Belly Special Edition DVD
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This is a comment from Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ref=sr_1_1/002-6741553-0963227?v=glance&s=dvd
"Artisan's new "Belly" DVD isn't so SPECIAL!!!!, January 26, 2004
Reviewer: Crazy Jim (see more about me) from Massachusetts
When I first heard that Artisan would be releasing a brand new special edition of "Belly", I was intrigued. I already owned the original DVD release which was alright but a little light in the special features category. On it, director Hype Williams spoke on a number of scenes that were omitted from the final release. He talked about wanting to put together a "director's cut". With this edition, I was hoping that we would finally get to see the footage he talked about.
Much to my dismay, this entire "Special Edition" is one of the weakest and most half-baked attempts to re-sell the same DVD twice that I've ever come across. Not only is there no added material from the actual movie but the special features included have me more confused than most viewers were with the original version of this film. The so-called "Deleted Scene" is actually just one solid shot of a bunch of people standing in front of some strippers at a night club. When they turn around, their bare breasts are blurred out like some TV reality show or something. I find it very hard to believe that this was ever even intended to be in the movie as the inclusion of it would make no sense once so ever. In fact, I think it's safe to say that it's probably just some daily from one of the filiming days at the strip bar. As for the "Spoken Word Featurette", it is actually just a bunch of people performing live poetry based on some of the characters in the movie. What The?!?! The only added feature that has anything to do with the movie is the music video for the song, "Grand Finale" off the film's soundtrack. Even the advertised bonus CD soundtrack is not the full album but eight songs from it thrown on a disc. The rest of the features are just recycled from the previous DVD release.
I have always considered "Belly" to be one of my guilty pleasures. Many critics trashed it, the film bombed in the box office, but found a cult following on video. Sadly, Artisan chose to hit said fan base in the crotch and the wallet with this awful excuse for a "special edition". If you already own the first DVD and the soundtrack, I promise you that you will regret updating your collection with this waste of time. There is no behind-the-scenes footage, "making of" featurette, or any ommitted scenes. Nobody from the cast or crew had anything to do with this at all. This is really quite a shameless attempt to cash in. Underrated film, awful DVD."
