Just too dumb for me • 11 February 2008 • The SnowBlog
Just too dumb for me
I love Director's Commentaries on DVDs. And it's often very revealing to hear what they say, the sorts of things they care about. In the commentary for Mercury Rising, a dud of a Bruce Willis movie, the director spent most of the commentary talking about locations: scouting for them, negotiating over them, switching between them. Yawn. But listen to, say, George Clooney talk about Good Night, and Good Luck and you're struck by how insightful and how incredibly witty the man is. So I was pleased to see that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had two commentaries. As a movie it's pretty idiotic and pretty dull, but still, it was a major Hollywood project so I thought I might learn something. But I turned off the Director's commentary after ten minutes of drivel when he honest-to-god and without irony said, "I chose to surround him with computer screens because a) it's great for lighting and 2) that's what he's all about." Yes, he said a) and 2). And that was his grasp of life as a scientist: being all about computer screens. Then I tried the Writer's commentary and turned it off after five minutes when he used the word "phenomenons". It's OK for an actor to say something like that, but a professional writer? Who gives people like these $130m?
Rob
I love Director's Commentaries on DVDs. And it's often very revealing to hear what they say, the sorts of things they care about. In the commentary for Mercury Rising, a dud of a Bruce Willis movie, the director spent most of the commentary talking about locations: scouting for them, negotiating over them, switching between them. Yawn. But listen to, say, George Clooney talk about Good Night, and Good Luck and you're struck by how insightful and how incredibly witty the man is. So I was pleased to see that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had two commentaries. As a movie it's pretty idiotic and pretty dull, but still, it was a major Hollywood project so I thought I might learn something. But I turned off the Director's commentary after ten minutes of drivel when he honest-to-god and without irony said, "I chose to surround him with computer screens because a) it's great for lighting and 2) that's what he's all about." Yes, he said a) and 2). And that was his grasp of life as a scientist: being all about computer screens. Then I tried the Writer's commentary and turned it off after five minutes when he used the word "phenomenons". It's OK for an actor to say something like that, but a professional writer? Who gives people like these $130m?