Let the buyers beware. Never has it been truer than in today’s DVD market. We are seeing a huge move toward repackaging terrible movies and loading them up with a ton of special features. Often times the new DVD owner will gravitate toward all the special features and get sucked into buying a horrific movie.

Generally if a film has an HBO featurette attached to it, the film is a good bet. HBO is not going to pour money into a featurette looking at a shitty movie. Both Gladiator and Perfect Storm have HBO featurettes and they are great DVD purchases.

Most of the DVD’s that come with a second DVD of special features are quality films. Few Studios will re-invest in a really crappy movie. Fight Club and the Matrix are great examples of special features being created for the DVD release. It is apparent when a company invests extensive time and money in a DVD.

Some companies simply put out a better product than others. New Lines Cinema’s Platinum DVD line is solid from start to finish. Good titles, and special features that will enhance your enjoyment of the film. New Line has made put some killer films out in their Platinum line, including Magnolia and Seven. Always pay attention to who put out the DVD because it does matter.

Many times you can tell how bad a movie is by the Special Features. When you have commentary by the actors but not the director, it can be a very bad sign. Many times the directors do not cooperate with the commentaries if they are pissed off at how the final edit of the movie came out. This is not always the case--directors such as Stanely Kubric just aren’t into the commentary thing--but it is something to think about.

Some unscrupulous producers list items as Special Features that are so short that they should hardly count. Any feature less than three minutes long is not worth the effort. Some DVD’s give you time breakdowns of their features and that can sometimes be very helpful in finding good stuff.

Remember that the Special Feature will never save a really shitty movie. I have found that a good set of features can help me enjoy an average film more. I can always cut a director some slack if I know what he was trying to do. But when a movie really sucks (ala Gone in 60 seconds) I rarely bother to watch the special features.