They Came Together (David Wain)

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Cliff

Agreed. If the ratings don't mean anything then how are they supposed to be interpreted? I agree about certain titles/labels seemingly being favored. Criterion's Harold and Maude contains a commentary, a 12 minute featurette and about 28 minutes of archival audio excerpts, yet rates a 4/5 for extras. Shout also seems to get love on occasion. The Shadow has a 23 minute featurette (the same as They Came Together), a trailer (the same as TCT), and a still gallery (but lacks TCT's commentary, 100 minute table read or 30+ minutes of deleted scenes) and rates a 2.5 from Mr. Kauffman versus TCT's 2/5. Yet he's less favorable to their Cat People, which gets the same 2.5 for having nearly 45 minutes of new interviews with cast and crew.

Hi Cliff,

I couple of comments for you since you moved from addressing my colleague Jeff's review to producing generalizations addressing other labels' output.

1. You may think that certain labels are favored, but I am the last person on this site to play favorites. In fact, I have gone out of my way to provide as wide coverage as possible (this includes titles that virtually no other site would touch) so that smaller labels can get as much exposure as possible. This hasn't been easy, but I can assure you that I have done my best.

2. Grading. I've mentioned this before elsewhere, but I will repeat it here: I don't grade based on volume. So, exclusive new English-friendly supplemental features for a release such as Criterion's Marketa Lazarova -- which require different resources and are far more time consuming -- are far more valuable to me. Similar is the case with providing important archival content which has not been previously used on a DVD release. In other words, I do not grade the volume, I grade the quality of the content. Example: If Universal were to bring Michael Cimino's fantastic commentary for The Deer Hunter to the U.S., I would grade it higher than all of the content found on their current release (which includes Vilmos Zsigmond and Bob Fisher's commentary). In other words, 4 hours of supplemental features will not automatically get a higher score from me over an hour of terrific supplemental features. For me, it is quality over quantity.

3. Harold and Maude also has an excellent booklet with writings on the film, which I have factored into the final score.

4. As far as detailing of supplemental features is concerned, it should be pretty obvious that the favoring practice you refer to is non-existent in my work. A couple of examples for recent releases from all over the world (all from different labels):

a) The Assassin

b) La Reine Margot

c) That Sinking Feeling

d) Crying Freeman

Have a great week, Cliff.

Pro-B