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Author Topic: DVD Special Features and why I hate them Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 10-26-2010 06:29 PM                    Ok, let me just get this off right away. I think DVD commentary, special features and extras are the worst thing that has even been added to the movie going experience. Here's why: Part of the things that make movies so special is the re-create life, experiences or situations. Having someone explain what was behind the shot or "how" it was made totally ruins it for me. For example. I now know there was an alternate ending to the end James Cameron's Titanic. Everytime I see the original, it is always in the back of my mind that there was another ending shot. Clint Eastwood's "Bridges of Madison County" had an extended scene where he was crying for Meryl Streep but was never used, you find this out in the commentary with the DP. This totally sucks! Everytime I watch the movie, it totally ruins the scene. I have always maintained that movie should be watched and then that's it. No more going into "how it was made" or "why this was not used" etc etc. I have more to say but I might write forever. If a movie did not use a particular scene in the movie, why does it need to added to the dvd....If it was important, it should of been there in the first place. I think commentaries, added footage etc just ruin the film. Now, I am sure extras on DVD will enhance the movie for some, just not for me. There should be some wonder, why, how, when they did it...that is part of the movies isn't it? What do others think?  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-26-2010 07:17 PM                        Well I'm the opposite. If it's a movie I like, I want to find out all about how it was made. So I'll listen to the commentary and watch the featurettes. I agree with you about extra added scenes though. They hit the cutting room floor for a reason and almost always, should have remained there. They're nothing but a marketing tool. I've never seen an "extended" movie where the extra scenes made any improvement...however I've heard that the extended "Lord of the Rings" movies are actually better than the originals, but have never seen them.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 10-26-2010 07:22 PM                     Someone must like them to be on there, otherwise they wouldn't bother. I suggest you solve the problem by not paying attention to the extra features.  |  IP: Logged Mark Ogden Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 943 From: Little Falls, N.J. Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-26-2010 09:55 PM                     What Mike said. Funny, I clicked on this thread after spending the last couple of hours watching the extras on the just-released-today special edition DVD of Dark Star, a low, low budget sci-fi film from the early seventies that I always enjoy watching. The added material was pretty good, defiantly worth watching if you are a fan of the film. Yet, of all the recent release DVDs that I get from Netflix, I watch practically no supplemental material at all. The difference is: if it’s a movie that I care about and that means something to me (and that I actually purchased) I appreciate having the extra stuff even if I just watch it once, it can be fun and informative. If it’s a flick that I am seeing for the first time and that I wind up neither here-nor-there about, than the heck with it, out of the player and back into the red envelope it goes. I wouldn’t want to deny the extra stuff to anyone else, though. So, do as John suggests. Watch the movie, then push “eject”. HOWEVER . . . when scenes get added into movies just so that they can be repackaged into “Special Editions, “Unrated Editions”, “Director’s Cuts” and whatnot, well, that’s something that I’ll thank you very much not to get me started about, including the FIFTY-ONE F**KING TIMES that Terminator 2: Judgement Day has been repackaged and re-released in various home video incarnations since 1991 (and that’s the accurate number, a buddy of mine has been keeping track).  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-27-2010 01:38 AM                        I don't mind an expanded edition as long as the original un-expanded edition is available in the same package. Like the most recent reissue of The Blues Brothers: It came with a longer version that pretty much slowed the movie down to a crawl in spots, but the original version was on the other side of the disk. (It would have been better as a 2-disk set, but keeping the cost down is good too.)  |  IP: Logged Tom Petrov Five Guys Lover Posts: 1121 From: El Paso, TX Registered: Jan 2003 posted 10-27-2010 03:44 AM                    quote: Mike Blakesley If it's a movie I like, I want to find out all about how it was made. So I'll listen to the commentary and watch the featurettes. Doesn't that ruin the movie if you are going to watch it again? Like, take away from the wonder  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-27-2010 10:51 AM                        No. Since I know from the start that "it's only a movie" and the special effects are just that, "effects," it doesn't bother me to know how they are made. On the contrary, using "Jaws" as an example, I'd never really thought much about how little the shark actually appears in that film. It wasn't until I watched a making-of feature that I learned about how badly the shark kept malfunctioning, which led to its hardly ever being seen, which actually made the movie more suspenseful. Sorry if I ruined "Jaws" for you with the above paragraph.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-27-2010 12:32 PM                        My biggest problems with the Commentary is some of the commentators, up to and including the directors, are just blithering idiots. I've heard too many who are just babbling to fill up time. I'd much prefer they just give it the full MST3K treatment and be done with it.  |  IP: Logged Joe Tommassello Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 547 From: Coatesville, PA, USA Registered: Jan 2008 posted 10-27-2010 02:05 PM                  The "special features" on the new "Rocky Horror Picture Show" blu-ray are the worst of the worst. The features on the original DVD release were much better.  |  IP: Logged Greg Anderson Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 766 From: Ogden Valley, Utah Registered: Nov 1999 posted 10-27-2010 03:38 PM                        As a "student" of film I find that a lot of good behind-the-scenes material can be very educational. With certain movies it doesn't matter. However, I'm anxiously hoping that the behind-the-scenes material on Inception completely spills the beans. That's the kind of movie where it's even more impressive to know what they went through to get the most amazing shots. As for "ruining" the experience of watching the movie, well, I was always aware that "its only a movie." That's a silly complaint. As for audio commentary tracks... yes, they're usually pretty boring. But I still listen because I'm hoping to find a good one. The good ones really are fun. But I hate it when the director sounds like he has NOTHING insightful to say about putting the scenes together... "So, this is the scene where Bob wrecks his car in the middle of the desert." Yes, I know that! You didn't have to be the movie's director to figure that out!  |  IP: Logged Victor Liorentas Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 800 From: london ontario canada Registered: May 2009 posted 10-27-2010 07:20 PM                     2 of my favorite commentarys are T2 and John Carpenter and Kurt Russel on The Thing!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-28-2010 01:29 AM                        Ron Howard's commentary on Apollo 13 is really informative and he just comes off as a great guy you'd want to have a beer with. My other favorite commentary is on Used Cars. Kurt Russell and Robert Zemeckis. It's hilarious and informative at the same time.  |  IP: Logged

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