AWAKE!
I have now devoured every last morsel of my Awake dvd. Sadly, not a lot of extras. You get some deleted scenes, a 13-minute "making of" documentary, storyboard-to-film comparison, the theatrical trailer, and commentary. The commentary is with writer/director Joby Harold (who has a lovely voice, btw). This was his first time directing. I didn't know that. I wish Hayden had also done the commentary, but what can ya do :)
I quite enjoyed the commentary; it always fascinates me knowing how much more thought and care go into every little detail than the audience realizes. And it's fun to see little mistakes pointed out too!
Here's some Hayden-y stuff (with a few other things thrown in):
-The bathtub scene in the beginning... I wasn't sure if Hayden actually held his breath for that long or if they just did some trick photography things to make it look like he did. It certainly looked real enough... because it was! Harold said they shot it a few times too... and later that day poor Hayden was feeling faint and they had to stop filming early. Aww, poor darling! I didn't realize they included that to show Hayden's character pushing his limits, as he does later in the film. I just thought it was an interesting way to roll the opening credits (and give the fangirls a thrill. Teehee)
-Hayden diligently learned his few sentences of Japanese and he told Harold he'd quit being his friend if he cut that out of the movie. LOL!
-Hayden and Terrence Howard (Dr. Jack) became friends offset, which Harold believes gave them that friendship chemistry onset. I can see it.
-Harold mentions a couple times that the movie is so much more powerful if you go into it believing it's only about anesthesia awareness. Um, yeah, so then why the fuck did you give away the plot in the trailer??? They leave one important twist out, yes, but everyone who watches the trailer knows the surgeons are trying to kill Clay. The only kind of trailer I like is a teaser trailer - 30 seconds, just a glimpse of the movie, NOTHING PLOTTY given away. I can decide from that if I want to see something or not. And of course, with Hayden movies, I already know I want to see them, so I try to avoid trailers altogether!
-Hayden is ADORABLE in "the making of" thing. He's only in it briefly, though. He has that curly hair that I so miss on him! A couple of wayward curls sticking out that I just want to run my hands through. *sigh* Anyway, he cracks a little joke before they start shooting a scene where he's on the operating table, supposedly unconscious. "Should I just lay here, or..." Eeeee so cute! Of course the other actors laugh and groan and tease him about waiting a whole week to be able to say that. Someone even says "-with feeling!" LOL cute.
One more random observation - every time Harold mentions having to cut something due to time (in the deleted scene commentary, mostly) I felt like screaming "But it's too short anyway!!!" The movie's only 1:20. Soooo short by today's standards. But then, I found myself agreeing with what he was saying, with the choices he made for certain scenes - I can see why they did it. So I guess the movie was just as long as it needed to be. The one exception being how mom figured everything out so cleanly. That still doesn't sit right with me. Too Scooby-Doo-ish.
Wait, I lied, one more observation - I like how he acknowledges that it's supposed to be a fun, entertaining movie, with a campy feel at times, and the Oedipal stuff they showed was meant to be there to play into the fun as well as throw the audience off kilter. Not meant to seriously imply anything inappropriate going on between Clay and his mom. I thought that was fun, but I am a bit of a perv, so... yeah. I would have loved to see the deleted grim reaper scene left in it, though. Bwahahaha, not explaining that one unless someone asks :)
Oh! Oh! One more thing - Harold's last line was "See you on the sequel." It sounded like he may have chuckled slightly after that, but he didn't say "just kidding" or anything. Hmmmmm! Is this just a tease????
Feel free to share your thoughts and reactions to the movie. I know a lot of people hadn't yet seen it when I posted my babbling on its opening night!
I quite enjoyed the commentary; it always fascinates me knowing how much more thought and care go into every little detail than the audience realizes. And it's fun to see little mistakes pointed out too!
Here's some Hayden-y stuff (with a few other things thrown in):
-The bathtub scene in the beginning... I wasn't sure if Hayden actually held his breath for that long or if they just did some trick photography things to make it look like he did. It certainly looked real enough... because it was! Harold said they shot it a few times too... and later that day poor Hayden was feeling faint and they had to stop filming early. Aww, poor darling! I didn't realize they included that to show Hayden's character pushing his limits, as he does later in the film. I just thought it was an interesting way to roll the opening credits (and give the fangirls a thrill. Teehee)
-Hayden diligently learned his few sentences of Japanese and he told Harold he'd quit being his friend if he cut that out of the movie. LOL!
-Hayden and Terrence Howard (Dr. Jack) became friends offset, which Harold believes gave them that friendship chemistry onset. I can see it.
-Harold mentions a couple times that the movie is so much more powerful if you go into it believing it's only about anesthesia awareness. Um, yeah, so then why the fuck did you give away the plot in the trailer??? They leave one important twist out, yes, but everyone who watches the trailer knows the surgeons are trying to kill Clay. The only kind of trailer I like is a teaser trailer - 30 seconds, just a glimpse of the movie, NOTHING PLOTTY given away. I can decide from that if I want to see something or not. And of course, with Hayden movies, I already know I want to see them, so I try to avoid trailers altogether!
-Hayden is ADORABLE in "the making of" thing. He's only in it briefly, though. He has that curly hair that I so miss on him! A couple of wayward curls sticking out that I just want to run my hands through. *sigh* Anyway, he cracks a little joke before they start shooting a scene where he's on the operating table, supposedly unconscious. "Should I just lay here, or..." Eeeee so cute! Of course the other actors laugh and groan and tease him about waiting a whole week to be able to say that. Someone even says "-with feeling!" LOL cute.
One more random observation - every time Harold mentions having to cut something due to time (in the deleted scene commentary, mostly) I felt like screaming "But it's too short anyway!!!" The movie's only 1:20. Soooo short by today's standards. But then, I found myself agreeing with what he was saying, with the choices he made for certain scenes - I can see why they did it. So I guess the movie was just as long as it needed to be. The one exception being how mom figured everything out so cleanly. That still doesn't sit right with me. Too Scooby-Doo-ish.
Wait, I lied, one more observation - I like how he acknowledges that it's supposed to be a fun, entertaining movie, with a campy feel at times, and the Oedipal stuff they showed was meant to be there to play into the fun as well as throw the audience off kilter. Not meant to seriously imply anything inappropriate going on between Clay and his mom. I thought that was fun, but I am a bit of a perv, so... yeah. I would have loved to see the deleted grim reaper scene left in it, though. Bwahahaha, not explaining that one unless someone asks :)
Oh! Oh! One more thing - Harold's last line was "See you on the sequel." It sounded like he may have chuckled slightly after that, but he didn't say "just kidding" or anything. Hmmmmm! Is this just a tease????
Feel free to share your thoughts and reactions to the movie. I know a lot of people hadn't yet seen it when I posted my babbling on its opening night!