I can count on one hand the number of movies that I have bothered to watch with commentary. I don't even have to use all my fingers, let alone the thumb. Cabin in the Woods aside, I have watched two movies with the commentary: Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God and Resident Evil.* To devote that much time to commentary, it has to offer up something of worth. The D&D movie had commentary that was supposed to be the characters from the manuals.** The highlight of the Resident Evil commentary was the banter between Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez.*** Maybe the commentary for the Cabin in the Woods isn't quite that amazing, but it is well worth your time. When you add in the special features, this becomes a film worth buying.
I suppose when you are deciding whether or not to buy a movie on Blu-ray****, the biggest factor is whether or not the movie itself is good. I've already gushed about the Cabin in the Woods in its own review. If you didn't read it or need a refresher, the movie is great, one of my favorites from 2012. Apparently, it's not for everyone. A lot of people don't like it, and I honestly can't figure out why. The movie is full of great lines and a neat premise. I'm not going to bother telling you what it is about, as you can visit my original review for that information. Besides, I expect you already know.
What you may not know is what extra goodies you can expect if you buy the disc. I'm not one for actually taking a DVD off of the shelf and putting it in the player. I have so many venues for entertainment open to me that I rarely resort to my shelves. It's because of this particular flaw that I have a multitude of DVDs and Blu-rays that haven't even been opened.*****
I didn't hesitate to open the Cabin in the Woods. If you buy the it, you get commentary with Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon. They wrote the film together, with Goddard taking on the role of director. I believe Whedon did some second unit directing. The movie is the offspring of two talented gentlemen. You get to hear all about it when you listen to the commentary. I couldn't tell you what they talked about for two hours, but I was entertained the whole time.******
The only downside to having the commentary on is that you miss the dialogue in the movie. Anyone watching commentary should have already watched the movie; that should go without saying. In our case, we hadn't seen the film since it was in theaters. This left me wanting to listen to the film itself over the commentary. An easy fix is to watch the movie again before watching it with the commentary on. This is not an MS3TK situation where they only talk over quiet parts of the movie. This is more of a two hour podcast between two guys chatting it up with a loose focal point.*******
Goddard can be a bit distracting during the commentary. He has a lot of interesting things to say, but he says them oddly at times. His voice goes up or hitches. I spent some time on Google trying to find out why, but I had no luck. If anyone knows, please enlighten me.
After we finished the commentary, we actually watched each of the featurettes. Once again, this is not something we normally do. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you wanted to know more about certain aspects. A couple of the features delve deep into those aspects, those parts of the film. You get to see more than you did in the actual film. Instead of ruining what you saw, it lends itself to a deeper appreciation.********
I don't actually watch movies on Blu-ray or DVD very often, but I have already watched the Cabin in the Woods twice in the comfort of my own home. With an interesting commentary and multiple high quality featurettes, you should own the Blu-ray. It's actually well worth the money.
*Yes, I realize those are both somewhat nerdy films, especially the first one.
**It was full of win.
***And I quote, "Twat shot."
****Or DVD or laserdisc...whatever you use.
*****Seriously, I need to sell them to someone. They just collect dust.
******When they mentioned that they were drinking wine, Mark suggested we do the same. He figured if it was good enough for Joss, it was good enough for us.
*******Really loose.
********Seriously, practical effects are king.
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