The American

[Travis Bickle]

Ol' Travis would hate being a malcontent if it weren't so damn satisfying. While I can't say I don't complain a lot I can say I don't complain a lot in print.

I had occasion to rent The American and got it home and watched it and found it to be a fine piece of work on many levels. Even the shiny "Rental" emblazoned on the disk was a work of art. As I often do with movies which fall into the fine piece of work category I decided to invest the time in watching Special Features, Bonus Features - call it what you will for this disk the film upon which George Clooney was a producer. Well if you rent this version of the disk you can save yourself the time of doing the above. All the disc allows you to do is see trailers and watch the film. The menu shows the usual deleted scenes, commentary and the making of, but when you select one of those menu items you will immediately and unequivocally be reminded the the makers of the disk consider renters to not be on par with buyers of DVD's. The message, in words to the effect of, "This disk is made for the rental market and doesn't include this selection. To view this selection the disk should be purchased." The might have added further, "Now go to the back of the line" to this.

It would seem that a company dealing in the renting of DVD's would not want it's customers to be made to feel not on par with those who buy DVD's perhaps even before they have had the chance to preview the film by renting it first. The word affront springs to my mind. Maybe I'm overly sensitive.

I hope the powers that be at Netflix read our screeds and take note. I'm not happy with the production people of this film and am a lot less likely to pay for a full version of this film and am also less than happy with George Clooney as a producer of The American since that makes him somewhat responsible. I like and respect Mr. Clooney and his work, but am still disappointed.

I gotta go.

[Diaboyos]

Rental DVD's piss me off too. I understand Netflix doesn't really have a say in what version of the disc the movie studios provide them with, the full version or the rental version. However; what Netflix DOES have control of is how they advertise the copies they DO have.

For example, the movie you mention, The American, on its Netflix page under DVD details this is listed:

Other features
Color; interactive menus; scene access; deleted scenes; director's commentary; making-of featurette.

There's no deleted scenes, no commentary, no featurette, just the main movie and Netflix is fully aware of this. It's the same for every rental movie you receive too, they advertise it as being the full disc with all the extras. I don't know if they're purposefully not putting that it's a Rental disc under the DVD Details on the web page because it would look bad or if they're just too lazy and figure why bother.

Personally, I believe they are blatantly and willfully misleading their customers. They advertise full copies of the movies and send out chopped up rental versions. We all hate to get a rental disc but expecting a full disc THEN getting a rental disc is even worse. Netflix needs to get on the ball and start properly advertising the copies THEY have, NOT what copies are being sold in stores.

[Knaldskalle]

Sometimes they have a mix of "types", full retail version and some rental versions. I had a terrible rental version of Up (not even a menu, it just ran in a loop with 5 unskippable trailers before the movie) while other people here had the full version, both came from Netflix.

[Travis Bickle]

If they're smart they read these forums. If they're not I'll bet there's a class action suit out there waiting for some lawyer to cash in on.

[Pihk]

If they're smart they read these forums.

 

I LOL'd at that.

[Knaldskalle]

They are smart. That's why they don't bother with fools like you, me and the rest of us.

[Spindaddydad]

If they're not I'll bet there's a class action suit out there waiting for some lawyer to cash in on.

 

What would be the foundation for the law suit?

[Travis Bickle]

They advertise the disk as having the extras, which they do, but only as menu selections. When you click it you are told you have to buy the non rental version. Sucker. It would be similar to the class action suit about how they advertised the service back when they started. You know, when they cared about the customer and not so much their money. All the members got some free subscription time as payment. Not that I could ever countenance such a suit. Right!

[sevenstars]

That would be a pretty petty lawsuit.

[Travis Bickle]

I guess that depends on what you think the word of someone you buy a service from is worth to you.

They were sued successfully because they told us originally that as soon as we returned a disk we'd have another right away. Notice they don't say that any more. Suing them now won't get the content back in the disks they rent. They'll just stop saying it's there.  

[Knaldskalle]

They were sued successfully because they told us originally that as soon as we returned a disk we'd have another right away.

Incorrect.

[Travis Bickle]

Really?

 

'Netflix has settled class action lawsuit brought against the company last year for allegedly duping potential customers by advertising "unlimited" DVD rentals and "one day delivery."

[Knaldskalle]

Yes, settled out of court. Not "sued successfully".