How many of us actually watch *ALL* the extras a DVD has to offer? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I check out all the extras on all the DVDs I watch. I know a lot of reviewers just skim them, but that bugs me to death; if I'm going to give an opinion about something, I need to screen ALL of it, not just sample it...

For example...American Pie 2, has 4 ENTIRE commentaries, so I had to watch the movie 4 times with each different commentary.

Do what I do: tape them and listen to them in the car. They're fun to check out in that situation - it's the best way to screen ACs as far as I'm concerned...

 

[Bill J]

I ALWAYS watch the deleted scenes.

I forgot about deleted scenes. I always watch them with and without the director's commentary.

 

[Bruce Hedtke]

tape them and listen to them in the car

Anyone have any idea what Colin is talking about? How do you play tapes in a car?
J/K, Colin, but that is an interesting way to go about it.
Bruce

 

[Dave H]

I never read the bios, etc.

I do watch the documentaries or "makin of" features.

Rarely do I even both with the trailer unless it's a favorite movie.

 

[Rob T]

I go through pretty much everything (including easter eggs if there are any). I generally don't watch the commentaries. I might watch the Conan commentary though.

 

[Mike Broadman]

When I first got a DVD player and a couple of discs, I plowed through all the extras and commentaries. I spent a good 2 weeks on Terminator 2 alone.

Since then, however, the only DVDs I've watched all the way through with commentaries is This Is Spinal Tap and Dreamtheater's concert DVD.

Sometimes I'll check out a "making of" thing. I just bought Citizen Kane and will probably watch some of the 2nd disc of bonus stuff.

In general, though, I don't care about extras. The main reason I want special editions is because they tend to change things that I don't like about the first release, such as no OAR and flippers.

 

[Eric Huffstutler]

I advocate extras as well.

My least favorite though are the commentaries followed by still galleries and/or biographies. I have over 200 DVD's and have listened to only 2 commentaries.

My favorites are Making Of (behind the scenes) and then Theatrical Trailers.

 

[Paul D G]

I might buy a DVD fully intending to listen to the commentaries but I dont always get to it as my time is limited. For older movies I've seen so many times previously prior to getting the DVD I'll watch with the commentary on first. With other movies I'll probably have the commentaries on next time I get an itch to watch it.

I always watch the featurettes, etc when I first get a disc, outtakes and deletes after watching the movie. I usually skip photo galleries unless there is a specific interest, and I never read the text based stuff -- tho I do give a cursory look-see.

-paul

 

[Seth Paxton]

Actually in my database I keep track of all sorts of things, like number of views, last viewing, and what extras have or have not been watched.

I'm still trying to see every film I own, a list now down to 15 (actually up from 11 with recent purchases). For some I catch all the extras the first time through, for most I wait till next time.

Once I can say that I've watched everything I bought, then I will pick and choose what to watch and many times that will be extras rather than the film the next time.

I may not watch extras more than once, but I will get to them.

Fight Club I went through all 4 commentaries within a week and watched the film (for the 3rd time) before that. But I started to burn out before I explored disc 2. So I set it aside for later.

Kevin Smith I always do the commentary right after the film. Carpenter I recently bought the Escape from NY LD just for $5 just to get the commentary not on the DVD. I thought it was worth it.

 

[Eric Peterson]

I try my best to watch all of the extras, I usually don't get through all of them the first before I reach burn-out. However, I always return to the disc at a laster point and finish viewing the extras. I absolutely love a good commentary track and if there's more than one, it makes the disc an automatic buy for me. I would not own near as many discs as I do, if it weren't for the extras. My new rule of thumb is, "no extras, it's a renter".

 

[Deane Johnson]

I never watch anything on the disc except the movie itself. I'm one of those who would by happy if they just provided an outstanding transfer of the basic movie and nothing else. To me, listening to a director's commentary on how they did each shot and what they were intending ruins the magic of the film.

Deane

 

[NeilEdwards]

I try to, but sometimes they just rehash the same material over and over. For example, this week I was watching the MASH extras. I thought, "If I ever hear Robert Altman again say ... There were two other wars going on at Fox ..."

Often, it is a waste of time. If the commentary is good, then that is often sufficient.

Sometimes a documentary is okay. But multiple documentaries saying the same thing simply edited slightly differently. A waste of time.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I have over 250 DVDs and I can honestly say that with the exception of isolated scores and sound effects tracks, I have listened to every single commentary.
As for the rest, I always delve into the special features. I am particularly fond of making-of documentaries. The making of films fascinates me endlessly (I'm not sure why), so I never miss an opportunity to learn something new. In particular, discs like Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Criterion's Brazil have been really informative and entertaining as well.

 

[Ray Chuang]

I think the problem is that many of the so-called extras you get on DVD suck like a vacuum cleaner in terms of being complementary to the movie itself.
There are some DVD's that have flat-out superb extras, though. I cite the recent Platinum Edition release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the current Collector's Edition release of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I especially recommend the latter DVD set because you really see the animators created the movie from start to finish and get a lot of insights on why they created the movie that way.

 

[Haywood]

I harldy ever watch the extras. To me extras are just alot of extra work I rather just watch the film. Like others have said most extras suck.
Later Haywood

 

[Iain Jackson]

Generally I watch all the extras, including skimming through production notes and filmographies. That said, I don't listen to isolated music scores (well, not fully, anyway), and I do have a few commentaries and various other bits and pieces still to watch - I haven't had as much time lately to watch them all.

 

[Marc Colella]

When I watch a DVD for the first time:
- immediately after watching the movie, I watch all the extras
EXCEPT:
- when I wound up disliking the movie, then I don't care about the supplements.
- I ignore all text-written items (ie. bios, filmographies). Find them too hard to read on a television.
- I don't view DVD-Rom extras, since I don't have a DVD-Rom drive
- I don't listen to the commentary track (too time consuming). I have 150 DVDs, 70 of which have a commentary track. I have only listened to 1 so far (Boogie Nights). Will listen to more once I'm caught up in my DVD viewing.

 

[BrianP]

I usually look at all the extras on a DVD except for DVDROM features and commentaries. I do enjoy the extra features but would not hesitate to buy a bare bone version of a movie if it is something I like.

 

[Kelly W]

As someone else said earlier, I USED to view all the extras on my DVDs as soon as I got them (even ones I rented). When the format was new and exciting, I couldn't get enough of the extras. Commentaries were new to me (I never got into laserdisc-- but I WOULD have if I had known more about them-- but that may be a topic for another thread) and as such, completely devoured them (even "bad" ones).

Later, I made it a point to watch all the extras, but it felt more like work. When I finished the commentary on The Matrix, for example, I was just happy to hear it end.

Now, while I still love special editions, sometimes I feel "relieved" when a near bare-bones disc is released. For example, Memento has just enough S.E. content for me. The interview with Christopher Nolan is sufficient. I don't think I will buy that rumored Special Edition when it comes out (but I may eat these words later when I read the specs).

My favorite features are making-of documentaries, but only the ones that are worth my while. (Bond, CE3K, Jaws, Tron, etc.) I never spend much time with still galleries except that I really enjoyed the merchandising tie-ins presented on the Bukaroo Banzai DVD. I would like to see more of that type of thing. Behind the scenes photos from the set are not interesting to me at all, especially for relatively recent movies.

I haven't listened to a commentary in a LONG time (Kevin Smith commentaries excluded). I bought all the Bond movies as they were released and have never made it all the way through one of the commentaries. I told myself that I would watch them in order once they were all released, but I've yet to go back and do that.

By the way, I know what an EPK featurette is (a waste of time, of course), but what does EPK stand for?

So to sum up this beast of a post, I used to watch all the extras, but now that the "novelty" has worn off I only watch extras that are truly special.

That said, I still don't like to buy complete bare-bones DVDs. For example, I really want to get Spy Kids, but I'm holding out for a S.E. which will probably come out in time for the sequel. Why? Well, I guess that I like the added "value" and the idea that there is always something for me to watch if I get bored.

-Kelly

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I watch all the extras the first time that I watch a disc, every time. That way I don't have to wonder if I saw everything. This explains the many piles of unwatched discs in my HT.
The only exception is DVD ROM material, since I don't have equipment for playing that.