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+--- Thread: The best DVDs and Blurays (/t-the-best-dvds-and-blurays)
The best DVDs and Blurays - GavGaddis - 2023-10-17
As I'm sure is not uncommon with Jellyfin users who rip physical media, I've gotten back into collecting DVDs in a big way since starting my first server. One unfortunate side effect of collecting DVDs and Blurays over the past five months is encountering just how many suck when it comes to bonus features. Why not start a thread celebrating some of the best wins we've experienced (expected and unexpected) in the clearance bins of the world? Given I've got a newsletter specifically about DVDs with good bonus features, I've got a stack literally within arm's reach I can start us off with:
Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999)
If you're lucky enough to have not experienced the run-up to the release of Phantom Menace in theaters, the bonus disc to this movie is an absolute goldmine. A lot of people talk about movies they wish they could watch again for the first time, I wish I could watch the feature-length documentary about the making of The Phantom Menace for the first time. Honestly, the only thing it's missing to be a complete time capsule is some sort of third-party documentary about the marketing of Phantom Menace, but you can easily find video essays along those lines on YouTube.
Christine (1983)
This one genuinely shocked me, as I expected a mildly successful Stephen King adaptation to have a half-assed DVD. Turns out, solid featurettes and an excellent commentary with John Carpenter. He's infamous for being Hollywood's grouch who takes zero guff from anyone, but it's fun to hear him watch a movie he hasn't seen in years and genuinely be impressed with some of the stuff his younger self pulls off.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A perfect example of a movie made by movie nerds who themselves wished DVDs were better. There's a fun animated menu. Tons of little bonus features. Two commentaries. A lot of the behind-the-scenes content is shot with the express intent of being a DVD bonus feature, so it's more self-aware and fun than the generic "we have a featurette press guy filming today" footage you'll see in 90s movie set footage.
Bonus points for DVDs that seem like they would be a slam-dunk for good content, but end up being lackluster. For example: I cannot find evidence of a single home video release of Beetlejuice. It seems Beetlejuice is in an unfortunate phantom-zone where it's popular enough to get re-released regularly, but not popular enough for Warner Bros. to pay the amount of money it'd take to get someone like Tim Burton or Keaton to come back in to record retrospective interviews or commentaries. It seems like very little behind-the-scenes footage exists, so every Beetlejuice DVD and Bluray just crams a few episodes of the Beetlejuice cartoon on and calls that "special features."