Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Beyond DVDs

I may have mentioned it once or twice, but I like movies and really appreciate DVDs. I like the big movie experience, but revel in the Special Features on a DVDs. I also like to rewind... and look at a nice ass again.

I recently saw Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, something I wanted to see in the big movie and missed by a day. I'm glad I finally caught up with it, a very entertaining movie. I mentioned in the past that I am a Val fan, but this flick was done before Troy, I am assuming, because he lacks the Dunlaps Disease. Robert D*wney, Jr., eh? Fine, he was in it, too.

I must admit the DVD was life altering in my tastes because of the commentary. I figured Val would be charming and Robert would be bright, but scattered. Instead, mostly, Val was obnoxious. He has the reputation of being difficult on the set and I understand that now. It is mostly in the detail and in the mouthiness, a thoroughness I understand, but would never be so pompous as to voice repeatedly.

At the outset of the commentary, Val said to count how many times he proceeded to name drop and he would post the number on his personal website, the winner getting some sort of pseudo prize. Robert acted as if he were counting and Val would remind him to count. Val would get on a string and just BS to list actors he'd starred with, ancient writers, modern artists, you name it just for the name dropping game, which was actually Val's desire to be considered along side greatness, yet make it pseudo funny. It wasn't. I could not watch/listen to the whole commentary. He had to dominate everything. It made me sick. It made me glad Val has a script when I usually see him.

But it made me very happy to have the two main stars in a smaller budget/paycheck movie come together to do the commentary. A for effort.

I've also recently watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith. First, to get these details out of the way, why didn't I realize that the premise is that Brad and Angie are in marriage counseling? The irony!Also, why the fuck did I not know what fucking Vince Vaughn was Brad Pitt's partner in crime? The irony! The intent?

Further, I was astonished at how Angie and P's daughter, L, are so much alike in their body language. Watching Angie, I had flickers of memories which developed into full out reminders, me surprised that Angie stirred these flashes and images. Angie's eye roll matches L's, as does her shrug, her head nod, her face set, her eye squint. It was eerie and completely unanticipated. Angie does a good teenager as she is trying to play an assassin. Go figure.

This DVD sucked concerning the commentaries, excepting the sheer number of them. This single DVD contained four versions of the flick. Four! One commentary with director/photography guy, one with some producers, one with editors/special effects people. Where were Brad and Angie? Jetting around as philanthropists, not to be bothered with the loose ends of a movie? That's why I like commentaries, to decipher the real personalities, and I don't like when the commentaries or interviews are lacking. Honestly, I don't really care about the real personality of the editor.

4 comments:

Kellie said...

I totally enjoyed Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Although, I find Angie much more attrative than Brad... much to my husbands' delight. lol

We usually try to watch the commentaries - although sometimes I get very turned off by them. Sometimes they ruin the movie for me.

Donna said...

OK, you hated the commentary, but did you like Mr. & Mrs. Smith? I keep debating whether to spend the time to watch it or not.

Cricket said...

Donna, I debated having it in my queue, then in snuck up into first place when I was distracted.

Even on NetFlix, where ratings are inflated, Smith gets only 3 stars of 5.

K, I was just the opposite. Angie was over acting or putting on teenaged pouts and Brad was all his twinkling-eyed, boy-faced glory. I fell back in love with his charm, even as I was distracted throughout the whole thing, looking for hits of their additional togetherness, being pissed at the injustice.

The plot was thin and there were holes (no pun, plenty of gun fire) in it, but it wasn't bad, just ho-hum for what I expected.

Vince Vaughn was his obnoxious fast-talking self. The verison in Old School and Swingers was very endearing. The version in Made and this, well, annoying. Also, he didn't look good, big bags under his eyes, so even his usual yumminess was lacking.

Orange said...

I really liked both movies, and saw them both on the big screen. NetFlixed "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" so my husband could see it, and liked it just as much the second time. Brad and Angelina sure ain't hard to watch, I'll say that. Cute chemistry. (And I dreamed I was out hiking in the woods with Brad the other night. Also dreamed that Jake Gyllenhaal was putting the moves on me! And I'm not usually one to have movie star dreams. Weird.)

I fell for Robert Downey Jr. when he came across so well in a long Entertainment Weekly interview before "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" came out. Smart! Interesting! Clever! And with dreamy eyes! The movie was funny, too. My favorite bit was when Val Kilmer mocked RDJr's arithmetic skills and grammar.

I've never watched a DVD with the commentary on. Doesn't interest me for whatever reason.