The Zizz

I just finished watching the X-Files Dvd. I thought the movie was pretty good--not the best sci-fi around, but still pretty entertaining. I am not a die-hard watcher of the show, and have only seen a few episodes, but the movie was not hard to follow at all without any prior knowledge. Picture and Sound are great on the disc. Pretty good supplements: making of doc (about 30 min), running commentary with Writer and director, and 3 trailers. The doc was okay, but at times more of an ad for the film than an insight into its making. Worth seeing though. I didn't have time to listen to the commentary, and am not interested enough in learning more to spend the 2 hours with it (I rented the disc). I heard from other sources that the commentary was pretty dull.
From Netflix, I rented the combo El Mariachi / Desparado Dvd. Unfortunately, the El Mariachi side was damaged, and I was unable to watch the entire movie (By the way, Netflix has great customer serice. I informed them of this and they gave me a free rental with free shipping). Supplements on the El Mariachi side include a short film by Robert Rodriguesz called "Bedhead," which is really, really strange, a ten minute piece on how he made the film for only $7000, a running commentary, and a theatrical trailer. The desperado side has a ten minute doc on the shootouts in the film, a trailer, and a commentary. This disc is really worth checking out--Rodriguez's commentary is fascinating, some of the best I've heard, especially for those interested in how films are made.

DVDer

I agree, the X-Files 'documentary' was more like an infomercial.

I've heard a lot of good things about the El Mariachi/Desperado double-feature and was thinking of picking it up. What is the distribution company?

Filmmaker

The EL MARIACHI/DESPERADO: Director's Double Feature is a Columbia/TriStar release.

doctor

I have the El Mariachi/Desperado DVD and I reccomend it to anyone interested in making movies. The director's commentary is by far the best I have ever heard. He spent quite a bit of time making notes for the commentary. (In fact, he mentions this during one of them.) He talks about picking the music, how scenes were shot, and why he is his own editor, and much, much more. Also, I think the movies are great. I wish they would have also included the DUB version of El Mariachi (it's in Spanish), but that's ok, because DUBs usually aren't done that well anyway. I just get tired of having to read the captions every time I watch it. This is, IMHO, a 'must-have' DVD. The film prints may not be reference quality (nothing to do with the DVD, just the original prints, especially Mariachi), but the entire presentation + good movies more than make up for this.