Do you remember when we didn't have DVDs? It really wasn't that long ago. No menus. No language options. You had to rewind the tape. And most importantly, no special features.
No outtakes, deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes, etc.
It seems today that if a DVD isn't packed with special features then people are upset. It's like we don't care about the movie itself... just what else they give us along with it.
Personally, I don't care. I hardly watch the extras on DVDs.
But I'm straying from my point.
Last night, I rented the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And after the movie ended, we went to the "special features" menu, and saw something interesting. They had "deleted scenes" and "very deleted scenes". We were intrigued. What could a very deleted scene be? And so we found out.
They had created 2 fake clips for the movie, as a gag. In the real movie, there is a scene where the 3 main men in the movie burst into an office building to find out where the girl is being held. They try to look intimidating but it backfires. So, in this very deleted scene, they burst in with "Rambo head bands" and war paint and start screaming obscenities, while holding a huge laser gun. Then the director yells "cut" but the camera keeps rolling (this is still part of the gag). Sam Rockwell calls up his agent and starts ordering a new car. Mos Def begins complaining about some of his lines being "stereotypical of a black man" and the guy who plays Arthur Dent just starts complaining in general. The clip goes on for a few minutes. It's really funny (even though I explained it very poorly).
So it got me thinking. What are some of my favorite special features that I've seen on a DVD?
1. Boondock Saints. This movie has 2 long deleted scenes that I always show to people after we watch the movie. One, is about getting into a fight with a woman (which you see clips of in the actual movie), and the other is a telephone call that the main characters make to their mother back in Ireland. These scenes really don't help the overall plot of the movie, but I love them.
2. Monty Python: The Holy Grail - Special Edition. On the second disc, this is a re-enactment of the "Knights of the round table" song... but it's done with Legos. It's awesome!
3. Blade: Trinity. The deleted Scenes / Outtakes are really funny. You can tell that the cast played a lot of jokes while filming the movie.
Anyway, that's just a few off the top of my head. Anyone want to add some? Seen any good special features lately?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Special Features
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3 comments:
I'm not normally big on special features on DVD's myself, but I usually wind up watching them, since my wife seems to want to wring every possible moment of viewing out of any DVD we rent or buy.
There are a few that have entertained me though. You already mentioned Blade Trinity and Hitchiker's Guide, but there are a few others that have made me smile.
Unfortunately, the only one I can remember at the moment is The Incredibles - not only do you get the cartoon short that showed before the movie in theaters, but you get Jak Jak Attack short, which is hilarious.
Did you really just mention Blade Trinity??? That in and of itself qualifies as hilarious in my book.
To be honest, I don't usually watch special features on my own. I remember being made to watch the special features on the Boondock Saints DVD though, and that fight with the butcher woman is awesome. I also have to second the Incredibles SFs, and you've got to love the blooper real on that bad boy- obviously they weren't accidental, so the very existence of them alone is funny, not to mention that the outtakes themselves are pretty hysterical.
I'm quite the fan of the features on the Old School DVD, particularly the Inside the Actor's Studio Spoof, as well as the outtakes from Anchorman. Basically, just I adore Will Ferrell. He makes me laugh so hard that fluids come out of my nose;-)
On the Starsky and Hutch remake DVD there's a hidden extra (I can't remember how to get to it at this precise moment) and it's Vince Vaughn interviewing a security guy on the lot that they were filming. He plays a trivia game with him and it's pretty funny. Not really related to the movie itself though.
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