DVD Talk

Reviews & Columns

Reviews
DVD
TV on DVD
Blu-ray
4K UHD
International DVDs
In Theaters
Reviews by Studio
Video Games

Features
Collector Series DVDs
Easter Egg Database
Interviews
DVD Talk Radio
Feature Articles

Columns
Anime Talk
DVD Savant
Horror DVDs
The M.O.D. Squad
Art House
HD Talk
Silent DVD

DVD Talk Forum

Forum Home

Resources

DVD Price Search
Customer Service #'s
RCE Info
Links

Columns

Incident at Loch Ness

Other

Hidden Audio Commentary

Posted by Hidden Audio Commentary Adam Tyner on February 28, 2005 | 5.0 / 5

There are a TON of Easter Eggs on Incident at Loch Ness: Each of the Eggs is marked by a black Nessie graphic floating in the water. For all I know, there might be even more of these than I've found, but here's a list of what I've stumbled upon so far. Side A includes two additional audio commentaries. The last of the menus on side A serves up a commentary pairing Zak Penn and Werner Herzog together for the second time. Yeah, deja vu and all, but Penn introduces it by saying "this is the actual, real commentary, and what I mean by that is the non-bullshit commentary you've unlocked." Not only is it a real commentary, but it's a pretty damn good one. The tone remains pretty serious as Herzog and Penn keep a steady flow of discussion going throughout. The track never drags, there's no dead air, and they cover a lot of ground. Some of the highlights include one of my favorite jokes from the movie turning out to be an honest mistake, the fact that Werner's film-within-a-film was actually properly shot, gutting an old boat 'cause it didn't look old enough inside, and decrying the use of red RECORD graphics with on-screen camcorders. Worth the non-effort to find and give a listen. Two commentaries may sound like a lot, but...hark! Hidden on the 'Languages' menu is a third, featuring Zak Penn with Michael Karnow, Lance Stockton, and Stephen Marinaccio. It's actually a very different commentary from the second Penn/Herzog track. That one was fairly serious and straightforward, whereas this third commentary is extremely jokey and not timid about leaping headfirst into the minutiae of production. From a nod to Halo to debating how many days are in a week with the prop guys to a production designer wanting to spruce up the movie's actual production office to make it look more like a production office, this commentary juggles being both fun and informative. Well, except for those ten awkward pauses, but what are you gonna do? Flipping over the disc, there are even more hidden features. I don't want to give away the exact location of everything, but I promise that if you've ever menu-trawled before, you'll find these without any trouble. Most of 'em are, like the bulk of the documented extras on this set, very short outtakes. Ten extra clips are served up, running around eleven and a half minutes total, covering everything from a botched attempt at launching a faux-Nessie, a revelation at the dinner party, and Zak Penn's realization that Kitana Baker would make an excellent superhuman genetic deformity. Also stowed away are a set of 36 production stills and a pair of 'scriptments'. The best of the Easter Eggs on this side of the disc is the comprehensive and thoroughly excellent 22 minute featurette "The Non-Evidence: The Making of 'Incident at Loch Ness'". It opens with Penn reveling in having duped so many press outlets with the hoax and continues with him talking about how the germ of the movie spring from a Powerade commercial, the structure of the not-quite-a-script that started making the rounds, the difficulty of trying to do so much in such an ambitious project, and the unconventional method of designing the movie's super-secretive secret special effects. The featurette consists of several different types of interviews, deleted scenes, effect tests, different stages of composited video, and tons of behind the scenes footage. This is one of the better featurettes I've seen in a good long while, so watch it. There may be more Easter Eggs that I overlooked, but I'm pretty sure that's everything.