Opinion: The Best and Worst DVD Commentary You've Listened To? (1 Viewer)

[Jonathan Dagmar]

My all time favourite commentary is on the Untitles version of Almost Famous. The banter between Cameron Crowe and his mother is priceless. Especially when they get to the "let's deflower the kid" scene...

 

[Eric_B_C]

It was fun hearing the chatter about that particular scene. I did wonder how Crowe was going to cover that sort of thing, and kudos to him he didn't shy away with his mom there.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Bay isn't on the same track as the actors - he sits separately with Jeanine Basinger. However, Jerry Bruckheimer - AKA the dullest interview subject on the planet - is in that track, which is where I think your boredom comes...

 

[Herschel]

Any commentary by Joss Whedon is bound to be a good time. I keep thinking that I need to buy the Firefly set, and the 3 commentaries he does on there are a big part of why. One of these days...

 

[Nate Anderson]

I just recently listened to the commentary by Tom Clancy and the director on The Sum of All Fears. Generally, he seemed impressed, but didn't have a problem with pointing out the inaccuracies. Some he even admitted to commiting himself in the books.

 

[Tim_Stack]

My new favorite is the David Koepp & William Goldman commentary on the 3-disc Panic Room. Goldman has a crazy potty-mouth that I enjoy and they get into great discussions about the writer's experience in Hollywood. Worth a few listens!

 

[Eric_B_C]

It's WELL worth it. It was the first TV show I bought on DVD. Got it for my birthday. I was an average fan of Firefly. On DVD though my love for the show has grown exponentially. No commercials, OAR, episodes in correct order etc... Plus the extras on disk 4 are awesome.

I've listened to three commentary tracks, two of which were Whedon. The one on Serenity is really funny. (Fillion is hilarious.) The other is with Tim Minear if I recall on the second episode, the one the idiots at Fox aired as the pilot, and if I remember they spend quite a bit of time bitching about Fox on there. (Since they wrote that episode in two days when Fox decided Serenity "didn't have enough action".)

In short, pick up the boxed set. It's great!

 

[John Alderson]

Hey, I'm listening to that one right now. Well, kinda... I'm 80 minutes into it and there's been maybe 10 minutes of comments so far. Sigh.

Are the commentaries for Empire and Jedi any better? I just recently got these from a friend (just to have the originals in WS, a first for me), and being a Star Wars junkie I HAVE to listen to them no matter how bad they are

I can't wait for September.

 

[Joseph>HE]

It might be premature, but I def. think the Henry Hill commentary for upcoming Goodfellas SE will be one of the best ever. I heard a little of it and it's amazing. He tells a ton of stories and shares the track with Ed McDonald, the FBI guy who sponsored him for the witness protection program. Its the ultimate analysis of the film. Riveting.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

That Goodfellas track does sound interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing it.

 

[John*P]

The fun commentaries: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Ghostbusters, Goonies, the tracks from Gremlins 1 & 2, One Crazy Summer, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, UHF

The good and/or informative commentaries: Donnie Darko, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, Heathers, Say Anything, the screen-specific commentaries and the Q&A tracks on the Back to the Future trilogy

The bad and/or boring commentaries...

-Edward Scissorhands: Tim Burton is very quiet, and when he decides to speak, he has nothing interesting to say. "I think about 95% of those clouds are real" is about the best he can come up with.

-National Lampoon's European Vacation: You'd swear Chevy Chase was napping at times on the track. Like Burton, he's pretty boring. "Hey, this movie's got some funny stuff in it. I thought it was a stinker..."

-Stand by Me & The Sure Thing: Rob Reiner (see above)

As for TV shows, the commentary tracks for Freaks and Geeks and Malcolm in the Middle are great.

 

[BarryM]

In my opinion, Criterion has the best and the worst commentaries! For example, "My Man Godfrey" has the kind of pretentious 'historic significance' type commentary (Bob Gilpin) without any history as to the making of the film or its on-screen actors. This kind of commentary might be useful for someone who has never seen the film or, for that matter, any 1930's depression comedies. It's useless to the film buff.

On the other hand, "The Lady Vanishes" has a first-rate commentary (Bruce Eder) which explains everything you want to know about the situation that brought the material to Hitchcock, the budget limitations, and a complete rundown of the actors, and the making of this priceless film.

Recent films like "Desk Set" have commentaries containing a stiff reading of information, intercut with comments by one of the stars of the movie, Dina Merrill. While there's some useless insights into the making of the film, on the whole, it's not the kind of brilliantly organized commentaries that Criterion produces.

Another DVD with great commentaries is "The Old Dark House", which I understand has been deleted by Kino. For gosh sake, if you love vintage movies, find a copy!

 

[BryanV]

I loved the commentary for the winstar version of hard boiled since it had a wide range of differnt comentators so you had a good variation on opinions.

I hate when the speaker points out plot twists or irony like were morons who don't get the point of the picture without his guidance. I also dislike when the speaker is obviously reading from pre written text like on the "Around the World in 80 Days" commentary. I think it dis-allows for spontaneity. I really think it is annoying when the speaker reads in some far fetched symbolism. I think it is arrogant to think you "got" what the director was trying to say by "putting a shadow over the book on the desk".

I love when you get tech. info on filming, I think it is a film school in a can when you get tutored on the different shots, angles and lighting techniques. I also love historical perspective and trivia.

I loved the Casablanca comentary by Ebert, so far its my favorite.


I hated the commentary on the Ox-Bow incident the whole this was a mess.

 

[Mark Leiter]

I agree. Listening to that one is like taking a 2 hour class on film technique.

 

[Geoff_D]

Jim Sheridan's commentary for In America is definitely one of the best I've ever heard. Like David Fincher in his commentaries, Sheridan's effort here reveals a lot of personal details. He relays his opinions on life, death, art and politics whilst never straying too far from the subject at hand, providing lots of technical info about the film as well. Top class stuff.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Huh?

 

[BryanV]

I do apologize, my critique of the Ox Bow Incident commentary was just as messy LOL.

 

[Roger_R]

A pre-written commentary? Then they might as well include it in a booklet or have it as text-only (like the okuda-commentaries on the ST movies). Would save space on the DVD for a DTS track or something

 

[Steve Phillips]

The worst commentary ever is on M3-D (Lollipop Girls in Hard Candy). It's by some idiot fanboy who think he is hilarious.....except he's just annoying. Really annoying. Plus he doesn't have a thing to say about the film!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

My point makes perfect sense. You made a blanket statement that you don't like "scripted" commentaries. I indicated my preference. I don't know why you picked on Sibley's commentary for 80 Days, as I thought he was plenty enthusiastic about the subject.