You know, we’ve got a modest DVD library here at Ping West and I think I’ve only watched extras on DVDs once or twice.
It’s funny though, because when a DVD has only the movie and trailer… it seems like a waste. Or that something is missing. I’ve come to expect these extras but then I don’t even bother with them. After all, I’m usually not sitting around on a Saturday thinking, “What were the five trailers for Dogma anyway?” Having deleted scenes is nice but only if they’re shown within the context of the original film, I think.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons that movie downloads will (in a few years) work: the extras are very nice to have but not essential.
Posted in Television, Movies, and Music
Adam January 22, 2007, 11:10 am
Depends on the movie. If it’s a movie I absolutely love, I’ll watch the extras. For example, I loved X2 and watched every extra segment on the DVD the first day I owned it.
But those are few and far between. 90% aren’t worth the time. And I could care less about watching the trailer. What’s the point, I just watched the whole movie?
The ones that I’ll watch every time are the ones for a bio-pic or history piece. Something where I finished the movie and thought “I want to know more about those events or that person”. For example, the extras on Tombstone. Lots of info on the infamous OK Corral battle. Also, last week I watched Wonderland. The movie was only a C, but I was very interested in knowing more about the Wonderland murders and how John Holmes was involved. The movie had a bonus DVD with about an hour and a half of interviews from Holmes’ first wife, second wife, teenage girlfriend, others in the porn industry, and various law enforcement officials who worked the case. I actually thought that was more interesting than the movie.
COD January 22, 2007, 1:27 pm
I sometimes go back and repeat the movie with the director’s commentary turned on.
Ryan January 22, 2007, 3:02 pm
Like Adam, if it’s a movie I really enjoy, I’ll watch most of the extras (generally, though, I’ll skip the trailers). This goes extra for movies I rent, for some reason. I want to get my money’s worth, I guess.
With commentaries, what I’ll often do is record them as MP3s on my PC and save them for later, to listen to in my car. Or, on the rare occasion that I listen to a commentary while actually watching the movie, I’ll watch it at 1.4x speed. After a few minutes, you don’t even realize everything’s moving just a bit faster, but it’s nice when a 90 minute commentary is done in a little over an hour.