DVD Bonus Material

[Jay]

weston, I saw "Brazil" many years ago but I had forgotten what it was all about.

SFG, I saw Rodriguez's Cooking School extra. That was worth watching.

What about the Lord of The Rings Extended editions? The extras are longer than the movie itself.

[sleepysluggo]

It depends on the DVD. I have The Kids in the Hall Season 1 set, and there's an extra DVD that has nothing but bonus features, including the pilot episode and interviews with the Kids. To me, that extra disc makes the set complete.

On the other hand, I have the Shrek DVD and on the bonus disc there are features that are only viewable on a computer's DVD drive, and I don't have that. In this case, the bonus DVD is a waste.

As for the features themselves, I like watching them. One feature I never use, and one that personally bugs me, is the option where you can hear director's comments as you're watching the movie. Just let me watch the movie itself.

[Daddio]

So many times its the directors who get to decide what is added to the Bonus Material and we all know that directors seldom want anything cut from a film - thus most home DVD's are "Directors Cuts". They get very protective of their films.

The Studios love it because you can add a couple of bucks to the cost of a DVD and they can recoup a little of the revenue lost from scenes that wound-up on the cutting room floor.

In the Bonus Extras for the Johnny Depp movie "From Hell" - the director shows a scene that was a simple exterior shot of a horse drawn carriage pulling up to a building.

The director said he "had" to have this shot - which was axed from the movie - appear in the Bonus Extras because it was such a pain in the ass and very expensive to shoot.

He said that they had to film it a gazillion times because the horses kept "missing their mark" and either stopping to soon or too late or they hit their mark and then took a dump (thus hitting their mark again). He said he just had to have the shot in there out of spite.

[Elle]

I would only watch the DVD bonus materials like bloopers and deleted scene.

[Broadway]

One of the first DVDs that comes to mind for me was "The Sixth Sense." I loved the commentary that M. Night Shamylan (shamalamadingdong.. how do you spell his name anyways?) provides regarding the clues that were in the movie all along.

It was fascinating to see the true details that you missed.


I, too, love the extra stuff... as long as it is truly bonus features. I don't just want to see a full movie video of a song in the movie. Give me some commentary that adds to the movie's value, like the above example, deleted scenes (and why they were deleted), bloopers. For music DVDs, I love to see interviews with the band where they talk about the tour... what they do on their off-time, what they did in different cities, what they thought of the crowds, meaning behind songs, etc.

[SnowflakeGirl]

One feature I never use, and one that personally bugs me, is the option where you can hear director's comments as you're watching the movie. Just let me watch the movie itself.

Those annoy my husband too, Sleepy. I love the commentaries, myself, provided that the director and whomever else might be on it is someone intelligent, funny, cool, or insightful.

I wouldn't watch a movie the first time around with commentary, but if I really love it, I'll take the time to watch it through w/ the audio track. You can learn some great trivia that way.

For example (Weston, I think, will back me up on this one), the commmentary track with Sam Raimi & Bruce Campbell for Army of Darkness is totally enlightening and hilarious, and especially since the two are old school buddies, the dynamic is really amusing.

[SnowflakeGirl]

M. Night Shamylan (shamalamadingdong.. how do you spell his name anyways?)

I don't know either! I'm just laughing because "Shamalamadingdong" is what I always call him too.

[Texicana]

Oh yeah, Snowie, Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi (well, all the Raimis, even Ted) are so funny and charismatic that it just leaps off the screen.

Side note, I got to meet Bruce at a book signing

[SnowflakeGirl]

I love you, Texie! God bless you for being a big chin lover too!

[Texicana]

A square jaw and a killer sense of humor

Ya have to fight me for him, woman!


sorry for the thread jack, and back to the topic:y'all think the powers that be that put out special editions and the added feature enhanced DVDs listen to the fans (emails, polls, messageboards) as to what to include in the releases? I think they do.