The Corner Penthouse

Although this review is about the Stripes Extended Cut Blu-ray, I'm specifically writing it for all of those unfortunate souls who purchased the Stripes "Extended Cut" DVD. Chances are, if you own that DVD, you are royally annoyed by some of the poor choices Sony made in authoring that disc. Those of you who don't own that disc, let me give you a little insight into the problems with it...

The disc claims to have the theatrical version of the film, in addition to the new extended version. That is a lie. The "Theatrical Version" presented on the disc is not that what was shown in the theaters back in 1981. It's simply the extended version with the added footage skipped over. A lot of DVD players will need to pause for a second or two at six spots while it skips ahead in the video to the spot after the added footage was placed. This is NOT "seamless branching", as evident by the fact that the pause creates a seam. There are many examples of DVDs that properly create multiple versions using seamless branching, such as the Alien Vs. Predator Unrated DVD. Stripes isn't one of them. Furthermore, portions of the movie get edited out when the player has to crudely jump over the added footage to create the supposed "Theatrical Version". That means that you're not seeing the real original theatrical version. Only the first Stripes DVD release from 1998 (cover shows the "I Want You" poster) contains the true theatrical version. It also contains the theatrical trailer (left off the Blu-ray), and the original mono audio track. That's as true to the original as you can get!

Also, the extended version on the DVD has an annoying "added footage marker" at the start and end of the newly-added footage. This "start/end of bonus scene" text is provided via a subtitle stream, which Sony does not allow to be turned off, even though subtitle streams provide that functionality. Check out the aforementioned Alien Vs. Predator Unrated DVD for an example of how it's done right (again via subtitle, but one which the user can turn on and off).

So with all that in mind, people who own Blu-ray players might be wondering if any of these problems were fixed in the new Blu-ray release of Stripes. The short answer is "YES". The "added footage marker" that is included is completely OPTIONAL! It's a star/badge that will be displayed in the corner of the screen during the entire duration of a piece of newly-added footage. The only downside is that you can't turn it on and off while watching the movie. You have to use the "Play Movie" option on the main menu in order to get the choice to turn it on or off.

The Blu-ray also does not have the false pretense of containing a "theatrical version" of the film. You get the extended version of the film in 1080p (1.85:1 aspect ratio), along with the commentary track and the two-part hour-long "Stars & Stripes" documentary from the Extended Cut DVD. The only thing the Blu-ray leaves out is the theatrical trailer, though that can be found on numerous other DVDs, such as the Stripes DVD from 1998 (which contains the true theatrical version) and the Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II DVDs that were released in 1999 (the green slime cover DVDs released in 2005 don't contain any trailers). The Blu-ray also doesn't present the added footage in a separate "Deleted Scenes" section, but since they're now part of the film, they don't really need to be included separately, anyway.

If you're a die-hard Stripes fan and MUST have both versions of the film, I suggest you pick up this Blu-ray and the original 1998 DVD release, and you'll have all versions and extras. Just avoid the Extended Cut DVD.