Two months ago, I got the Memento Special Edition DVD. I was really pumped to be able to see it in chronological order. After an hour and a half, I finally found what I was looking for. But there is no chapter advance for this feature, so you either have to watch it all the way through, write down the time you stopped at, or pause the DVD (which I don’t like to do for extended periods of time).
This weekend, I remembered that I haven’t gone through the audio commentary for it - I really wanted to know what Nolan had to say about his film. Well, I made it 30 minutes through before I fell asleep. Okay, it was late, so I gave it another try on Saturday - fell asleep 45 minutes through the film (and that was starting at the 30 min. mark).
If you ever have a hard time sleeping, try listening to Christopher Nolan’s voice. REM City, baby.
I tried again yesterday, but alas, I friggin’ fell asleep again! It was quite easily the worst commentary I’ve ever listened to.
I’d also like to give Mulholland Drive a nomination, but you can’t bad mouth goodies that don’t exist.
I hate any DVD that has a commentary that is not scene-specific, but rather an audio track of interviews that may or may not have anything to do with what you are seeing at that moment on the screen. The Rock and Terminator 2 do this.
-In general, any DVD that includes pictures of written documents as a “bonus”- and the text isn’t legible.
-The Omega 13 on the Galaxy Quest DVD.
-Being John Malkovich’s “Don’t Enter Here, There’s Nothing Here” so-called extra.
-And although it doesn’t count as the “worst” DVD goodie, I was really, really disappointed with the commentary tracks on the Mr. Show DVD. Stupid characters with falsetto voices mouthing mind-numbingly bad commentary would’ve been bad enough on its own, but you can’t even follow the sketches because of the so-called “commentary”.
I generally wont search for easter eggs but will instead look them up. Memento was really annoying when I found I couldn’t advance or reverse but there are other stuff that make it worth while. The short story was really interesting. Too bad you have to read it off the TV. BTW, did you notice how the clock keeps skipping around? On your DVD player that is.
I was all stoked to buy Final Fantasy and couldn’t wait to see the Thriller parody but they never got to the singing. It was actually frustrating to watch waiting Michael to start up. But they don’t it’s just “doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo doo-do do-doo.” I hated it.
[ul][li]Trailers for other DVDs the studio would like you to buy, especially when they have no meaningful relationship to the DVD you’re watching.[]Animated menus with annoyingly short repeat cycles (a hint to DVD makers: if the animation cycles before I have a chance to read all the menu options, something ain’t right).[]An interview that covers the entire run of a TV series included as part of the season one DVD release (are you listening, Garry?)[/ul][/li]
Mojo, does your DVD player not have a zoom function?
Munch, buddy, you’re ahead of me. I haven’t yet gotten around to any of the commentary tracks on Memento!
Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee, KTK. I’d classify Nolan as someone with a droning voice, but that insults the melodious tonings of honeybees everywhere.
If you really want to listen to a commentary with zing, check out Hard Eight (a.k.a. Sydney). I’ve only listened to the Paul Thomas Anderson/Philip Baker Hall commentary so far (there’s another), but PTA can’t seem to go five minutes without saying the word “fuck.” It’s kind of like watching Civilisation to see where Sir Kenneth Clarke is going to pop up next … in fact, I’m thinking of making a drinking game out of it.
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” making you ‘find’ the deleted scenes and successfully complete assorted challenges. Come on, folks, I don’t want to play games, I just want to watch the freakin’ scenes!
In fact, I watched it with my sister late at night, and we got tired of messing with it and went to bed, so I still haven’t actually seen them. Some day I’ll pick the thing up again.
There are specific commentaries I could pick on, but in general, I find the “Recommendations” on DVDs to be pretty worthless, especially those found on early DVDs. Back then, studios hardly had any DVDs out at all, so they filled up the “recommendations” screen with just about anything they had on hand.
“If you enjoyed Scream, you’ll enjoy Phenomenon!” Like hell I will.
I’m not sure if it counts as an extra, but the “Are you ready for FOX DVD?” ad that pops up every time I boot up a FOX disc annoys the bejesus out of me. Hey, I already bought the damn DVD, stop trying to sell it to me!
Another feature that irks me is the language option on some Universal discs. Usually, if I want to hear the dialogue in French or the director’s commentary, I can just push the Audio button on my remote, but Universal, for some damn reason, makes the viewer go to the main menu, select the commentary option from the Languages menu, and then go back to the movie. The most recent instance of this irritating phenomenon is on the 2002 The Time Machine (a complete waste of $15.99, BTW).
Oh, oh, oh! I almost forgot! When you listen to the director’s commentary on Memento, they automatically switch it to closed captioning on the movie dialogue. Now, I imagine some people would like that, and I understand that. But I’m easily distracted*, so combine the fact that Nolan is a hypnotist with being distracted by the words, and you have yourself a horrible director’s commentary experience.
[sub]*That dog has a poofy tail! Here poof, here poof![/sub]
I’ve been watching the audio commentary from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after reading this thread a little earlier, and feel obligated to describe what is one of the worst examples of the commentary not corresponding to what is happening on-screen. Now, I don’t mind a little of this, but this particular episode is ridculous.
Those who are familiar with the movie (no movie spoilers, but I do describe the off-topic comments some) will probably remember when Butch and Sundance meet up with the Strother Martin character who hires them to protect transport of a mine’s payroll. The movie follows them in their duties in some of the movie’s funniest and exciting moments, through some very picturesque countryside, I might add. Opportunities for the the director George Roy Hill or cinematographer Conrald Hall to describe the shooting of this part of the film abound. But what do we get? An interminable description of a bet Hill and Robert Redford have where Hill tried to set up Redford on the losing end of a fencing (yes, fencing!) match on the set of the film. Robert Crawford (dialogue coach, I believe), who tells the story could have wrapped this up in a minute. Yet this tale goes on forever, in my case, literally jaw-droppingly forever. Hours pass. No detail is left undescribed. The rolls of various crew members in the set-up are related. Paul Newman’s attempts to influence the outcome of the match are made known. Only when the tale is finally told, do we get back to the movie. And to top it off, the story offers no real insight into the people involved, which might have at least given it some relevance.
I was very disappointed with the “Extras” on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail DVD special edition. There are some cute little jokes they throw in, but I was really expecting more from a 2-DVD set that comes from Python.
Yes, that one made me mad, too. There was a thread on here about how to find it, and I think there was a link to a Warner Bros. site with detailed step-by-step instructions on how to find them.
And then when you do get to them, it’s like 30 seconds snipped from the beginning or end of 5 or 6 scenes. Not anything really important at all. Grrrrr.
I remember a Jenna Jameson DVD that included a commentary track by the costume designer. You watch Jenna getting violently sodomized while he tells you all about what she’s wearing. It was rather bizarre.
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned the commentary for the Matrix. Boy, is that ever some boring crap. Still, fantastic movie and the other extras are top class.
