A lot of DVDs now have extra's that just involve talking and brown nosing (this director knew what he was doing, this actor was great to work with etc). whats up with that? I'd rather see bloopers and the fun stuff that happens on the set.

Just my rant I had to get off my chest.

It's called filler. It creates the illusion that the DVD's loaded, when it reality, it's just packed with material like you described. That's why I think the majority of extras on mainstream new releases are overrated, as they're rarely worth watching, let alone repeated viewing.

i'd rather have naked pictures of natelie portman as extras on my dvd's. that's probably not going to happen, so i take whatever they give me.

I am sorry but . Bejesus what was I going to type...

Because it's that brown nosing that helps them land the next production. You want to know about the film making process. Bloopers get old fast. If you want a behind the scenes tour on how the film was created you have to expect that sort of "talking". Hell, pay attention to some of it and you may find that it is somewhat informative.

DVD extras always seem to be a real selling point for a lot of people here. I am probably one of the few who don't really care about extras. I used to love watching deleted/alternate scenes, but even that just doesn't do it for me anymore since those scenes are usually deleted for a reason.

Some movies are good, some are bad. Some extras are good, some are bad. Now, if they could confine the bad extras to bad movies...

i hate the 10 mintue "behind the scenes" fluff also.

Buy the EE version of the LOTR.You will be amazed at what they offer!

I think the "bad" extras usually fall into 3 categories:

1. FLUFF. EPKs, HBO "First Looks", and other glorified ads for the films. I now *own* the film, I don't need to be sold on it! Some of these have a quick glimpse of something interesting, but they are mostly filler and have zero re-watch value.

2. IGNORANCE. This is usually why commentaries go bad. Sometimes, it's pretty clear that the person speaking has never once listened to a commentary track, and doesn't know what to do. So you either get a bunch of boring "he was fun to work with" or "this shot is CGI". Or -- even worse -- you get a director telling you what happens in the film, basically narrating the action as you watch.

3. LACK OF PERSPECTIVE. Back in the LD days, most films that got loaded SEs were films that had been around for a long time or 'new classics' that had only been around for a bit, but had been embraced by audiences. Now, every major theatrical release comes out on DVD in about five months, with 3 commentary tracks, a documentary, etc. That doesn't allow anyone (the creators or the audience) time to put the film into any sort of context. So you get the director of some forgettable CGI piece-of-shit going off like he's the grand master of filmdom and has created a work of art.

I for one particularly love commentaries - not necessarilly when they get a little too heavy on how "oh this actor was just so phenomenal..." or from the other end, this director was so in tune with what makes this film so special - we already know that otherwise they wouldnt ahve gotten the job(s) - I dig commentary that tells me stuff about the particulars of teh film, or perhaps little insights that the actor or director did on a particular scene, that I didnt catch on to the first time around, and it puts things in a new perspective

what i can do without.....are previews - I loved the earlier days of DVD (and still some now) where you plug in the disc and BAMM - movie menu - OK, Set proper audio track adn remove subtitles and PLAY!

Yup.. so many crap extras.. which is funny because you see people pissing and moaning about "double-dipping" (whatever that means) movies to get this garbage fluff. There are even some real extremists who will refuse to buy a DVD until a later SE comes out.

I'm starting to wonder if people are buying DVDs to watch the movies, or to just "have" the DVDs.

"Double-dipping"
1. (v). the re-releasing of a title that will be properly authored containing all the things and specifications (such as anamorphic transfer and proper audio) that should have been done the first time around, getting people to re-purchase them.

i.e. Goodfellas, Stargate, The Right Stuff, etc.

2. (v). adding things to a already properly released title that was intentionally devised as a new version containg more "goodies" to also milk people for a re-purchase.

i.e. Terminator, T2, Stargate, etc.

I think sales would go way with shots from the shower cam in the ladies changing rooms.

With most new movies nowadays, the studios' legal teams won't allow negative comments from anyone to go into their bonus material for fear of a lawsuit. They are worried someone on one of the shoots could sue about something and use the negative comments on a disc as evidence that "so-and-so" was a nightmare to work with or whatever. Additionally, most of the "behind the scenes" stuff is done to sell the movie before it is released in theaters, and to save money the studios don't do a DVD-only behind-the-scenes featurette, instead opting to just go with the stuff they made for the theatrical release. The studios are just more concerned with making sure there are a lot of special features they can put on the box to sell the DVD than they are with making sure the features on the disc are enjoyable to the fans.

Well, coming from a guy that doesn't really care about extras (that would be me) I do like the film commentary on some movies basically for reasons such as:

- Finding out the original ideas for scenes and why they changed them up and if they should have followed the original plan.

- I like when the cast speaks out on what was going through their head at a certain time during a scene.

- the disagreements between the actors and directors

- how much time they had to shoot certain scenes

There are many more.

I just think it's pretty cool.

The studios do put that disclaimer in front of their DVDs saying basically "if these people say bad stuff about us or anyone else on the commentary/interview, it's their opinion and not ours - please don't sue us!"

Off the top of my head, the director of Blair Witch 2 is quite negative toward Artisan on his commentary track.