There’s a new version of Crimson Tide coming out on DVD, and it’s called the Unrated Extended DVD, sounds impressive doesn’t it? A great movie with finally a worthy DVD release? Afraid not, no.
The current Special Edition release (currently a mere £7 delivered) offers the following:
7 x Deleted Scenes, Trailer, Behind The Scenes Featurette, Making Of’ Documentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access
Well scene access and interactive menu’s are not extra’s, they are standards on every DVD, as is a trailer, so let’s scrub those off the list. That leaves us with your standard behind the scenes and making of with seven deleted scenes. Not too bad, but no commentary. It’s in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Anamorphic 2.35:1, so the audio and picture are pretty good on paper.
So what of the new version, this Unrated Extended version? Well according to Movies Online:
2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, English DD5.1 Surround, Optional French Subtitles, Additional Footage Added Back into the Movie, Deleted Scenes, All-New Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of, and more
Eh? So we’re probably getting those seven deleted scenes linked into the movie to watch as a whole and another TV advertisement of a behind the scenes featurette. Very poor, unless that “and more” means an audio commentary, but considering how the list scales down as you go through it, it doesn’t look good. It actually looks the same!
For me an audio commentary is the key extra that I want to see on a DVD, followed by any alternate endings, relevant deleted scenes (not just cuts from the edit room). As for the DVD, I want a DTS\ES and\or DD5.1\6.1\EX audio and Anamporphic Widescreen. Let’s see and hear it as though the filmmakers intended.
For those Home Cinema fans out there, what do you look for on a DVD? What extras do you want in them? Are you attracted by the gimmick of the Crimson Tide above?
The #1 thing I DON’T want on a DVD are the goddam ANIMATED MENUS that take 5 minutes to get to the selections!!!!
These piss me off to no end! On top of that, they add dialogue and spoiler scenes in some cases to the animation. WTF?!
I press language selection and I’m whooshed off in an airplane over the desert and through the tunnel where I look at the side of the cave and see my choices: English, Spanish or French. I choose Spanish and whoosh! I’m off again on a 3 minute ride back to the main menu.
This REALLY ANGERS ME!
-Drewbacca
http://www.moviepatron.com
All I want if Max’d bitrate movie with pristine print and great sound. I want Superbit(tm) treatment. I don’t even want a frickin’ stupid ANIMATING MENU. Just give me the movie spanning the full DVD9.
I wish the studios would produce a full bitrate version and then one with all the xtras on it.
What is the point of re-issuing DVDs if there’s zip on them? I have “The Warriors” on DVD but I didn’t toss it away for the recent “Special Edition” because it didn’t add anything. The only reason for the SE was to hype the video game. There were no commentaries (director Walter Hill does not care for them; but that’s no excuse for cast/producers/writers/ the DOP) so I didn’t bother with it.
As for Crimson Tide, what is the point of a SE if there are no commentaries? If Tony Scott refused to do one due to other projects, fine. What about the writers? What about Jerry Bruckhiemer? How about actors Matt Craven, George Dzundza, and Steve Zahn? How about Captain Skip Beard- the tech advisor? (Tech advisors make the BEST commentaries. Especially the one on…the Top Gun SE? Note: Bruckhiemer and Scott also did a commentary on Top Gun SE)
Other extras I would have been intrested in: What about a tribute to Don Simpson (this was Simspon’s last film, wasn’t it?)
I like substantive director’s commentaries. I think the best one I have ever heard is Boyz n the Hood’s John Singleton. That was just a good story on how he got that script to be backed by a major movie company. Also he went into a lot of details on camera angles and technical stuff I as a movie watcher notice but could never find the words to articulate as well as he could.
I’m all about extra footage that was supposed to be in the movie. Not like we will ever see the x-rated cut of Total Recall or the 6 hour cut of The Thin Red Line that Malick first made. I really don’t care that much for deleted scenes unless they are linked back into the movie since I don’t like just watching them, I prefer them where they should have been in the movie.
Uncut, extended when done right is all I need. Not talking like the Crimson Tide dvd, but like the Underworld one for example was nice when they had longer fights and Almost Famous was also another good one.
Audio commentary is the big one for me, though as Alfredo said, they can be hit and miss. I like it when it’s the director(s)/cast/whatever just watching the movie and talking about it. Usually they can be pretty informative, and sometimes quite amusing. The Clerks X DVD is a good example of this (and it has video of it too!).
Some can suck though. I personally can’t stand the commentary for Reservoir Dogs, as it’s really impersonal; everyone has been recorded at seperate times, and there’s some weird narrator introducing each person before they speak. I couldn’t get through it.
I find the rest to be kind of iffy. Behind the scenes vignettes and blooper reals can be interesting, but a lot of the time they just through on some half-assed TV special for people who’ve never seen the movie before. Like Kill Bill (at least the first).
I’m with CBlaze in not buying movies on DVD when they first come out if they’re stripped of extras. I did this with Sin City, and of course now there’s the uber-ultimate-extended-uncut-tournament edition coming out, which I’ll probably buy because I’m an idiot.
Audio commentary can be hit miss. I’d rather have a blooper real.
A Gag reel is always a plus on movies that aren’t as serious as Saving Private Ryan… The sad thing is – I’ve refused to purchase many movies because of the stripped down nature of the release – when you know that something better WILL come out *coughKillBillcough* – and even then who knows what’ll come as “extras”…
What I want from a DVD is an in-depth behind the scenes from a technical point of view (techniques, camera angels etc.) and an informative commentary (don’t really care if it’s done by the director(s) or actor(s)).
Since my current student budget home theatre is a computer, I don’t care, as much, about the technical finesse of the DVDs (DTS and such).
All i ask for is the way director intended the movie to be, OAR and DTS, is this to much to ask, well for some studios it is