One for the Money DVD

Last week the DVD of One for the Money was released. Helene and I got our copy a couple of days ago. Finding a time to watch it was no problem. TV offerings of late have been sad at best.

Even if you saw the movie in the theater and weren’t planning to get the DVD, at least rent one and check it out. Quite a bit of footage has been edited into the DVD that, we at least, didn’t see at multiplex in January. It felt like a different movie.

For years theaters and theater chains have edited down films for a number of reasons. Usually, it’s to be able to get in an extra showing in a day to increase revenue. The most extreme case of this that comes to mind is the war epic MIDWAY that was released in the 1970’s. It felt ‘choppy’ when I first saw it at the theater in Amarillo. When HBO ran the film a year later I found out why. The movie site claims only 33 minutes were added to the film but it felt much longer. The entire Battle of Coral Sea was taken out. Should you ever get a chance to see the entire film it will make much more sense.

What happened to One for the Money didn’t feel that extreme. At the theater in College Station, Texas it was listed as running one hundred and six minutes. The DVD runs ninety one minutes. I’m guessing that means they took out around twenty minutes to get in all the between the film fillers, commercials by any other name. The slightly longer scenes and little extras in the DVD give the film a much more polished feel. It’s a pity we couldn’t have seen this version on the big screen.

Sadly, this movie didn’t set the theater world on fire. Realistically I don’t think having this version on the big screen would have made any difference. I loved the film, as did my wife and all of the Plum fans we have talked too, but for whatever reason OFTM just didn’t grab the public. I think it will live on forever as a cult classic, like FIREFLY, but I will be surprised if there are any more Stephanie Plum movies. Pleasantly to be sure, but surprised.

I really hope I’m wrong.