It's a Bonus

After heading into Leeds this afternoon, I've come home with the obligatory bundle of shopping bags. Some of it necessary, some of it not so necessary.








I ventured into HMV for a quick browse and, being a sucker for DVD offers, I eventually left with a copy of one of the funniest movies ever to grace the big screen: Airplane!
It was reduced to £7 and is the "special edition" with oodles of "bonus features" that the other, cheaper disc doesn't have. But now I think about it, in true Yorkshire fashion, why the hell have I paid an extra £2 for the special edition?

Most DVD movies do this. When a box-office blockbuster gets released on DVD, you usually have the standard version which will retail for about £15 and a "special/limited edition" which would set you back about £20 and more often than not, people will go for the bonus version because they think that they are getting more. But what do you actually get?

• Firstly, you get a fancy case. This could be a cardboard sleeve with some fancy embossing on the front, or a really fancy metal case. Either of these will get thrown away because they don't fit in your DVD rack.
• You sometimes get some cards/stickers with scenes from the film. These always, without fail, get lost.
• You get lots of deleted scnes. These are scenes which the producers and directors decided were not good enough to be in the real film, and so they charge you extra to see them. The problem is, you never watch them because the producers and directors decided those scenes were not good enough to be in the real film.
• You get a "blooper real" where Hollywood actors/actresses make themselves look like idiots. You don't watch these because you can see Hollywood actors/actresses make themselves look like idiots on the news, in magazines, TV programmes and radio interviews.
• You get what is known as an "electronic press kit" or "EPK". This is effectively charging you for something that you could get for free if you bothered to ask.
• You get a trailer. This is something that tries to entice you into watching the movie. These are always at the end of the DVD, after you have watched the movie.
• You get a commentary from the actors. You don't bother with this because your eyes allow you to see what is going on without a Hollywood actor/actress telling you what you are seeing.
• You get an interview with the actor/actress who bleats on about how "emotionally connected" he/she was with the script / character / storyline / moral point / director / cameraman / pay-cheque. You don't watch this because you dismiss it as bullshit.

So, for you extra dosh, you get a whole raft of pointless features. Yet we still buy them.

The sad truth is, we are all suckers to big business and mass marketing really.