Directors What is the best audio commentary on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Neil Joseph]

I need a good list to choose from.

 

[ChuckDeLa]

Some of my favorites:

C.H.U.D.
any commentary with Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead series, Running Time, Maniac Cop, Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except)
any Terry Gilliam commentary
American Movie
Charade (Criterion)
Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane
Cannibal! The Musical
any Pixar/John Lasseter commentary

 

[Christopher P]

Not sure if they're the best but I like:

Christopher McQuarrie & Bryan Singer on "The Usual Suspects" funny to listen to old friends and the way they interact.
Nicolas Meyer on "Star Trek - Wrath of Khan" that dude is very smart and well read.
Coppola on "The Godfather" movies.

Chris

 

[Brian Lawrence]

While the movie is not held in the highest regard, I have always felt that the commentary track for Can't Hardly Wait to be the most enjoyable I have ever heard. Plus it's a good lesson on just how fickle the MPAA can be in giving out ratings over the smallest of things.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Citizen Kane - Roger Ebert
Fantasia - James Levine/Scott MacQueen/John Canemaker
Dumbo - John Canemaker
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - The Kids
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - Paul Reubens/Tim Burton and the music-only/Danny Elfman tracks
Big Trouble In Little China - Kurt Russell and John Carpenter
Superman - Richard Donner and Tom Mankewictz
Airplane! and Top Secret: Jim Abrahms, David and Jerry Zucker

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Oh I love this question.

Just about anything with John Carpenter. Especially the ones with Kurt Russell. (The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China).

Anything with Terry Gilliam. The guy is a genius, and an honest and fascinating one too.

All of Kevin Smith's commentary tracks are great, especially the ones that Ben Affleck participates in. They're very funny together.

The band commentary on This is Spinal Tap. Simply hilarious.

There are two tracks on the Monty Python and the Holy Grail SE, one with Terries Gilliam and Jones, the other with Michael Palin, John Cleese and Eric Idle. Both are solid (the former ported over from the Criterion LD) but the second one is a real treat. This whole DVD is excellent.

Quentin Tarantino on True Romance and with Robert Rodriguez on the From Dusk Till Dawn SE.

P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights track is excellent.

My all-time favorite track may be the one contributed by Roger Ebert on the Dark City DVD.

They're not flashy or exciting but I enjoy both of Mel Brooks' commentaries from Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

Joe Dante, Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller and Howie Mandel on the Gremlins SE.

The Goonie track on The Goonies.

Vaughn and Favreau on Made and the Swingers SE.

Paul Verhoeven and Ed Neumeier on Starship Troopers.

Ridley Scott's track on Legend...especially if you're a fan of the movie.

Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie on The Usual Suspects SE.

Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jon Davidson on Airplane!.

Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis and Joe Medjuck on Ghostbusters.

Cameron Crowe, John Cusack and Ione Skye on Say Anything.

Cameron Crowe and guests on Almost Famous: Untitled.

Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale and Kurt Russell on the Used Cars DVD.

...and a truly fantastic commentary sprung from the most unlikely of movies: Image Entertainment's recent I Spit on Your Grave DVD has an audio commentary with Drive-In Movie Critic/B-movie genius Joe Bob Briggs. No kidding, this track alone is worthy of a rental. But be forewarned: 'tis a brutally ugly movie.

 

[Grant B]

hunter s thompson is great if you can understand his mumbling
he keeps refering to gilliam as that cartoonist

 

[Lew Crippen]

Off the top of my head:

Citizen Kane—Ebert’s is very good. Pass on the other one.
Spartacus—both commentary tracks (Kirk Douglas, Ustinov, Howard Fast (wrote the novel), the producer, Robert Harris) are very good. This is one where it is clear that everyone has some real and differing views. The second commentary is by Dalton Trombo (screenwriter) where he analyzes each scene.
8 ½—a great analysis.
Halloween—great commentary for anyone who is interested in filmmaking on a low budget.
Notorious—possibly the best of the Criterion Hitchcock commentaries.
The Lady Eve
The Third Man
Wild Strawberries
Seven Samurai

 

[Lew Crippen]

And I almost forgot the great commentaries on [/i]Brazil[/i], especially the one on the third disk, which analyzes the differences in the editing between the two versions. Gillimam’s commentary on disk one (the director’s cut is quite good as well).

 

[Eric_E]

Now, on the flip side of the coin, what are some of the worst commentary tracks out there? I have a few in mind:

I think The Matrix has a really boring track, punctuated by overly long periods of silence and featuring very few of the people I would have actually liked to hear from.

Also, I think American Beauty's track is boooring, where Alan Ball says next to nothing, and all Sam Mendes talks about endlessly is Conrad Hall's lighting.

There is one track on the Se7en DVD, where some literary analyst (don't know his name off the top of my head) gives away the ending to "The Vanishing"! I wanted to scream, because I think I really would have enjoyed that movie if I hadn't known the ending because of some prick throwing it out with no warning. Yeah, I'm still pissed about that one.

 

[Cary T]

Those two are my favorites:

Fast Times at Ridgemont High with Heckerling and Crowe
and
Big Trouble In Little China with Carpenter and Russell.