Bad Ideas in Marketing

My favorite movie of 2008: The Dark Knight. I doubt I'm alone in this. Great movie. Needed some gratuitous nudity to be perfect, but who am I to judge?

Well, I mean, could it have killed director Christopher Nolan to have Two Face spying on naked women as he descended into madness, or to have the Italian mobsters talking business while enjoying lap dances at Badabing's? If they wanted to topple Titanic on the earnings scale, they needed some nudity. Titanic didn't even have good nudity. Just a pasty British actress posing on a couch.

Griffin Mill: It lacked certain elements that we need to market a film successfully.
June: What elements?
Griffin Mill: Suspense, laughter, violence. Hope, heart, nudity, sex. Happy endings. Mainly happy endings.
June: What about reality?

Anyway, great movie. But has anyone seen the advertisements for the Blue-Ray of The Dark Knight? Some pretty cool features. Scenes improved beyond what theater projectors could do, that kind of stuff. But then the part about making your own directors' commentary?

I can see someone sitting through a commentary by the director, or the writers, or maybe an actor. I've never managed to sit through one, but if I were a big enough fan of a film I could see it happening. Bigger film geeks than I probably do it all the time. But can you see yourself sitting through someone else's commentary? Ever? How did that become a selling point for this Blue-Ray disc?

How many 12-year olds will buy this movie just to make their own commentary and force it upon their friends and family? If your friend tries to make you sit through three hours of fanboy commentary as he talks over this movie, get new friends. If your kid wants to make you sit through his commentary on this film, put him up for adoption.

I know how they decided to include this feature on the Blue-Ray. Someone said, "There's too much empty disc space." Blue-Rays, of course, have more space than one movie can use even with all the special features and commentary and alternate versions in the world. But studio execs feel the need to justify selling you these things so they try to fill the disc. But this idea is just stupid.

On a related note, does anyone get the italicized reference up there?