I've been noticing that Warner Brother's has been producing some really lousy DVD extras or barebones DVD's recently? Is this a new trend? 1st, they have essentially given up on producing audio commentaries and now I pretty much never see any good making of documentaries other than some fluffy EPK featurettes. I don't want to hear from people who don't care about extras.

Ive been wondering the same thing for quite some time myself actually.
I dont know if it is just Warner though. All the major studios seem to be giving us less commentaries and shittier special features on the 2-disk special editions compared to what we used to get.
Warner has given us commentaries on the new Deliverance and Cruising and the Kubrick films but nothing for the fountain , troy, or v for vendetta.
I dont know why they are doing this. posibly to save things for a double-dip? but overall it seems like they seem to feel that most poeple who pick dvd's up at wal-mart on the week they are released dont care about commentaries.

Yeah I have to agree that newer movies are getting a really shitty treatment. Ocean's 12 and 13 have no audio commentaries and IMO that's the type of movie that needs an audio commentary especially from the cast.

I personally love a good "Making of" documentary and I haven't seen Warner produce anything close to that recently. It seems like they love importing stuff from the EPK or HBO.

The extras on 300, The Departed, and Blood Diamond are pretty good. At least Blood Diamond and 300 came with commentaries, The Departed didn't have one but it had some great featurettes that made it worthwhile.

Thankfully WB's output on classic films has been nothing short of outstanding. A trend that continues with the upcoming Blade Runner, Jazz Singer, and Kubrick SEs.

I thought 300's extras were okay at best, it was cool they added a commentary, but the making of feature was barely 10 minutes and for a movie like this, I would have preferred something a little more indepth.

I really liked The Departed, but again there was nothing that dealt with the actual Making of the movie. Also, Warner did a disservice by not putting a Scorsesee commentary.

Maybe there vaults are all dried-up? for all we know!

Maybe the slump in the dvd market is causing them to invest less in creating extras for their dvd's.

The double-dip/triple-dip is the studios way of prolonging the viability of dvd profits now that the format has plateaued.

Commentaries are a result of someone deciding to do a commentary. If the director or stars don't want to do a commentary, then you have to either go with someone a lot less well known (critic or minor production personnel), who will want to be paid for their efforts.

Plus, a lot of people don't want to sit through a movie twice, especially to listen to a director talking about how "wonderful" various actors were to work with. You can assemble a couple of ten-minute featurettes about a movie quickly and cheaply and you have your "special edition."

Deliverance, Blade Runner, The Jazz Singer, and those Stanley Kubrick Titles coming out still look top notch.

not to mention the work they did on the Popeye set...is it possible that the titles that are getting the red carpet treatment, just aren't the titles you were hoping for?

As for The Fountain, Aronofsky wanted to put a lot of extra features including recording a commentary (which I believe he did and will be available on his website via download) but Warner wasn't open to it. He wanted to see if Criterion would get involved but there's no way they would be able to secure a Warner title. There may be a double dip for The Fountain but I wouldn't count on it.

I have to agree that Warner has been doing a pretty good job re-visiting alot of their classic titles and putting a little extra punch on them. But, it seems like they aren't doing much with their newer titles.

I don't see an overall trend of poor extras but I have been let down about a couple of recent announcements -- Twilight Zone: The Movie and Poltergeist: Anniversary Edition -- because they either lack extras (the former) or have totally lame extras (the latter).

From what I've read, commentators usually get paid with lunch. The academics and critics who do commentaries for classic films do them out of love for the art.

I also was going to mention these commentaries as rare exceptions since Warner hasn't had them on major titles for quite a while, going back to Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the like. I know it's often a case of "So-and-so doesn't do commentaries" but it's on almost every major title.

It's a trade-off between getting the movie out quickly after it has left theaters and providing extras on the DVD (which take a while to produce and master for the disc).

Unfortunatley, studios have discovered that those who want extras on their discs are also the type to double dip on titles anyway, so it's actually more profitable for them to release a bare bones or near-bare bones edition a few months after the movie leaves theaters followed by a special edition a year down the road than to wait six months or longer and get it right the first time out.