I really like DVD Commentary

There are times where I enjoy the DVD commentary as much as the movie. Generally, it's for a movie that I've seen a lot or one that I can stand to lose a bit of the magic glamour of the finished product. The creative process is really intruiging. When DVD commentary explains the creative or storytelling process I absolutely adore it. When the commentary consists of people back-slapping each other or making stupid comments I end up being annoyed or wandering away to do some obscure housecleaning task like picking lint from the back of my dryer.

Okay, now I feel listy. I haven't watched all that much commentary compared to other people (maybe) but I will rank my favorites.

1. Emma Thompson's commentary for Sense and Sensibility. She is a great actress and I really admire how she was able to adapt Jane Austin's novel. Really interesting insight.
2. Alien. Love the movie and Ridley Scott's information about how they made it was really interesting. Love that the alien for the autopsy was made out of shellfish. Not a fact that would encourage one to eat sushi.
3. Domino. Tolerated the movie but the director's commentary about the photography style and film processing was interesting. In fact, it made the movie for me.
4. Lord of the Rings. Currently still viewing this. Liking the actor's commentary for the most part, but Billy Boyd and the Monaghan guy kind of irritate me. And everyone should come away from the cast version knowing that Viggo is an amazing person.
(see below to read about my Viggo Mortenson story)
5. The Mummy. Am I the only person who liked this movie? Maybe other than my math students last year. But their quotation of "Imhotep. Imhotep" in that weird possessed chanty form could have other implications than liking the movie. Brendan Fraser was okay, but the director and his buddy were way better.

Maybe I will get more for the list later.

My Viggo Mortenson Story:

A couple of years ago when Hidalgo was premiering in Japan my husband and I were at Narita airport and getting ready to get on a plane and go to Thailand. Outside the ticketing counters there was a huge crowd gathered. My husband and I debated among ourselves as to the cause. I was of the opinion that someone had up and died at check-in but he insisted that the cameras and little gifts meant a celebrity of sorts. We tried to guess who had come to Tokyo but couldn't come up with a name. We gave up the guessing game and asked one of the girls waiting in the crowd.

She said, "Agoun." It sounded like that at least because this cheer went up at the time. Plus, I was confused. She repeated it and said more clearly (or my ears were cleaner) "Aragorn."

It took a few minutes to put the dots together. Aragorn.... Lord of the Rings... Aragorn... ah! Viggo Mortenson. My husband being the non-fantasy kind of dude he is was completely clueless. I've told him his life would be better if he went to a sci-fi/fantasy con but he remains unconvinced. Of course, right then, Viggo comes into view shaking hands with a couple people, waving and nodding shyly and my husband says, "Oh! Viggo Mortenson!" and wants to go shake his hand.

We watch as Viggo gets escorted through security with this girl who works at the airport. This confuses me because Narita isn't so confusing to get around in once you get to security and she didn't do much in terms of crowd control. Maybe it's just that third person presence that allows one to hurry out of a crowd.

We went through security (the long line

) and then saw Viggo again walking to his plane two more times.

So that is my Viggo Mortenson story. I saw him a couple years ago at Narita airport.

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