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Aside from all of these measures that do nothing but spoil the enjoyment of the film for the reviewer, who you are after all hoping will give your film a good review and at least say they enjoy it, and then encourage others to buy it, aside from all that... I don't ever recall ever getting a copy of any DVD that a studio was being cautious about, that wasn't already easily downloadable on the Internet.

So, once again for many big titles we've covered in the past on our website, a pirate could download and give a better more accurate review than we could, thanks ironically to the studios obsession with stopping pirates from getting their films.

But over the last few years, admittedly I thought things were getting better.


Warner Take Things One Step Further
Until today, when something dropped through unannounced onto the office doormat. It was a review copy of a DVD with an impressive level of security designed to protect it. First off, they provided an envelope with stamps but no address on, to return the DVD ASAP. Yes, we have to write the address on ourselves, more effort for our over worked team. Not a good start.

The second thing about this package that arrived, is the cardboard sleeve the DVD is in itself. It seems this is some sort of limited run of 20 review disks, sealed with a security strip and a number you can ring if the strip has been removed or broken. Presumably this is because someone in the postal system might break open and copy it, intending to return the disk as if nothing had happened.

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Now, I don't know if these are individually watermarked, or just individually numbered. What I do know, is that for a film as widely panned as Yogi Bear and of which a DVD rip was posted on PirateBay on 2nd March, three months ago, this is nothing more than insanity for a studio to insist upon.

Seriously guys, I don't blame the PR company here they are just following orders. But the people inside your studio who make these decisions, save yourself some money and just get rid of them. They are really not smart, there are plenty of people in this economy you can choose from to replace them who will do a far better job.

Needless to say we'll be sending this disk back right away, and yes I know you are thinking that is an easy moral high ground to take when the film is as widely regarded as Yogi Bear, but we've done it before with much bigger titles and we'll do it again. And we do this because the moment we take that rocky road that ends with reviewing a major motion picture based on a VHS tape we saw in a hotel, we start to lose what our site is all about.Previous Page

Posted by Robert John Shepherd