Search - Irreconcilable Differences (The Lost Collection) on DVD

The movie is a GEM, The DVD is a Crime!

Garan Grey | Hollywood, CA | 04/25/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I have liked this movie for years and years. It was well done, charming, and worth repeat viewings.



Lionsgate has done an appallingly awful job on this DVD. They don't even know who their audience are...



It opens with a very inappropriate red-banded, R rated noisy hard-sell preview of a horror movie, followed by another horror preview. Both of these fourth-rate screamers have unknown casts, yet they were treated infinitely better than the feature we are paying for on this disc - a well written movie starring four very famous actors. While the horror movies got newly remastered in widescreen with new interviews, this movie seems to have been copied from a grainy pan/scan transfer on an old VHS tape.



The gratingly cheesy-busy menus seem to have been made up by someone who thinks the 80s were nothing but disco. The scene selection is lazily authored to force the viewer to manually navigate from page to page, rather than linking them together so you can right click through them all in sequence.



The picture is so dark that many scenes are now played out almost totally unwatchably in black screen or shadows. There are eve changeover cues, meaning it was transferred from an old exhibition print.



Clearly the principle that anything worth doing is worth doing well is lost on Lionsgate. They obviously have no respect for this movie, which they refer to as "forgotten" on the cover, and have deliberately issued a product that is obsolete. It's amazing that they would list "full screen" as a "feature" in today's world when even broadcast TV is going widescreen. The fact is that for a great many people who buy this, it will NOT be in full-screen at all, and it is missing maybe a third of the picture from its Original Aspect Ratio.



Ryan O'Neal, Shelly Long, Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer all have good reason to be proud of this charming film. You'd think they wouldn't mind sharing some interesting thoughts about it for a commentary or "Making of" featurette, but nooooo... Lionsgate couldn't be bothered to consider that. All we get here is a little trivia track that's less informative than annoying by taking a Quiz format rather then just delivering the mostly Irrelevant information.



This product is a slap in the face of anyone who worked on, or likes this movie. SHAME on Lionsgate for treating obscure horror movies better than this one! I will from here on heavily suspect any product from Lionsgate, and rent their titles rather than buy.



Bottom line, there is no excuse for releasing this bad a product. The disc should be recalled, competently remastered in its full aspect ratio from a good print, and reissued with at least a commentary track. Lionsgate owes us an explanation and an apology - meanwhile, do not waste your money on this piece of junk."

IRRECONCILABLE TRANSFER

Nerdysomething | usa | 04/29/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I echo some of the other reviews. The movie is terrific; the other "Lost" titles (with the exception of "Slaughter High") are full-framed but pristine prints. This transfer is as grainy as if I had taken the VHS and copied it myself to a DVD. It's an amazing rip-off, but I guess it doesn't matter to Lionsgate. I can't imagine what can be done, save sending back the discs. But since there's no other version (EXCEPT an old VHS copy--with the same quality) you're plum f***k out of luck."

A Forgotten Gem

Scott FS | Sacramento, CA United States | 08/01/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The reviews for this film are wildly uneven, but this is a very good, very funny film. Revolving around an unlikely plot device, the 'divorce' of her parents by Casey Brodsky (played very capably by Drew Barrymore), the film skewers her parents, who are obsessed with pursuing their own goals with throughly ignoring their child.



The acting is good to very good. Shelly Long (Lucy Van Patten Brodsky) does a competent job as the down-on-her-luck mother, who, after whallowing in self-pity after she separates from her husband, re-invents herself after she writes a best-selling novel.



Ryan O'Neal plays Albert Brodsky, and is very good as the highly successful movie director who casts his very young lover in a horrible musical version of 'Gone With The Wind', and loses all of his money (and his reputation). To add insult to injury, his lover runs off with the limo driver and Lucy buys his old house.



(The scene of the making of 'Atlanta' (the musical GWTW) is simply hilarious. 'But we've got every fly in the state!')



Recommended."

Out Of The Mouths Of Babes...

F. Gentile | Lake Worth, Florida, United States | 06/05/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A terrific little "gem" of a movie. Very witty & well written story, told in flashback, of child, played wonderfully by little prodigy Drew Barrymore, who's divorcing her battling parents. Little Drew seems to be the only sane person here, the adults all progressively deteriorating into vindictive, obnoxious, immature beings. The parents are portrayed with comic skill by Ryan O'Neal & Shelley Long. Watching them meet, fall in whirlwind love, achieve fame, grow apart... is funnier than it sounds, though also at times very moving. Sharon Stone, in what I believe was her introductory role, is hysterical as new star "Blake Chandler", the obnoxious, self-centered opportunist in sheeps clothing. Her scene in O'Neals characters pathetic and doomed musical version of "Gone With The Wind", where she sings, always cracks me up, she is so perfectly talentless, arrogant, and awful. Just a great little underrated film, that is very entertaining, comical, and ultimatley very touching. There ain't a dang thang wrong with this movie. Definatley worth watching."