I for one have been a HUGE fan of DVDs for awhile now anyway and was not disappointed with the effort that went into this one as far as actually getting 3 of the 4 original Monkees to comment on the project. Peter was the only one who was visibly involved with the project to the extent of actually meeting the actors portraying the group and doing commercial spots with them for VH-1 to tease the original airdate. However, up until now this has been the first time we've been given an inside look as to how he, Micky and Davy actually viewed the project and we're not left disappointed for the most part. The benefit to DVDs is that you can fit a lot more substance on it than on a video tape. DVDs generally offer extra scenes, trailors and commentary on the movie, etc by the stars or directors. The price of the DVD ... is MUCH more appealing than the current [PRICE] of the video version (though for what reason I don't know). The video version excludes the commentaries which is worth every penny and more of the DVD. Even though this DVD release doesn't offer extra scenes from the movie (which was a little disappointing but I am lead to believe since it was so low budget there probably wasn't much substance left on the cutting room floor) it made up for it with commentary from all 3 of the guys and the director and the original movie trailor. The commentaries also include a separate, more brief video interview of each Monkee which was filmed last November. The video interviews focus more on various ramblings about what they're doing now and their overall feelings about Monkeedom which run about 20 minutes each. The full length 91 minute movie commentaries are a different story. Each Monkee speaks as if they're sitting in your living room! All commentaries were of course recorded at separate times so you have 3 different ones to choose from which take you from beginning to the end of the film. Davy, Micky and Peter all claim at the beginning that this is the first time they are viewing the movie so it's very interesting to feel as if you're watching it with them and experiencing their reactions for the first time. Micky's had to be the best in my opinion because he gave the movie a "Mystery Science Theater: 3000" feel, commenting on various accents by the Davy character or costuming which at times did in fact replicate actual things worn by the Monkees (like Mike's suit to the Emmy Awards show "Hey, you've got napkins on your cuffs!" or he claims he "would never wear THAT shirt!"). He also kept commenting on how attractive the actor who portrayed him was. Micky mentioned in the video interview that he had originally been approached to direct the film but because it was such a low budget project he had to turn it down (first time I heard about that). I was laughing through the entire thing.
Davy's commentary was also amusing but he seemed to give more insight as to what the scenes in the movie were portraying telling us the differences between fact and fiction, etc. He mentioned being very impressed with the actor's accent and portrayal of himself, laughing at some of the jokes and thoroughly enjoying the way the movie was done. He was blown away by the portrayal of Mike claiming the actor looked just like him. He even told a story about one Christmas as a Monkee which I had never heard. He said he bought all the guys small color TVs one time which was something you didn't see a lot of back then. He visited Gene Ashman awhile later and noticed he had the exact same TV he had bought Peter, Micky and Mike. He asked Gene where he got it and he said, "Mike gave that to me as a present!" Davy then went on to say, "That was Mike - never a team player," and laughed.
Peter's commentary wasn't quite as complete or colorful. Out of the 3 you could definitely hear more dialogue from the movie than from him. Micky's seemed to over-ride much of the movie, Davy's was also nicely timed but Peter's seemed kind of bored. He noted that he was very enthralled by L.B. Fisher's "Peter" and that his smile was actually formulated to look like Peter's but in fact L.B. really smiles a different way. Still, it was nice to hear from him even briefly.
The director's commentary was most informative about the actual project - giving us the behind the story take on different scenes and how the actors had to transform themselves. He had a LOT to say through the movie and it made for interesting listening (about camera pans and small mistakes, etc that I missed the first time around).
I was always a fan of this film to begin with (and was afraid I'd wear out the video copy I taped off VH-1) but had yearned to know what the Monkees thought of it. Now, I have my answers and the overwhelming response was that they were pleased. I second that notion! Don't miss out on this DVD - even if you don't have a DVD player now but eventually may purchase one, it's worth having this film since it's very possible something like this could go out of print in the future.
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