Welcome To Steve Riggins!

Get Shorty Review

Studio: MGM
Formats: Side 1 pan & scan, Side 2 Anamorphic 16:9
Features: English, French and Spanish audio and subtitles, Theatrical Trailer
Cost: $20 (introductory price, normally $24.95)
3/25/97
27 minutes into the film is the scene with Chili and Harry talking in the car. On the Pan and Scan side, the image goes from the center of the windsheild to just the right of the windshield post on Chili's side. The vertical goes from the top of the windshield down onto the hood.
In the Letterbox mode on the Anamorphic side, the scene includes the entire windshield post, so its wider, but the bottom of the image is cut off at the air vents.
In 16:9 mode, the image looks the same, except its squished to fill the screen. Its a very weird aspect ratio.
I was incorrect about the Anamorphic side. With the Pioneer DVL-90, you need to stop the disc, then press Aspect. You can then choose 16:9, Letter Box or Pan and Scan!
3/24/97
Its obvious the studios are still figuring out how to make DVD discs. The anamorphic side contains no aspect codes, at least according to my Pioneer DVL-90, and thus I essentially have a pan and scan disc.
The anamorphic side squishes into the screen. Pressing the Aspect button just yields this "Can't press this" icon. I don't care if I cannot use the 16:9 for pan and scan, but what about letterboxing folks!
The lack of a letterboxed version is a serious shortcoming in my opinion.
One of the nice things they did was incorporate the menu well. Press menu, select "Trailer" and press play. When the trailer is done, it comes back to the menu.
On the Big Brother side, you cannot stop or jump to the menu during the FBI Warning/MGM title sequence. You can scan, but you don't know you are scanning, since the player is just stilling an image for 15 seconds. You scan time, but there is no visual clue that you are doing so.