DVD bonus features: search/destroy

As an artform in itself the DVD commentary can be very Mystery Science Theatre 3000 if they were smart. Rarely are they that smart. They play far too much up to an auteurist ideal which does not really exist.

1. Deleted scenes restored (LOTR, Abyss etc.)

2. Deleted scenes on their own (AOTC etc.)

3. Music videos

4. Behind the scenes featurettes

5. Cast Interviews and other talking heads

6. Commentaries (who has the time to watch these things?)

7. Trailers

8. Promo materials (Posters? WTF???)

The other day I watched Election on DVD with a friend, and then we watched it again with commentary directly afterwards. Very entertaining.

Andrew wrote:
The subtitles for the hearing impaired are hillarious. *bang* *slam* *phone ringing* Fun for all the family!

My favorites are the happy musical notes and italicized song lyrics.
Even better than wacky subtitles: trashy movies that are described for the visually impaired. In these videos, between the movie dialogue, a person describes the action, the actors' appearances, and the surroundings in a very solemn voice. I have a copy of Basic Instinct prepared this way, with a young woman coldly reciting lines like "The woman repeatedly stabs the man as blood splatters on her breasts." She even describes the company logos at the beginning of the movie and reads the entire list of credits.

Actually I haf not dared to watch them for ph34r of too much nu-metal and not enough Wampyr Lestat in leather trousis (*flusters*)

(for either consequence)

I remember it being pretty good, but I think I enjoyed Haskell Wexler's more!

As an artform in itself the DVD commentary can be very Mystery Science Theatre 3000 if they were smart. Rarely are they that smart.

The Spinal Tap track, as noted, gets it brilliantly right on this point -- meanwhile, in an artless but hilarious fashion, the combination of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell can rarely be beat (thus Big Trouble in Little China, which digresses to everything from how their kids are doing to how the DVD audience are most definitely not going to get much information on the film as a result!).

so, eh, does she say "She uncrosses and crosses her legs, momentarily revealing her snatch"?

More or less, I think. A more tactful word than, uhm, "snatch," was used, though. I remember that she used the distinctly non-clinical word "ass" in the dance club scene, where there was some ass-grabbing. What a cool job. I wonder how she keeps from cracking up all the time.

To set the record straight, I may have to pull out that tape and watch the aforementioned scenes over and over again, in slow motion also. But just to set the record straight.

great DVD things to do with that film - skip the SHITE Lola & Manni talking about how much they wuv each other.

Good commentaries:

Ghostbusters, in large part because the commentary is done so long after the fact, so there's a lot of discussion of the phenomenon of the movie (the DVD's a pretty solid release, too -- came out before bonus features were such a huge selling point, so there's not the padding you get in a lot of recent releases).

Idle Hands, just cause the guys are so obviously enthusiastic and had such enormous fun making the movie.

American Vampire. It's a horrible movie -- I think I'm remembering the title right, Carmen Electra's on the cover despite having like four minutes of screen time, and Adam West plays The Big Kahuna, a surfing vampire hunter. Terrible movie, but not terrible enough to be good. The commentary, though, is by the Groundlings comedy troupe, treating the movie MST3K-style and bitching constantly about the lack of the naked Carmen Electra they felt they were promised.

Fight Club. Pretty much all the commentary tracks, but particularly the Fincher/Pitt/Norton/Carter one. Again, because everyone involved was heavily invested in the movie.

Muppets From Space. I mentioned this on the Muppets thread; the commentary is by the director, Kermit, Gonzo, and Rizzo, with the conceit, of course, that the events in the movie actually happened ("Yeah, isn't it weird that Ray Liotta happened to be moonlighting as a security guard?")

Donnie Darko, the Kelly/Gyllenhaal track. Skip to the movie theater scene. Gyllenhaal does a great impression of Christopher Walken as Frank the Bunny.

Yeah, shame the actual programme's not much cop (based admittedly on only watching the first episode).

Do you not have a mute button Sarah?

If she had a dollar for every time she's been asked that...

To set the record straight, I may have to pull ... over and over again, in slow motion also.

Does it have Seth Green? In this, as in all things, Search: Seth Green.

on the other hand, the episodes themselves are the cat's pyjamas.

I loved the commentary by Byrne on Stop Making Sense...lots of fun trivia and he's actually a little self-deprecating, mentioning at one point that things got weird on the tour because he was such a control freak.

Destroy: Matrix commentary with Carrie Ann Moss. She literally disappears for the middle hour and a half while the tech nerds go on about this and that effect.

Yep -- it's the writer-director, Seth Green, and the other guy, the guy who played Pnub (no Devon Sawa, though, who was off filming something). Watching the commentary is when I realized that Seth Green is one of those guys who pretty much plays himself in most movies/TV shows.

I have not seen this film.

I do like DVDs. and their features.

I want a fire walk with me with the TON of cut stuff that no-one knows if they'll ever release.

And, what do people have against showing outtakes and bloopers? do they think it takes away from the "artistry" of the cinematic experience? Heck, in Jackie Chan movies, they make his stunts all the better. Why aren't there more deleted scenes?

In many cases why bother w/ a dvd over a video? so rare it seems that people do much w/ the stuff... scrape stuff up off the floor and throw it on.

and, I, for one, don't care about cast profiles for the most part. Most of the ones I've seen offer few new insights and the IMDB is far more satisfying?

But then, I seem a bit negative. I want more. I live in the boondocks, we're only just getting into this whole dvd thing here.

1) it was ace to see all this extra footage, including a whole subplot that was chopped out
2) it made the edit job on the film seem all the more impressive

Because most scenes are deleted for a reason?

OTM. Another mockumentary film, Waiting for Guffman (directed by Christopher Guest a.k.a. Nigel), also benefitted from meticulous editing. According to the IMDB, it took Guest and his editor a year and a half to pare down 60 hours of footage to the final 84 minute movie. Did I mention that I love this movie? It was even one of Tim Robbins's picks in the recent Sight & Sound poll, as one of the best movies ever (!!). It also has an audio commentary track with Guest and Eugene Levy - not as hilarious as Spinal Tap's, but it has some enlightening bits. The bonus scenes are great, including Parker Posey doing a bizarre alternate audition scene and more musical numbers ("This Bulging River"). Spinal Tap : Rock :: Guffman : Community Theatre. If you haven't seen this movie, see it, damn you!! (sheepish grin)

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1452182/20020206/spinal_tap.jhtml?headlines=true

the catch-22 commentary is better than the fillum but maybe that's faint praise.

Aren't all commentaries like this? I tried listening to the Matt Groening one on The Simpsons and it's pretty much all "Hey! I haven't watched this in years, that's pretty funny. (long pause) Ha ha! (pause)". And guess what I'm missing on BBC2 right now. Aaarrgh!

as for deleted scenes being deleted for a reason, sure. but you can't tell me that folks here don't want to hear every little breath and scratch of studio outtakes for any number of albums... probably isn't too dissimilar for deleted scenes.

Seeing what was left out gives a better sense of what was left in. And surely as there'll be director's cuts, people have different opinions on which scenes are on the floor and which aren't.

Who doesn't want to see all gazillion hours of LOTR (ok, pipe down) or cool as ice for that matter.

Revive - just watched Battle of Algiers, and it had a couple really interesting special features: an interview with two former US government officials about the film as politically/tactically instructional and a featurette interspersing interviews about the influence of the film with five contemporary directors.

Any other DVDs with special features that are good, and not just mutual admiration society featurettes or special effects nerd "this is how we made the explosions/cgi/etc."?

You'd think more Criterion commentaries would be sharper but man, so not the case. (Both the ones for The Third Man were frustrating in different ways.)

Who did the Third Man ones? One of my favourite movies, but I'm slightly ashamed I only have it on ropey old VHS.

You'd think more Criterion commentaries would be sharper but man, so not the case. (Both the ones for The Third Man were frustrating in different ways.)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, July 27, 2009 5:48 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

scholar commentaries are kinda lame imo. for repulsion tho, they put on the 1994 LD one with deneuve & polanski (obv recorded separately) which is great

wait, what are the ones for 3rd man?

Breaker Morant (not Criterion) had an interesting documentary about the Boer War.

the remake of Willard had a music video with Crispin Glover doing "Ben"

there have to be more!

i almost never listen to them... i feel like i can never find the time to do both

I'm not talking commentary tracks ... but special features, separate from watching the movie twice (which I never do).

Whichever Criterion discs have commentaries by Casper Tybjerg or Yuri Tsivian are searchable.

I never listen to the commentary tracks on movies - I do watch movies multiple times ... poorly worded post above.

Third Man commentaries: Steven Soderbergh and Tony Gilroy (high end version of stoner film school buddies hanging out and saying deep things), Dana Polan (dry and dull). Both commentaries have tidbits of interesting info/takes on the subject but too much chaff.

the remake of Willard had a music video with Crispin Glover doing "Ben"

and THAT music video has a commentary by Crispin where he motormouths about how he acted in the movie to fund the dubious the artsy movies he makes on the side – srsly, some 3+ minute thesis on his creative process while watching rats come out of womens' skirts.

I liked the Malcolm Lowry documentary included on the Under the Volcano DVD,

my son (3) watches all the documentaries on Pixar movies, or, as he calls them, "guys talking about xx". "guys talking about nemo" "guys talking about toy story"

This Is Spinal Tap: hilarious.

Film begins:

"Aww, we look so young!"
"Yeah, we do in the film as well"
"um, that's what I was meaning"

(i.e. you HAVE to see this with the commentary!)

almost never listen to them... i feel like i can never find the time to do both

otm. also, basically you have to watch the commentary very soon after you watch the movie, it won't really work otherwise. i watched Half Nelson's commentary recently, but hadn't seen the movie in like a year, and it was pretty useless.

It's great for films you have seen a lot (Spinal Tap, Rock and roll high school, 24 hr party people)

The worst one (was this extras rather than commentary) was some Jim Carey film, where the director related "Jim made us really laugh when he did this:..." to the point of tedium...

Oh yeh, Tony Wilson on the 24hr Party People commentary was terrific.

I liked the Malcolm Lowry documentary included on the Under the Volcano DVD,

― tokyo rosemary, Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not sure if its this doc but its terrific so far.

Can't believe Netflix has never tried to at least introduce commentary tracks with their films.