Movies
No Bonus Features On Universal DVD Rentals
Over the weekend, my girl convinced me to watch The Change-Up with her. (It’s Unrated, you’ll get to see boobs, it’s funny, etc)
So we rented it from Redbox, and threw it in the DVD player. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn’t skip through the 5 minutes of movie previews! Let me tell you man, that’s bullshit! I wanted to finish the movie before Survivor started, and that sure didn’t help..
So we get to the main menu, and it asks you if you want to watch the Theatrical Version, or the Unrated Version. When I clicked on Unrated, it showed me the following message:
This disc is intended for rental purposes and only includes the feature film. Own it on Blu-ray or DVD to view these bonus features and complete your movie watching experience.
Excuse me?! Universal is trying to extort viewers into buying their DVDs if they want to watch the bonus footage. Other studios rely on the merits of their films instead. If I watch a movie and I truly enjoy it, then I’ll support the studio by buying it. Simple as that.
I know that Universal (and a few other studios) had issues with Redbox a few years back, at one point even removing their movies from the service. They eventually came to a resolution, but we’re the ones who end up suffering!
From now on, I’ll purposely avoid giving my business to Universal.
Who’s with me?
Scarekrow9
December 20, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Those who don’t feel like forking over 20+ bucks for a movie we will, more than likely, only watch one time, shouldn’t be punished. To make matters worse, you’re paying 18+ just for special features, considering you can rent it for 1 dollar.
Not really a motivational factor to me, just a minor annoyance, that proves the movie industry is just a greedy money-grab machine, out to nickle and dime everyone as much as they can.
Rich Lavene
December 20, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Plus, if they make the bonus features good enough and I’ve rented it, I might be enticed to want to own it. That is such crap! Thanks for bringing it to our attention!
Anthony
December 20, 2011 at 4:56 pm
To be honest, there are VERY few movies that I care to even watch the bonus features of. If I wanted to see them, it would have to be a movie that I’d want to own anyway. So as far as that goes, it’s not a bother to me. I do understand the frustration if you’re into that though.
My bigger problem with Red Box movies is that you can’t fast forward through the previews. That annoys the crap out of me. I don’t want to watch previews of movies that already came out. I rented/bought it to watch the movie, not previews.
MattO
December 21, 2011 at 10:02 am
Worst part about it is they let you see that there is unrated option and you select it and it says no. That is garbage. If it isn’t available don’t show it.
CJ
December 21, 2011 at 10:04 am
I guess that’s how they hope to lure you in.. If you didn’t know there was an unrated version, you wouldn’t want to buy the DVD.
Or they’re just lazy and don’t feel like making a new screen. 🙂
Bryan
December 15, 2012 at 9:06 am
The unrated version often times is not that different from the DVD Why would anyone dish out $30 on a movie they already saw just to see an extra titty or a gag reel ridiculous