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It was the best of DVDs, It was the worst of DVDs

Started by kidsick5000, October 27, 2010, 08:18:27 PM

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kidsick5000

Inspired by neveragain in the altenate scenes thread, this...
Quote from: neveragain on October 25, 2010, 12:42:34 AM
This is as good a place as any to mention the Deleted Scenes available on the DVD of that Doctor Who movie with Paul McGann. Now, this is my memory alone so it may be false, but I recall selecting the option 'Deleted Scenes' on the menu and then being treated to 30 seconds of McGann and his female assistant standing in a lift before they reach their floor. McGann turns, smiles. 'Let's go!' ...Cut to black.
That was the whole selection.
... is a great example of DVDs extras being bare minimum. Ignoring the vanilla discs that claim scene selection or interactive menu as extras, and some still do What are your criminally lightly extra'd DVDs?
Kill Bill Vol2 has one deleted scene. Fairly entertaining, a bit outside the mood of the film. But thats it. Both volumes have barely anything except a basic making of.

Converesely what are your bumper crop DVD extras?
Fight Club is a great early example of a well stocked package (and arguably helped rescue the film from obscurity). extra disc, really well designed packaging and booklet great commentaries
Or BladeRunner's 25th anniversary edition with the 4 hour documentary. Sounds exhausting but in reality is fucking brilliant.
There's also The Passenger. Not resplendent in extras but has a commentary by Jack Nicholson, solo, and hypnotically entertaining.

So Bests and worsts of the DVD extras please

Phil_A

The Pitch Black DVD included footage of a rave party with clips from the film playing on screens in the background. It was one of the dullest things I have ever seen in my life.

QDRPHNC

One of the lamest, shittiest extras I've ever seen was on the anniversary edition of Jaws. When you picked Deleted Scenes, it just played them all, in order, then returned to the menu. No commentary, not even a paragraph of context, not even a menu!

On Jaws! Anniversary edition!

Subtle Mocking

Was just watching the Nathan Barley DVD before, why did they bother with the re-dubbed episode?

Chris Morris is a constant offender of pointless DVD extras, to the point where it's hard to tell if it's satirical or not. Take Jam for example, I'm sure any of us would've rather had some radio stuff or a commentary over 6 completely unwatchable versions of episodes. Brass Eye had that one pointless commentary and then about a minute's worth of real commentary left on the BES for some reason.

Isn't it a general rule of thumb that the worse the film the better the extras?

Jemble Fred

#5
Quote from: Maybe Im Doing It Wrong on October 27, 2010, 10:02:46 PM
Isn't it a general rule of thumb that the worse the film the better the extras?

As one of the launch team on DVD Review magazine and a DVD reviewer of over a decade's standing, it's more often the exact opposite. Not sure where you got that idea from. There are some exceptions of course – great films ill-served by features, and crap with lots of extras shovelled on, but it stands to reason that the opposite is far more common.

Danger Man

Quote from: kidsick5000 on October 27, 2010, 08:18:27 PMConveresely what are your bumper crop DVD extras?

Whatever people might think of "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace", they'd be hard pushed to complain about the DVD extras. They put more work into the bonus stuff than they did the show.

Serge

Quote from: Maybe Im Doing It Wrong on October 27, 2010, 10:02:46 PM
Isn't it a general rule of thumb that the worse the film the better the extras?

Well, given the example of 'Fight Club' above, I'd say 'no'. Though I do remember years ago seeing one of Jim Carrey's lamer films on sale (I think it might have been 'Bruce Almighty') with a box boasting, 'Over 17 Hours Of Extras!', which seemed excessive for the film in question.

Going back to 'Fight Club', Fincher generally seems to put great extras on his films, at least the ones which are more personal to him, by which I mean, 'Se7en', 'Fight Club' and 'Zodiac'. The latter has a couple of great documentaries on, including interviews with the two Zodiac victims who survived. And the commentaries on all three are fantastic.

The DVD of 'The Thing' has a making-of documentary that's actually longer than the film.

small_world

Quote from: Serge on October 28, 2010, 10:46:30 AM
Though I do remember years ago seeing one of Jim Carrey's lamer films on sale (I think it might have been 'Bruce Almighty') with a box boasting, 'Over 17 Hours Of Extras!', which seemed excessive for the film in question.

Although it did contain this gem... (from about 02:00 in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmcYc9JNGoQ
I fucking love this, they should really have kept it in.

Jumble Cashback

Quote from: Maybe Im Doing It Wrong on October 27, 2010, 10:02:46 PM
Isn't it a general rule of thumb that the worse the film the better the extras?

No way.  The Special edition of Alien is one of the best DVD treatments out there.  Also, the Airplane! special edition has the novel feature of interspersing the extras throughout the film.  With a lot of films this wouldn't work, but it comes of brilliantly here, particularly if like me, you've seen the film a million times before you even get round to buying the special edition.  2001: A Space Odyssey has also got a fantastic release and the special edition of This Is Spinal Tap is swarming with great features, including an in-character commentary from the three principal players.   

Jemble Fred

The thing is that special features do take time and money to put together – sometimes, obviously, a poor film will have a huge budget, so it can end up with a ton of extras even though it was a flop. But few companies are going to deliberately spend money on making extras for a film which is already generally poorly received, so if you buy an old movie which wasn't a hit, they tend to have no extras. Great films will have – or certainly should have – a fuckload. If there is a general rule of thumb, that's it.

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: Jumble Cashback on October 28, 2010, 12:43:16 PM
No way.  The Special edition of Alien is one of the best DVD treatments out there.  Also, the Airplane! special edition has the novel feature of interspersing the extras throughout the film.  With a lot of films this wouldn't work, but it comes of brilliantly here, particularly if like me, you've seen the film a million times before you even get round to buying the special edition.  2001: A Space Odyssey has also got a fantastic release and the special edition of This Is Spinal Tap is swarming with great features, including an in-character commentary from the three principal players.

I just opened this thread to say the Alien boxset. All of the films, even the shit fourth one, get two separate cuts of the film, commentaries and shit loads of in-depth info with making-of documentaries that go through all the different production elements from post production to marketing. You couldn't want more really.

Terminator 2 deserves a mention. First DVD I bought, the one that came in a tin. The amount of extras was astounding for the time, and I've always used it as a yardstick for DVD releases. The commentary is the weak link, made up of vox-pop style snippets from lots of different cast members edited together. Doesn't have the cohesion of a proper 'live' commentary.

Famous Mortimer

Dark Star: 30th Anniversary Special Edition

The special features consist of "theatrical and special editions" (a few minutes of footage here and there), some publicity stills and a few trailers. No interviews, no commentary, awfully bad for such a film, especially a film which bills itself as a special edition.

Your solid gold classics (Citizen Kane, The Bicycle Thieves, Grand Illusion, Amacord, Wizard of Oz, etc. etc) tend not to have many extras, unless it's a 50th aniversary reissue or somethin. Genre films tend to have better ones, especially sci fi.

mikeyg27

The version of Citizen Kane I have has quite a few extras on it including Welles' War of the Worlds, lthough a quick look at Amazon reveals that there's been a new version put out since with far less goodness on it. Ho hum.

One of my favourite DVDs for extras is Monty Python and the Holy Grail which has a load of documentaries and a new version of Knights of the Round Table animated in Lego.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: Maybe Im Doing It Wrong on October 28, 2010, 03:13:36 PM
Your solid gold classics (Citizen Kane, The Bicycle Thieves, Grand Illusion, Amacord, Wizard of Oz, etc. etc) tend not to have many extras, unless it's a 50th aniversary reissue or somethin. Genre films tend to have better ones, especially sci fi.
I think that's more to do with films where the copyright has expired, so any old jobbers can release a DVD of it.

kidsick5000

Quote from: mikeyg27 on October 28, 2010, 03:38:39 PM
One of my favourite DVDs for extras is Monty Python and the Holy Grail which has a load of documentaries and a new version of Knights of the Round Table animated in Lego.

Holy Grail is quite wonderful and a bit of a film school on disc. Learning how most of the castle interiors were essentially the same corner of one castle, dressed up in different ways

Ambient Sheep

Another vote here for Holy Grail, possibly the best value DVD I've ever seen (certainly the best value one I possess).

Have they released a decent Life of Brian over here yet with most/all the extras from the US Criterion edition, or are we still waiting?  After Holy Grail came out to so much praise they kept saying they were going to release the fully-featured Brian DVD in R2, but I gave up looking years ago after it kept not materialising.

BAD EXTRAS:

I've mentioned this in another thread recently but, an example of a crap DVD, extras-wise, would be the 25th Anniversary Edition of 'Poltergeist'.
Scene Selection, Audio Set-Up, and a pointless, shit 2-part documentary about real-life poltergeist activity.
Didn't even put the sodding trailer on there.
A-booooooooo.

GOOD EXTRAS:

Always thought the extras for 'Shaun Of The Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz' were pretty decent, although they did go overboard on the commentaries.  No film needs FOUR commentary tracks.

And, although I haven't watched it for ages, I remember thinking that the Deleted Scenes on the 'High Fidelity' DVD were really good and that it was a shame they weren't left in the movie.

mjwilson

Quote from: Ambient Sheep on October 28, 2010, 05:37:40 PM
Another vote here for Holy Grail, possibly the best value DVD I've ever seen (certainly the best value one I possess).

Have they released a decent Life of Brian over here yet with most/all the extras from the US Criterion edition, or are we still waiting?  After Holy Grail came out to so much praise they kept saying they were going to release the fully-featured Brian DVD in R2, but I gave up looking years ago after it kept not materialising.

There's a Blu ray with loads of stuff on.

quadraspazzed

Quote from: Jumble Cashback on October 28, 2010, 12:43:16 PM2001: A Space Odyssey has also got a fantastic release

Really? Have you got a link? Cos the version I bought a few years back, though being billed as The Deluxe Edition or somesuchshit, I think only had the trailer and the soundtrack on CD[nb]The soundtrack was the main reason I bought this edition[/nb]. The same story for the so-called Deluxe Edition of A Clockwork Orange. Come to think of it, I don't think any of the Kubrick DVDs I have (everything except Eyes Wide Shite) have anything in the way of decent extras.

Serge

I did once try to convince someone that Kubrick recorded a commentary for '2001', but I don't think I quite pulled it off.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: quadraspazzed on October 31, 2010, 11:33:52 PM
Really? Have you got a link? Cos the version I bought a few years back, though being billed as The Deluxe Edition or somesuchshit, I think only had the trailer and the soundtrack on CD[nb]The soundtrack was the main reason I bought this edition[/nb]. The same story for the so-called Deluxe Edition of A Clockwork Orange. Come to think of it, I don't think any of the Kubrick DVDs I have (everything except Eyes Wide Shite) have anything in the way of decent extras.

http://playcom.at/cookdandbombd?DURL=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3514455/2001-A-Space-Odyssey-Special-Edition/Product.html

http://playcom.at/cookdandbombd?DURL=http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3514514/Stanley-Kubrick-Special-Edition-Box-Set/Product.html


kidsick5000

Quote from: quadraspazzed on October 31, 2010, 11:33:52 PM
Come to think of it, I don't think any of the Kubrick DVDs I have (everything except Eyes Wide Shite) have anything in the way of decent extras.

The Shining has that excellent documentary made by his daughter for the BBC, and that has her commentary too.
It's amazing how natural everyone is behind the scenes, apart from Shelley Duvall who is taking everything a bit too close to heart.

chocolateboy

#25
Quote from: Beep Cleep Chimney on October 28, 2010, 08:09:17 PM
'Shaun Of The Dead'

Seconded. A gift from DVD-extra geeks to their own kind. I remember the whole thing taking me a couple of (enjoyable) days to get through like a fat Sunday paper.

Robert Rodriguez extras are also great. I've held on to a few of his crappier DVDs (e.g. Once Upon a Time in Mexico) just for the extras, which manage to bundle a filmmaking course, a cookery class, and, er, a lovemaking class ("if you can't cook, you can't fuck!"). He's basically turned DVD extras into a) a form of hospitality, and b) a punkish "Anyone can do it!" pep talk.

My all-time favourite extra is the deleted scene (I think there's just one) on recent-ish The Italian Job DVDs, a stately/funny (think Luxo Jr. with cars) waltz that is easily among the most beautiful short films I've ever seen (its standalone "short-filmness" was why it didn't make the final cut), and certainly the best thing I've ever seen that was left on a cutting room floor.

chocolateboy

On the bad tip, two things spring to mind: Hustle and Clooneying.

There are three levels of DVD-extra hell:


  • Shite extras
  • No extras
  • Never mind the extras, where's the content?!

I went hunting for the first season of Hustle a few years ago only to find that they'd managed to shave off some of the actual episodes for the DVD. At the time, it was pot luck whether you got a DVD with all the episodes intact or some dismembered atrocity with the episodes gratuitously and inexplicably curtailed. It takes a special kind of cluelessness to fail so hard with a DVD that it doesn't even contain the actual film/TV show. I know there have been threads on here and articles on SOTCAA about this kind of thing in relation to comedy censorship/revisionism, but this seems to have been motivated purely by idiocy. Years later, I don't have any Hustle DVDs, and the show annoys me a bit now so they can fuck off with their runtime-trimming ways.

Sin #2: Clooneying. Have you noticed this? I like George Clooney (heck, I love him) but he does this thing on DVD extras where he "ironically" disses a colleague. For some reason I always think of him doing it with Don Cheadle, probably because they're obviously such good buds that Clooney doesn't have to ring him up beforehand to check that he has a sense of humour. But I've seen him do it with pretty much everyone. That's fine. It's Clooney. It's how he rolls. He "invented" what is basically, as far as I'm concerned, a British deflation of loviness, a British joke.

What is non-fine, however, is everyone on every fucking DVD extra ever dissing their colleagues in that oh-so-side-splitting-Clooneyesque-way. I adore Sex Drive. It's the best John Hughes film since Sky High IMO, and easily the best teen comedy of 2008 (OK, it was a lenten year), but despite the thoughtful film commentary, and the failed "ironic" gross-out edit, the extras are full of Clooneying: actors of all ages "ironically" dissing their fellow actors, falling over each other to demonstrate how non-lovey they are. Rampant Clooneying makes it really difficult to get post-irony actors to disclose basic things like what it was like working on the film; what they liked about the script; what they think of their fellow actors &c. Instead, you have to make do with "HAHA! MY CO-STAR CAN'T ACT AND THE WRITER CAN'T WRITE AND THE DIRECTOR CAN'T DIRECT LOL!" stuff, which is what seems to pass for young 'uns discussing their craft in the post-Clooney DVD extra era.

I'm almost tempted to buy the Red DVD when it comes out just to hear actors being tedious lovies rather than "hilariously" mocking their colleagues, but I suspect Bruce Willis has Clooneyist tendencies...

AsparagusTrevor

I got Anchor Bay's Evil Dead trillogy boxset when it came out quite a few years ago, and it is a great set, extras wise. Something that really pisses me off though is Army of Darkness is the director's cut version but the extra shots and extended scenes are such poor quality compared to the clear picture of the theatrical-cut' scenes it's really jarring.

Pepotamo1985

It's not a film, but the Adam & Joe Show DVD is probably the most superbly put together DVD I own. The sheer enthusiasm, care and attention to detail, which shone through beautifully in every episode of the show, is transposed perfectly onto disc format.

AsparagusTrevor

I agree, the only bad thing you can say about that DVD is it doesn't have enough of the actual show on it. It's a shame a full episodes release would be unfeasible due to so many rights and legal issues. What softens the blow is all the episodes are quite easy to find to download, and are also on 4OD.

The DVD extras are just brilliant, the History of Adam and Joe documentary is as funny and interesting as the show itself. And now I've got the Extras Menu song in my head.