As a college student, you have more than likely watched your fair share of fine motion pictures. The college crowd has always been the target of a large number of feature films, so it’s no surprise that so many students partake in these diversions. Movies are a wonderful way to escape from the pressure and stress of campus life and just laugh, cry or be spooked by your favorite film. Yet what happens when these once fantastic films are available for personal ownership on Digital Video Disc? Often we, the consumers, are given an overpriced product that has been tainted from its original version and loaded with unnecessary extras.

As an occasional acquirer of DVDs, I’ve discovered that movies have become less and less about owning a copy of your favorite film and more about being sold a product filled with irrelevant extras, lame additions and ridiculously unnecessary bonus features.

Take this new fad in DVD sales for example. How many times have you seen a movie that has just come out on DVD that is advertised as the “unrated” version? In nearly every case that I have encountered, the version you “couldn’t see in theatres” is more often than not the version you “didn’t want to see in theatres.” It seems that the only thing added to unrated movies is more boobs and profanity. If that’s what you look forward to in your movie viewing experience (and I know there are many of you guys that do), than by all means, to each his own. But to the viewer with something of a conscience, making an unrated version only adds to the trashiness of the original and leaves one feeling more or less ashamed for having actually shelled out $20 for such a raunch-fest.

Even more idiotic is when a movie that was rated PG-13 when it was released in theatres is released on DVD as an “unrated” version. If you want a PG-13 movie to be more coarse and adult-oriented, why not just make it R-rated in the first place? The scary thing is that a PG-13 film is one step above PG or G films. Which begs the question, are we soon going to be seeing a “too hot for theatres” version of The March of the Penguins or Harry Potter?

Even if a movie retains its original intended MPAA rating, once it appears on DVD it will inevitably come with a truckload of pointless extras. I see these extras as a sales gimmick more than anything else. How many times have we justified the price of a movie by all the extras we get? You’re thinking, “This movie alone isn’t worth 20 bucks, but look what else I get. Interviews with the cast, a behind the scenes look at how they made Wookiee Poop, and deleted bonus footage. This thing is a steal!”

I wonder how many people actually watch all those bonus features on DVDs anyways. Have you ever called up your girl and said, “Baby, I got us a romantic night planned. First, a candlelight dinner, soft music, then we’re going to watch the making of The Matrix. Yeah, Senor Sexy is gonna treat you right.” For those of you still in stable relationships, I trust that this conversation has never happened.

Deleted scenes are another unnecessary addition to most DVDs. Aren’t the deleted scenes the ones that sucked so much they cut them from the original film? I hope my English professor is perhaps one of those few individuals that actually gets a kick out of deleted scenes. The next time I hand in a paper, I will tell him, “Check it out, professor. You get the full-length feature paper, plus, I threw in some special deleted sentences and phrases on the last page. Check it out man, it’s bangin’.” Now if that is not “A” material, than I don’t know what is.

Perhaps I’m too old-fashioned (being at the ripe old age of 20), but I think our movie viewing pleasure has become ruined with the advent of DVDs. The once simple act of watching a movie has been complicated by different versions of the same thing and tainted with add-ons and pointless “bonuses.” Even though a discussion of the merits of DVDs may seem petty, I think it says a lot about society’s need for the latest and greatest and our tendency to over-complicate everything.

Coming soon to the Viewpoint page: Uncut and Uncalled For- the unrated editor’s cut!

E-mail A.J. at [email protected].