Popdose: DVD News: 20th Century Fox — Disaster in the Making
Zack
· 9 months ago
Fuck NewsCorp. I'm so pleased to see their billion-dollar investment in myspace going up in smoke, and hearing about their film division pissing away money gives me a chuckle as well.
Ray
· 9 months ago
20th Century Fox is no stranger to screwing the public with its handling of DVD releases. You think this is bad, check out what they're doing to fans of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. They've literally strung fans along by taking their sweet time releasing the first four seasons, then nearly three years after the last set was released made the WISE decision to forego sets for the last three seasons in favor of doing a VERY expensive "Complete Series Set", knowing full well that most fans already have Seasons 1 through 4 (in essence making us repurchase those sets after stringing us along all these years in order to get the last three seasons). Check out how they're being raked over the coals for their bait-and-switch tactics on Amazon.com... makes for some mighty interesting reading!!!
Lance Berry
· 9 months ago
I've heard about the Mary Tyler Moore controversy. It's pretty much just as bad as Paramount's decision to take the original 60's Star Trek discs out of circulation so that the next generation of viewers(pun intended) will only have the "remastered" versions to hold close to their unsuspecting hearts.
Yes, the evil of Fox knows no bounds, and this newest move on the studio's part would probably make Emperor Palpatine sit back in his chair and go "Damn, I wish I'd thought of that!"
DavidMedsker
· 9 months ago
As luck, or lack thereof, would have it, I've reviewed a bunch of Fox movies in the last year, and let me tell you, no one is stingier with the bonus material than they are. "City of Ember" didn't have a single extra feature; just three trailers. "Australia" had a couple of nonessential deleted scenes. Are you telling me that there wasn't a crew documenting Baz's every move on that set for a featurette or three? Please.
So now they're withholding those piddly extras for those who buy their DVDs? That's rich.
DwDunphy
· 9 months ago
All the studios have ruined their DVD sets. Remember the days of Disney's Vista series, New Line's Platinum series and Universal's collectors editions? These things, quite often, rivaled high-price auteur labels like Criterion. Hell, remember when they still put the little booklets in?
But then two things happened: first, the film participants wanted a cut of the cash for kicking in with special features. They wanted a redistribution clause for their EPK interviews so that as a part of the DVD, they could legally consider it an acting job and expect equal pay for it.
The second thing is that there aren't any real surprises now in film making, so those lengthy documentaries on the whole special effects process can now be summed up in a sentence: the computer did it. There isn't a lot on which you can expound upon when it comes to the latest talking animal cartoon, or the latest psycho-killer, torture porn flick or the latest heart-breakingly earnest costume drama about Heartbroken Ernest. While I enjoy my full-blown special editions like nobody else, whatever they tell me now is unlikely to be anything I haven't heard.
As for Fox, what's one more pearl on their string of mistakes? I'm surprised they didn't sink a bunch of money to make another one of those awful Ice Age movies.
What???
Lance Berry
· 9 months ago
Dw, you make some good points. However, I'm really a fan of extras, especially when it comes to special effects, because I like knowing that 90% of the effects for The Ruins were done Old School, without CGI. The crew rigorously tested the texture and realistic nature of the vines to make certain the effect would hold up in natural daylight on screen.
I like knowing that the first part of the effects shot in The Dark Knight where Batman and the criminal he abducts from China using Operation: Skyhook was done FOR REAL, and shot 88 stories above the ground.
I also don't really have a problem with actors getting paid for doing commentaries and such, because it's time out of their day which they have to slot in, and schedule between other film shoots they could be doing. When Warner Bros. was preparing to do the commentaries for Babylon 5's DVDs, the company tried to get creator J. Michael Straczynski to talk to the actors and convince them to do it for free. Straczynski didn't like it, so his solution was to call the actors and say, "Hey...I'm talking to you about it, just like I promised Warner!" The end result: the actors got paid for doing a JOB, which legally...you're supposed to get paid when you work. It's one of the great joys of justifying having to get out of bed in the morning.
I also think that commentaries from stars of films add a lot to the DVD, and such was severely lacking on the DVD for Milk, since Sean Penn didn't do one, and didn't appear in any of the bonus docu-features. Did he deserve his Oscar? Yes...but the fact he didn't do any commentary on the DVD smacks of "Well, I already got my statue...what've you done for me lately?"
I don't think all the studios have ruined their DVD sets per se, as you can still find gems here and there...but Fox is certainly on its way to causing a deep disturbance in the Force regarding retail rentals...and hopefully, other studios won't follow their lead.
DwDunphy
· 9 months ago
The actors compensation thing sort of bugs me still, though. Yes, they should probably be compensated for their time in some way, but extras are also a form of promotion. They're not acting, they're talking about a point where they were acting. Whatever the rate is that they'd get for going on The Tonight Show or Letterman to promote should be the compensation for their DVD efforts.
And don't get me wrong, I love extras too, provided they give me something. As a former, frustrated film-school wannabe, I want depth in what they're discussing. I want a full disclosure on how the movie makers put the movie together, from script to screen. Most of the time though, you get actors saying how tough it was to wring "honest tears from myself in service to such an amazing script" (actors use the word 'amazing' to describe every damned thing) and CGI artists exclaiming how their work almost "broke the rendering processors!" But that's it. No real inside look at the process.
Now, Robert Rodriguez always used to do cool things with his releases. His Ten Minute Film School bit on the El Mariachi disc is great. Even the featurette on Star Wars Phantom Menace, where the cut waterfall sequence is put together digitally at ILM is good. These are all at least ten years old by now.
Don't get me wrong. This is no defense of Fox and what you're saying makes a lot of sense, but I can't help but say they don't make 'em like they used to... And they haven't for quite awhile (and no, Easter eggs don't count. They should put everything up front and not jerk the consumers around.)
Dan
· 9 months ago
Appaloosa sucked. Really really sucked. Every shot was a medium distance shot. There were no wide shots to highlight the scenery of the west. And there were no close-ups. None. Good actors were stripped of the ability to use there faces to convey emotion. We couldn't even be sure that one of the main characters was being played by Lance Henrickson until we saw the credits(although we were pretty sure by his voice) because the camera never got any closer than about 20 feet away. The story was ok, but the screenplay was second-rate. The pacing was stilted. The musical choices were distracting. And Renee Zellweger looked like Mickey Rourke.
BobCashill
· 9 months ago
Not to sound like a philistine, but about the only time I watch/listen to extras is when I'm obliged to. Otherwise, I rarely go near them, particularly with major releases, where the commentaries tend to be a lot of back-slapping. Everyone's exhausted from making the movie and now it's Miller Time with the mic on.
The smaller companies tend to put bigger effort into their DVDs. Those I'll look at more closely.
My pet peeve: Double-, triple-, quadruple-dipping on the same hits. I don't care what the extras are, I'm not rebuying it, anymore...I like catalog releases, which are receding on standard DVD as Blu-Ray becomes the new spawning ground.
Fox has done some stellar work with special editions: The Alien box set comes to mind. But all the majors studios seem to have abandoned that level of commitment. I'm happy just to get something older than 1980 once in a while.
(As for Milk, I'm sure the DVD specs were set in stone before Penn won his Oscar. Some actors/filmmakers are bad at commentary, which is an art form all its own. And some, like Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg, are simply indifferent, or prefer to maintain radio silence.)
joe
· 9 months ago
and they wonder why there/s piracey, stupid c*nts!!
autodidact
· 9 months ago
I'm with Cashill. Even for my favorite sci-fi movie of all time, Blade Runner (the theatrical cut, not any of the Director's Cuts), I don't think I'll be able to wade through all the audio commentaries. The "making of" feature was 3 hours, and really needed trimming. Just give me a good movie or TV show. One that holds up to repeated viewing. That's all I want. As a practical matter, what percentage of the movie buying/renting public actually watch the extras?
I don't have Blu-Ray, but it is worth mentioning how poor the Dark Knight DVD transfer was. Noisy and grainy in some scenes, and very over-smoothed and blocky in a few places. I wouldn't pay money for such shoddy work. Forget the extras. Give me good visuals on the feature product! I'm sure the Blu-Ray is nice, but that's no excuse.
All Comments
Yes, the evil of Fox knows no bounds, and this newest move on the studio's part would probably make Emperor Palpatine sit back in his chair and go "Damn, I wish I'd thought of that!"
So now they're withholding those piddly extras for those who buy their DVDs? That's rich.
But then two things happened: first, the film participants wanted a cut of the cash for kicking in with special features. They wanted a redistribution clause for their EPK interviews so that as a part of the DVD, they could legally consider it an acting job and expect equal pay for it.
The second thing is that there aren't any real surprises now in film making, so those lengthy documentaries on the whole special effects process can now be summed up in a sentence: the computer did it. There isn't a lot on which you can expound upon when it comes to the latest talking animal cartoon, or the latest psycho-killer, torture porn flick or the latest heart-breakingly earnest costume drama about Heartbroken Ernest. While I enjoy my full-blown special editions like nobody else, whatever they tell me now is unlikely to be anything I haven't heard.
As for Fox, what's one more pearl on their string of mistakes? I'm surprised they didn't sink a bunch of money to make another one of those awful Ice Age movies.
What???
I like knowing that the first part of the effects shot in The Dark Knight where Batman and the criminal he abducts from China using Operation: Skyhook was done FOR REAL, and shot 88 stories above the ground.
I also don't really have a problem with actors getting paid for doing commentaries and such, because it's time out of their day which they have to slot in, and schedule between other film shoots they could be doing. When Warner Bros. was preparing to do the commentaries for Babylon 5's DVDs, the company tried to get creator J. Michael Straczynski to talk to the actors and convince them to do it for free. Straczynski didn't like it, so his solution was to call the actors and say, "Hey...I'm talking to you about it, just like I promised Warner!" The end result: the actors got paid for doing a JOB, which legally...you're supposed to get paid when you work. It's one of the great joys of justifying having to get out of bed in the morning.
I also think that commentaries from stars of films add a lot to the DVD, and such was severely lacking on the DVD for Milk, since Sean Penn didn't do one, and didn't appear in any of the bonus docu-features. Did he deserve his Oscar? Yes...but the fact he didn't do any commentary on the DVD smacks of "Well, I already got my statue...what've you done for me lately?"
I don't think all the studios have ruined their DVD sets per se, as you can still find gems here and there...but Fox is certainly on its way to causing a deep disturbance in the Force regarding retail rentals...and hopefully, other studios won't follow their lead.
And don't get me wrong, I love extras too, provided they give me something. As a former, frustrated film-school wannabe, I want depth in what they're discussing. I want a full disclosure on how the movie makers put the movie together, from script to screen. Most of the time though, you get actors saying how tough it was to wring "honest tears from myself in service to such an amazing script" (actors use the word 'amazing' to describe every damned thing) and CGI artists exclaiming how their work almost "broke the rendering processors!" But that's it. No real inside look at the process.
Now, Robert Rodriguez always used to do cool things with his releases. His Ten Minute Film School bit on the El Mariachi disc is great. Even the featurette on Star Wars Phantom Menace, where the cut waterfall sequence is put together digitally at ILM is good. These are all at least ten years old by now.
Don't get me wrong. This is no defense of Fox and what you're saying makes a lot of sense, but I can't help but say they don't make 'em like they used to... And they haven't for quite awhile (and no, Easter eggs don't count. They should put everything up front and not jerk the consumers around.)
The story was ok, but the screenplay was second-rate.
The pacing was stilted.
The musical choices were distracting.
And Renee Zellweger looked like Mickey Rourke.
The smaller companies tend to put bigger effort into their DVDs. Those I'll look at more closely.
My pet peeve: Double-, triple-, quadruple-dipping on the same hits. I don't care what the extras are, I'm not rebuying it, anymore...I like catalog releases, which are receding on standard DVD as Blu-Ray becomes the new spawning ground.
Fox has done some stellar work with special editions: The Alien box set comes to mind. But all the majors studios seem to have abandoned that level of commitment. I'm happy just to get something older than 1980 once in a while.
(As for Milk, I'm sure the DVD specs were set in stone before Penn won his Oscar. Some actors/filmmakers are bad at commentary, which is an art form all its own. And some, like Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg, are simply indifferent, or prefer to maintain radio silence.)
I don't have Blu-Ray, but it is worth mentioning how poor the Dark Knight DVD transfer was. Noisy and grainy in some scenes, and very over-smoothed and blocky in a few places. I wouldn't pay money for such shoddy work. Forget the extras. Give me good visuals on the feature product! I'm sure the Blu-Ray is nice, but that's no excuse.