How did I miss the Dread Pirate edition of the Princess Bride?

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Am I the only who scours around looking for bare-bones editions of movies on DVD? I never watch the infomercial extras or listen to the commentaries in which a director talks about how wonderful each actor was to work with (yes, there are good commentaries but they are so rare I only listen to them if I've seen them specifically recommended). I just want a quality transfer of the movie and if nothing else is on there I'm ok with it since that generally means it is $10 cheaper.

Since I refuse to spend more than $10 for a DVD it makes it a lot easier to get quality if they ocassionally put out a bare-bones edition.

Well, I think you're alone. You can still find the extras on a cheap edition by surfing ebay and amazon used if a cheap DVD is your goal.

I love all the extras, makes for some interesting viewing and I rarely listen to the commentary simply because even if I've seen the movie a dozen times, I can't bear anyone talking over it, even the director

[Ponine]

According to Entertainment Weekly, these are actutally the same special edition that was released years ago just with a new cover.

Now, I have the special edition, but I know a great many people never knew there was one, and just have the slimmed down version.

I think the quote in EW was something to the effect of taking an A movie and putting it in C packaging.

[Alex]

My experience is that 95% of the commentaries are painfully craptacular (Roger Ebert should do them a lot more often as he really is good at them, even if his Citizen Kane commentary is pretty lame) so I'd rather miss a few good ones than sit through any more bad ones.

I have plenty of well-bonused DVDs that I got below my $10 limit by watching for sales at Amazon or good finds in the $8.88 bin at Wal-Mart. But I'd rather have my $8 copy of All About Eve (my all time favorite movie) with nothing else on it than a $25 version with 60 commentaries, making-of documentaries, and images of every lobby card used nationwide. Plus, the vast majority of the time the "extras" are just there to justify tacking on $5-$10 to the MSRP (like the pointless second disc in all the Disney Ghibli editions).

Yeah, I hardly ever watch any of the hundreds of DVDs I own, and yet I like knowing they're available. My two rules of DVD buying: Under $10 and original aspect ratio (or reasonable approximation). Also I'll tend to walk away if it doesn't have English-language subtitles but that isn't necessarily a back-breaker.

My 1999 (or whatever year it is) Princess Bride DVD is plenty good for me. I don't think the second discs of any of the many 2-disc Pixar sets Lani always buys have ever seen the inside of a DVD player. And seriously, if you love the movie, track down the book. Preferably track down an early edition where some of the text is in red ink (I don't know if any new editions in the last decade have restored that).

[mousepod]

Alex - maybe we need to start a best/worst commentary thread.

My nominations for the worst from the old days of laserdisc:

- Crimes of Passion - Ken Russell leaves to catch a plane in the middle of the movie and never returns.

- The Russ Meyer Box - Russ describes what's going on onscreen as you watch the movie...