How often do you view extras on DVD's?

[Blaze]

It depends how good the movie is.

I usually listen to all commentary once, unless it's someone I don't care for or if it's just too boring to continue halfway through.

[animegirl]

I find myself enjoying director/cast/etc commentary the most (except for The Exorcist; William Friedkin's track on that is horrid).

That was the worst commentary I have ever heard. All he did was narrate what was going on in the movie. I can see what the fuck is going on, I want to know the how and why! He might has well been reading the script over the movie. Very crappy indeed!

[Diff-chan]

That's not exactly what I was referring to. Let's say, you're watching Blade Runner with commentary on and at the very end Ridley Scott says, "Oh, by the way, Deckard is a replicant." (Which he eventually did say in an interview.) Where's the fun and mystery in watching Blade Runner now? It ends all debate. And in that case, shouldn't the movie have been effective enough so that it's clear he was a replicant? Even the Director's Cut is based on ambiguity. Movies should exist solely as movies, and you shouldn't have to delve into websites, commentaries, and DVD trinkets and extras to fully discover and enjoy them.

I can see where you are going with this Sqoon.

Imagine if commentaries exist four hundred years ago, and Shakespeare said, in Hamlet's commentary track:

"Yea, so Hamlet wasn't insane... he was just faking it."

Bam. Case closed.

Boo.

[arjue]

I usually watch audio commentaries, but other than that, only if its a stand out thing, like behind the death scenes in Final Destination 2, or the MTV movie awards skit on the matrix reloaded dvd

[voltz]

I'm always going after the deleted scenes, which makes me ask why they never find some way to fit them into the film if they're still on the disk?

I liked how it worked with terminator 2 and xmen, as they used the same video track that was the extra. I could have used something like that in the last release of the alien legacy set (alien, alien3 and resurrection would have been complete) and quite frankly, it's not wasting resources on the budget while it's already in there.

It's just because of how the director's are putting the films together (cutting and hacking), I'm more then tempted to buy a DVD-R and see about editing my version of the films so I'll have them extended/restored to the way they were meant to be seen.

[Schlep]

I'm firmly in the camp that very rarely looks at them, and I've never listened to an audio commentary.

I as well would like to see less compression on the video and DTS on all movies. Extras were fairly good when DVD first started, but they've degenerated into space fillers for the most part.

[Rich]

I usually only watch deleted scenes, and if the movie warrants it, stunt sequences.

[Mzo]

I'm always going after the deleted scenes, which makes me ask why they never find some way to fit them into the film if they're still on the disk?

There are a lot of reasons why scenes are deleted from movies. One of the most popular ones is time restraints. A lot of the better directors out there can tell when the movie's getting a little long.

[voltz]

There are a lot of reasons why scenes are deleted from movies. One of the most popular ones is time restraints. A lot of the better directors out there can tell when the movie's getting a little long.

They put time restraints on T2 and still allowed it to play with extra scenes (by code), I don't see why it's such a problem.

[salmonax]

That's not exactly what I was referring to. Let's say, you're watching Blade Runner with commentary on and at the very end Ridley Scott says, "Oh, by the way, Deckard is a replicant." (Which he eventually did say in an interview.) Where's the fun and mystery in watching Blade Runner now? It ends all debate. And in that case, shouldn't the movie have been effective enough so that it's clear he was a replicant? Even the Director's Cut is based on ambiguity. Movies should exist solely as movies, and you shouldn't have to delve into websites, commentaries, and DVD trinkets and extras to fully discover and enjoy them.

Oh, I see. But I'm pretty sure Ridley Scott was just sick of being asked the question, a la Lucy Lawless on the Simpsons: "A wizard did it." Other directors, like Lucas or the Wachowskis, will understand geek impulses and purposefully withhold information to ferment debate (all the better to cash in on).