MovieChat Forums > The Ratings Game (1984) Discussion > The DVD... a warning.

The DVD... a warning.

posted 19 years ago by ColdZro
4 replies | jump to latest

First of all, this is a good movie, and I've been waiting for some time for the DVD to become available. So I got hold of a copy as soon as I could. But the company who put out this DVD did a really rotten job of it. The picture quality is not great, but it is a TV movie from 1984, so it looks about like the VHS we had back then. That's not a big issue with me; I didn't expect crystal clear video. What is a big issue to me is the fact that the sound is about half a second out of synch with the picture. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal when it's explained to you, but when you're watching it, it really is. I was really looking forward to seeing this again after many years, but I couldn't even watch the whole thing, the sound issue was so bad. And what is most annoying is the fact that I don't understand why this issue could not have easily been fixed when creating the DVD. Admittedly, I don't know how these things are transferred to DVD, but I can't see how this horrible end product could possibly be deemed acceptable. It's distributed by Legacy Entertainment, Inc. Before the menu screen appears, there is a short commercial showing some other titles available from Legacy Entertainment, Inc., and there were a few that looked interesting; but after the disappointment that this one proved to be, there's no way I'd buy another one from them. Again, maybe they did as well with the source material as anyone could have, but they still put out a very unsatisfactory product.
I recommend the movie, but I recommend avoiding the Legacy release, if at some point there is another option made available.

Oh! And another thing that bugs me is the fact that the DVD is titled, "The Mogul," instead of, "The Ratings Game", which the movie was originally called. I assume there was some good reason for this change -- at least I hope there was -- but it's still annoying nonetheless.

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"PS. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q & R were eliminated." - Mitch Hedberg

[–] cgculpeper 17 years ago

"The Mogul" is an illegal bootleg of "Ratings Game" that's been circulating for years. DeVito has been trying to stop it, without much luck.

[–] mbs 16 years ago

how can a company sell and market an illegally bootleg of a movie???? i understand how a guy can do it on the street with a camcorder but how does a company do that? I have the vhs of The Ratings Game released by Paramount and the tape looks official.

[–] cgculpeper 16 years ago

I don't know the answer. I do know that some guy made a copy of this movie, changed the title and started selling it to video stores. It's even listed in some reference books as "The Mogul." He got away with it somehow and all it resulted in was Paramount withdrawing the real movie from circulation.

[–] MovieHoliks 9 years ago

I had a copy of that lousy bootleg "The Mogul" as well. I took my Paramount VHS copy and converted that to DVD for a much better quality DVD. I could be wrong- but what seemed to be the issue with the audio/video being out of sync in "The Mogul" was near the beginning if you notice the shot of the dock with the title "The Mogul" replacing the shot of Danny DeVito riding in his limo laughing at his script for "Sitting Pretty"- the place in the original where "The Ratings Game" title appears. This may have thrown off the audio track for the rest of the movie- but yes, very poor editing. You're better off watching the Paramount VHS copy instead. Great movie BTW- seen it many many times over the years, including the night it premiered on Showtime in 1984!