Apologies if this has been discussed before. I was watching Inland Empire recently. I like David Lynch movies in general, and I suppose after the third or fourth rewatch I will like this one as well. 
The second disc was great, however. My gf watched as well and agreed.
Another example of this phenomena is Ocean’s 13. The movie was ok, but I liked the special features that looked at the evolution of Vegas.
Any other examples you’ve noticed?
Along the same lines, the commentary for Futurama is the best I’ve ever heard.
The Incredibles was a good movie, but the DVD extras, from the superheroes database, to Mr. Incredible’s ill conceived 70’s cartoon, to the Pixar short “Boundin’”, as well as all the film commentary, are spectacular.
The commentary for *Hollow Man * is more entertaining then the movie, and the featurettes on how they did the invisible man f/x are worth the price of a DVD, IMHO.
Over the weekend, I watched Miracle, the story of Herb Brooks and the 1980 U.S. Olympic team which beat the Soviets, took home a gold medal, and saved the world.
It’s not a bad movie, if a little heavy-handed with the tension, and kinda heavy on the recreated hockey scenes. I mean, even more than with most sports movies, you know what the outcome of the big game is going to be, long before you get there.
But I was fascinated by the behind the scenes stuff, especially the explanations of how and why they picked hockey players that physically resembled the originals, and then taught them how to act (And then made sure that for many important scenes, there was as little acting as possible–in one scene, the players were not acting fatigued, they were fatigued.) rather than picking actors and teaching them how to skate and play hockey.
Also, there was a featurette on the sound–interesting exploration of how they recorded and layered sounds to make the hockey games sound not just real, but hyper real.
And an interview with Kurt Russel (actor playing Herb Brooks) and some of the players from the original team.
For someone like me, who isn’t much of a sports fan, and who is too young to remember the 1980 Hockey Game, a lot of the making of stuff was just really cool. Plus, it gave me more of a sense of the history of the era than the movie alone did–though the movie certainly tried.
I second The Incredibles. Wonderful extras. My second place would go to Serenity, if for no other reason than Nathan Fillion’s ad-libbed rant on getting the ship ready for the Reavers.
It is reassuring that I am not the only one to have noticed that some dvd features are better than the movie.
Final Destination 3. The movie was generic teenage horror, but the extras actually gave some insight into the movie-making process, plus you get to “know” all the actors through featurettes and whatnot. Fantastic extras.
The commentary on This Is Spinal Tap has Guest, McKean and Shearer performing in character, at times complaining about how the “documentary” misrepresents them. It’s like a whole other, equally hilarious, movie.
I only bought the Phantom Menace DVD for the included documentaries. The movie itself was galactic in its “meh”-ness.
The DVDs of Band of Brothers conclude with interviews with the surviving actual veterans. I’m not sure if they’re really “extras”, or if they were part of the show in the first place… and they’re not really “better” than the show as much as they are the absolute emotional apex. But, damn, they’re affecting.
I almost think that people should watch the “making of” first on that one (especially the shot-by-shot skating footwork bits and the interview with Al Michaels about how he couldn’t recreate that famous line and they had to use the original). Same with Master & Commander- seeing how hard they worked on the historical accuracy made me appreciate it so much more.
duplicate post…
Battlefield Earth. The movie is as bad as everyone says, but listening to the director’s commentary as he tries to justify everything is an unintentionally hilarious example of someone not having a clue as to what he put on the screen.
I rented this to see a cheesy ‘thriller’ with some good looking chicks. It didn’t disappoint on that level. But then I noticed that there was a commentary track with Rachel Ward and Lori Heuring. The two lead actresses? It was hysterical! They really make fun of the bad writing and it’s just like watching the movie with two catty/gossipy girls. Well worth the rental.
The commentary for Venture Brothers is fantastic as well. Season 2 has one for every episode!
I’ve always felt that the funniest part of Chasing Amy were the deleted scenes.
I loved the 20th anniversary edition of The Exorcist but the documentary about it was even better.
The way Friedkin tried to get performances out of his actors by basically scaring the bejeesus out of them was funny (a bit sadistic, but still funny).
The Score, a pleasant but forgettable heist movie directed by Frank Oz, is worth renting just for one particular extra: Robert DeNiro and Marlon Brando rehearsing a scene together three times. During each rehearsal, Brando changes everything he does: different gestures, different expressions, different inflections – he even invents new dialogue each time. DeNiro, however, is like a computer: he does exactly the same thing three times. It’s a great illustration of two very different approaches to acting.