Parenthood (1989) (2016 Reissue)   Starring: Steve Martin, Tom Hulce, Rick Moranis, Martha Plimpton, Keanu Reeves, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen and Dianne Wiest Distributor: Fabulous Films Ltd / Fremantle Media Enterprises RRP: £14.99 FHED3495 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 28 March 2016

The Buckmans are a modern day family facing the age-old dilemma of trying to raise children the “right” way. At the centre of the storm is Gil, who manages to keep his unique sense of humour while attempting to maintain a successful career and be a loving husband and parent, all at the same time. As Gil and the rest of the Buckmans discover, being the “perfect” parent often means just letting children be themselves...

Parenthood stars Steve Martin as Gil, a proud father who wants to ensure his kids grow up having a much better relationship with him than he had with his father. He's made it his job to ensure he's always there for them and that when they grow up they will look back on their childhood and remember nothing but good times.

Gil's siblings also have their own families and the way that each tackles parenthood is very different. The movie shows us life as it unfolds in all three families, as well as Gil's parent's house (in which Gil's much younger brother) makes a surprise return. The movie is also notable for starring a young Joaquin Phoenix.

Now there's no disputing that Parenthood is an enjoyable and funny movie - although it wasn't as funny as I remember it being when I first saw it many years ago. But this DVD release may prove to be rather disappointing for all true film lovers.

I'm going to assume that the disc we were sent out for review will be the same as the edition being released to buy. That being the case, this seems to be a simple reissuing of an early DVD release from long before the days everyone had widescreen TVs. As back then the majority of households had 4:3 aspect ratio TVs a lot of DVDs were produced in either the original widescreen editions (which were frowned upon by the unenlightened as they didn't want black bands at the top and bottom of the screen) and pan and scan editions which cropped the picture so that it would fill the entire screen of the average 4:3 TV.

While I was never a fan of pan and scan releases on the old TV format, reissuing a 4:3 edition of a film for the current 16:9 aspect ration of widescreen TVs is a very strange choice. But to then charge £15 is just plain stupid - especially when you can pick up the Blu-ray edition, that was released some years ago, for under £9.

The only extras are the text based Production Notes and Cast and Filmmakers.

While the movie is probably still worthy of 7/10, this rather poorly thought through presentation only warrants...

2

Nick Smithson