Do you watch the "extras" on the disc?

[Snade]

If I see a great movie on DVD, I will try to re watch most of it with the Directors commentary turned on. You learn a lot about film making doing this. For example, a few years ago, I watched Road to Perdition, a great movie, IMHO and the Directors commentary was excellent. In many of the shots the Director paid tribute to Conrad Hall, the famous cinematographer who died shortly after making this film.

[outshined]

I do, particularly if it's a concert film.
That's not to say that all of them are good, but most are, IMO.

[Fred Sanford]

I drive my wife nuts looking to watch the "extras" on her Netflix discs - she wants them heading out in the mail as fast as possible!

The DVDs I own are pretty much 50% music/concerts and 50% movies I would actually want to watch multiple times. I always check out the extras on these.

je

[Dr. Music]

VERY rarely. If there is a monster documentary or making of extra on a disc I'll watch it, but the ten and fifteen minute infomercials usually don't entice me to give them any attention.

[Gohan]

Sometimes I watch the extras!

Gohan

[clydeselsor]

Sure!

[bumperboy]

Watched the extras on Rocky Horror Picture Show, they were entertaining.

The directors (Mel Brooks) commentry on Young Frankenstein is very interesting and informative.

I always check them out, most are boring though.

[Pyrrho]

Originally Posted by VinylHanger

I was just posting on the movies watched thread and realized I had spent a good part of the weekend watching movies, but if I listed them it wasn't really that many. However, I realized I tend to watch the movies through once and then watch it again with the comantary on, and some of the Blu-rays have 2 or more commentary soundtracks.

I suppose it is a way to soothe the movie wonk in me.

Are there any other fans of the "extras"?

I watch some of the extras on most discs, but I rarely will watch a film listening to a commentary. I have started quite a few commentaries, only to shut them off after a few minutes, because the people talking are usually both boring and stupid. Evidently, it does not take much intelligence to make a film. Many directors seem to be as empty headed as the typical pretty faces on film. They obviously don't follow the advice of Mark Twain: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

However, there are notable exceptions, such as Werner Herzog, who is fascinating, and whose commentaries are generally about as interesting as his films. But he did interesting things in making his films, like putting actors in armor on a raft in a river in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and pulled a boat over a mountain, and all sorts of other dangerous and unusual things. He is also more intelligent than most people who make commentaries, and is able to tell an interesting story. So with him, I always watch the commentary. But with most popular movies, watching the commentaries are, in my opinion, a waste of time. (Naturally, I do not object to other people wasting their time that way if they want to do so.)

From watching deleted scenes, in most cases, the decision to delete them was obviously the right one. That has caused me to mostly stop watching deleted scenes.

Frankly, I wish they would, instead of including extras, use less data compression on the picture, so that the film would look better. Extras, if desired, could be put on a second disc (other than commentaries, of course, though commentaries will tend to take up much less space on the disc, as video takes up much more space than audio). That is why I liked the "SuperBit" DVDs, which don't have fancy menus that waste one's time and waste space (and sometimes even contain "spoilers" for the film), and don't have extras (on the disc[s] with the movie). Those tend to look about as good as a DVD can look. My experience with Blu-Ray is too limited to comment on picture quality issues with it in practice, but since they still use data compression for the picture, it is likely that they can degrade the picture by compressing it too much to leave room for a bunch of extras on the disc.

[koseltri]

My wife and I both love 'Special Features'. I was bitterly disappointed when Pixar stopped doing the 'bloopers' for their flims.

[vegabass25]

Usually i never do. LOL maybe i should start

[tcdriver]

Sometimes I watch the extras. Sometimes they are good and other times not so good.

[Cosmic]

If it is a serious film (Werner Herzog was mentioned earlier) we definitely watch the extras and the commentary. These can add so much to the understanding both of what the filmmaker had in mind, and how the actual film got done.

I just got "Deliverance" on Blu-Ray, and director John Boorman gives a fascinating interview about the struggles to put the film on the screen, along with actors weighing in, and some background on James Dickey. Very well-done extras in this case, for a film you think 'you know'.

C.

[VinylHanger]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

If it is a serious film (Werner Herzog was mentioned earlier) we definitely watch the extras and the commentary. These can add so much to the understanding both of what the filmmaker had in mind, and how the actual film got done.

I just got "Deliverance" on Blu-Ray, and director John Boorman gives a fascinating interview about the struggles to put the film on the screen, along with actors weighing in, and some background on James Dickey. Very well-done extras in this case, for a film you think 'you know'.

C.

Not to jack my own thread, but how was the picture and sound quality on that one? Love the movie, so if it is a good port, I would buy it.

[doucanoe]

Yep, depending on the movie, sometimes they are more interesting than the main event.

RC

[Cosmic]

Vinyl,

This is based on viewing on my 58-inch Panasonic Plasma with a PS3 hooked via HDMI and Dolby Digital 5.1
"Deliverance" probably looks as good as it can, on Blu-Ray.
The film, being shot in a muddy brown/green palette, and with the color being 'pulled' in processing, will never jump off the screen.
That said, close-ups are sharp without being overwhelming, with good reproduction of the grain of the higher-speed film stocks used in some sequences.

The only 'problem footage' in the film is the B-roll stuff of the construction site and the explosion at the beginning of the film. It looks a bit flickery as if it's old stock or poorly processed. I imagine this was visible in the regular DVD as well. Other than that, the material is consistent.

Audio is typical of its period (sound of dubbed dialogue) and "Dueling Banjos" comes across well. Little fakery done; it plays as it is, cleanly and simply, in mono (despite the Dolby Digital encoding.)

As long as you don't expect it to look like the latest 'Batman', I think you will like it on Blu-Ray. They have gotten what they can out of that negative without resorting to nasty digital enhancements and similar, and for my money, that's the way it should be.
As mentioned, the commentaries are very good on here, and make for interesting background on the film.

It's something of a bargain too; on Amazon, under 'other sellers' you can get it for about $10 new plus shipping.

C.