lot of trappings, but the terrific acting from the kids and Bruce Broughton's big, glorious orchestral score really help as well (in regards to the music, Dekker said in the documentary that on the first day of the recording sessions, the score was so effective when set to the film that he burst into tears). It's also possible that this is just one of the very, very few films from my childhood that I've somehow managed to hold a real soft spot for...but even keeping that in mind, The Monster Squad is very entertaining and well-made.
The deleted scenes are all good, and had they been included in the final cut these scenes would've both better lead up to and clarified the fact that the family was in shambles and the mother was leaving...the final cut almost tries its best to hide that (hence cutting the shot of her carrying the suitcases downstairs in half with the obvious intention to not show the suitcases). I also think the extra bit of Rudy getting the girl (not on the DVD, but discussed in the commentary) would've been a lot of fun.
But the best extra is just to see and hear the cast talk about the experience...these are terrific people, and I look forward to keeping tabs on what they're up to (they all have official myspace pages).
Although I expected the film to hold-up well enough (although it had been quite a while, I remembered almost every scene verbatim because I had watched it so many times on VHS as a kid), a lot of the film I didn't think would hold-up well (the use of the word "dork," among other things) felt surprisingly natural and unforced...I believe it's partly the newfound cinematic grace of wide and colorful 2.35:1 photography that really helps this film escape a lot of trappings, but the terrific acting from the kids and Bruce Broughton's big, glorious orchestral score really help as well (in regards to the music, Dekker said in the documentary that on the first day of the recording sessions, the score was so effective when set to the film that he burst into tears). It's also possible that this is just one of the very, very few films from my childhood that I've somehow managed to hold a real soft spot for...but even keeping that in mind, The Monster Squad is very entertaining and well-made.
The deleted scenes are all good, and had they been included in the final cut these scenes would've both better lead up to and clarified the fact that the family was in shambles and the mother was leaving...the final cut almost tries its best to hide that (hence cutting the shot of her carrying the suitcases downstairs in half with the obvious intention to not show the suitcases). I also think the extra bit of Rudy getting the girl (not on the DVD, but discussed in the commentary) would've been a lot of fun.
But the best extra is just to see and hear the cast talk about the experience...these are terrific people, and I look forward to keeping tabs on what they're up to (they all have official myspace pages).