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“But I think we pulled it off” and other DVD audio commentary inanities - Page 2

post #31 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:10pm
I was surprised when director Carl Franklin ended his recent Out of Time commentary about five minutes before the credits started rolling. I suppose it doesn't really matter since I really didn't get anything out of it and I doubt an extra five minutes would have proved any more interesting. He provides a little bit of information about the sets and locations, but overall I felt myself zoning out and ignoring it. I guess the most amazing thing is that DVDFile called this commentary a "highlight" or "absorbing."
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post #32 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:13pm
avoid: Slater+Arquette commentary on True Romance

i don't listen to commentaries unless it's great director or one of my favourite releases of the year.
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post #33 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:15pm
Quote:
An exception is Roger Ebert on Kane and Casablanca, and those are very technique-oriented commentaries).
I also like the critical commentaries. The two you mention by Ebert are very good, but there are many others.
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post #34 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:26pm
Vince,

How do you get a dvd commentary onto an ipod? And can you also do the same for the soundtrack? Thanks.
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post #35 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:29pm
The dead air space is so bad sometimes I forget I'm listening to a commentary and am just watching the movie again. Suddenly someone starts talking and I'm going "shhh, the movie's on", 'til I realize "oh yeah, it's the commentary again!"

I've heard The Matrix commentary was supposed to be awful, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

Ebert's commentary of Dark City is extremely good and it's quite clear that he's a fan of that under-rated film.

Perhaps the best that I can think of is Robert Rodriguez' commentary of El Mariachi. That was even specifically geared as a lesson in film school.

But, back to bad ones. It's been a while, but I recall being rather bored from the commentary of Goldfinger and had to turn it off after about a half hour of its uselessness.
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post #36 of 234
1/27/04 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
The Matrix commentary was a snooze. The tech guys offered some interesting tidbits of info but were generally quite dull in their presentation (plus most of the stuff they were talking about had already been reported and dissected to death in print media), and Carrie Ann Moss brought absolutely nothing of consequence to the proceedings. No matter, though, as I'm sure somewhere down the line we'll be conned into buying a deluxe trilogy collector's edition where the Wachowski's finally open up about their pseudo-Christian sci-fi epics. That might be nice, as I suspect they'd have a lot to save, provided they were able to articulate it.
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post #37 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:08pm
I hate it when the director claims "I haven't seen this movie in years" and then just starts watching the movie and says stuff like "Wow, this was a great scene", "I forgot how good a movie this was" followed by minutes of silence.

Argh! If you're doing a commentary track, wouldn't you perhaps want to sit down and watch the movie once and take notes, before you start to record the actual track?
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post #38 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:14pm
Any commentary that is not scene-specific really tends to piss me off.

A.K.A. - Do not slap a bunch of interviews -- culled from various featurettes about the film -- over the film and call it a real audio commentary. I want the crew or cast members sitting in front of the screen, reacting.

---

That said, some of the most entertaining and incredibly geeky commentary I have ever heard was from Weird Al on UHF. He rattles off extact street addresses of shooting locations from 10+ years ago, the first and last names of nearly every extra, and includes lots of other mind-blowing trivia tidbits throughout. To top it off, Michael Richards drops in for a bit and they call Victoria Jackson on the phone.

Some might dislike the commentary for being too damn informative, but I thought it was great.
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post #39 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:14pm
I looked forward to the Patriot commentary before the disc came out, but it was unbearable. It's tough to even listen to the short segments over the deleted scenes. Too much "like" and "umm" and other similar filler.
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post #40 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:15pm
As I'm paid to be - arguably - creative all day, I need some form of inspiration.


I'm an advertising/marketing director for a car dealership, so I do kind of the same thing. I can't watch commentaries all day, but whenever I'm doing design work, I pop in a movie. I've only got the Powerbook, but I have a second monitor hooked into it, so I watch the film on that.

I have loaded the majority of my commentary collection onto my IPOD, makes great material for a long drive or a workout!


Please tell me there is an easy way to do this on a Mac without extra software. I would love to load the commentaries onto my iPod. How did you do it?
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post #41 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:21pm
Vince, Brian's reply about Carpenter and Kibbe applies to me as well. Kibbe sounded like he was bored to death of the whole experience.
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post #42 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:43pm
Here are my votes for commentaries that should
be ignored-

Melanie Griffith for Crazy In Alabama- I turned
it off after just 20 minutes

The director and cast commentary for S.W.A.T.-
The director tried to be informative, but the
cast had nothing interesting to say

The group commentary for Jerry Maguire- Everybody
just laughed at each others appearances on screen
and didn't provide any useful information

William Friedkin for The Exorcist- The Version...-
He just repeated what the viewer was watching

Mel Gibson for Braveheart- It was clear to me that
he didn't want to be there, and there was too much
dead space in the track

Rob Reiner's tracks for any of his films- very boring.
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post #43 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:54pm
I tried the commantary thing at work once, but it didn't work for me. I either couldn't pay attention to the commentary or I couldn't pay attention to my work (web developer). Too bad because it would be a great way to knock off some commentaries.

What I've found that works for me is to switch the TV to something that doesn't require volume. I've had great luck watching pool/billiards off the TiVo or even some late night skinamax. :b

I've found one of my most hated people to listen to would have to be Rob Reiner. I think he intentionally goes out of his way to be boring. He probably has trial runs on people to see if he can put them to sleep or not before the actual recording.

Still, I'm one of those who like to get their money's worth. So I listen to all of them. It's also a great way to keep my purchases under control. Otherwise I'd be ripping through 5-7 new movies per week.
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post #44 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:55pm
You know, I think most directors realize that in the grand scheme of things, making a movie is an insignifcant event compared to the birth of a child or an earthquake in Iran or mass genocide in Rwanda. When they say things like, "This was difficult, but we pulled it off", they are speaking to the context of making the film, not the context of the grand scope of human experience.

They know they aren't discussing open heart surgery, they're talking about their own struggles making a movie. "I think we pulled it off" doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm hard pressed, in fact, to name instances of commentaries that have annoyed me - let alone anger me. The only thing that comes close is Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh talking about how much they "improved" Tolkien's work on the commentary for Fellowship of the Ring: Extended. That rubbed me the wrong way, because I found it disrespectful to Tolkien and all the long years he labored to write the books in the first place.

That's really the only time I've been annoyed by something on a DVD commentary. I generally have too much respect for filmmakers to criticize them on so personal a level. I might criticize their work, but complaining about their style of speaking on a commentary...I don't know. Seems petty and small somehow.
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post #45 of 234
1/27/04 at 3:57pm
"This signature brought to you by the academy awards. Proudly choosing the wrong best picture every year since 1975!"

LOL...now *that's* funny.
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post #46 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:01pm
Quote:
This quote, pulled from an earlier post regarding Roland Emmerich's commentary on The Patriot is symptomatic of what's wrong with many "blockbuster" directors these days.


You know that English isn't Emmerich's native language, right? It may not be particularly fair to attempt to assess Emmerich's intellect based upon a running commentary in English.

DJ
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post #47 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:19pm
The worst commentary I've heard yet is the actor commentary on American Wedding. Just awful. They're brainless, unfunny and have zero to say. So they start talking about where things where shot, which was covered on the other track (which actually isn't half bad--the guy who plays the obnoxious fellow ...see how well this stuck with me...actually has some pretty good insights into crafting a performance), and then they congratulate each other on their commentating. Any affection I ever had for Alyson Hannigan was thoroughly dissipated by finding out she's an utter moron.
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post #48 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:32pm
I was surprised when director Carl Franklin ended his recent Out of Time commentary about five minutes before the credits started rolling.


Franklin's are normally boring-- I found his commentary on "one false move" to be self absorbed and cocky. I heard snips of "Devil in a Blue Dress" and also found it slow and self absorbed.

How do you get a dvd commentary onto an ipod? And can you also do the same for the soundtrack? Thanks.
Please tell me there is an easy way to do this on a Mac without extra software. I would love to load the commentaries onto my iPod. How did you do it?


Yes, but it involved ripping, which is frowned upon here. Contact me off the HTF.

I've heard The Matrix commentary was supposed to be awful, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.


I didn't think it was that bad, I thought the backlash came from the fact that it was the first "mainstream" film with a commentary widely sold on DVD-- and for many it was the first commentary they heard. Overall, it's slow- but there are some gems-- and each memeber has a lot of respect for the talent and job of the others, so it is also a "carwash fest"


Rob Reiner's tracks for any of his films- very boring.


He's stuff on the criterion Spinal Tap is listenable. Granted the ones with the guys (not the in-character version later appearing on MGM disc) is better, but I don't know if Reiner was that bad.


As far as the topic of "we pulled it off"-- I think you catch some industry cliches on commentaries often... a lot of the terminology- if a scene "plays" and everyone in effects and tech refers to the projects as "shows"--- I always took the "we pulled it off" thing as a sort of industry cliche.

I still find the best listening time is during a walk or working out. I put my whole collection on MP3, and know the movies well enough that the "screen context" it not crucial--- it makes a good time waster while I hit the gym or go for a long walk.
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post #49 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:34pm
Thread Starter 
Not a bad point, Damin, but Emmerich is fluent enough in English, as is evidenced on some of the extras on his DVDs, to provide something a bit less rambling than what he did on Patriot. I don't mind cutting someone a little slack if English isn't their native tongue, but he, like De Bont and Harlin, is capable of articulating himself far better in English than that track would suggest.

Sadly, Dean Devlin whose first language IS english, stumbles and mutters almost as incoherently as Emmerich.

Chad-
Good to know I'm not the only one who's found a good way to breeze through commentaries without wasting valuable viewing time at home, although Mark Harrison's idea of listening to them while watching something else with the sound off is almost as appealing, considering how much dreck is on TV these days.

Dane-
Loved the UHF track too. In anyone else's hands, that kind of pedantic fact-reciting would be excruciating. I couldn't help but feel the director was a little embarassed being connected to the whole affair, though, as he barely contributed more than a few dull comments. Perhaps it was a career-killer for him?

Ernest-
I'm with you on the directors who seem to be aware that their movies don't rate very high in comparison to the greater world around us. However, I don't find it petty at all to analyse an artist's analysis of his own work, particularly if he records it for posterity, as it sometimes reveals even more about the artist. When you come away from a comentary feeling like you've learned nothing, sometimes it casts the film - and the filmmakers - in a whole new light. Other comments, like the bit you mentioned from LOTR, are probably closer in spirit to my original post that started this thread - sometimes their Hollywood-bubble hubris barely masks their ignorance. Fran Walsh's and Phillipa Boyens' remarks are not unlike Kevin Reynolds' in regards to Monte Cristo: he actually thinks he improved on the source material. Right or wrong, it's just plain funny, and I'm hoping to read many more moments like this in this thread.
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post #50 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:42pm
I couldn't help but feel the director was a little embarassed being connected to the whole affair, though, as he barely contributed more than a few dull comments. Perhaps it was a career-killer for him?


Or more accurately, he's not a director. He's Al's manager, and Al felt he had a decent eye, so he ended up directing music videos for Al-- and eventually the movie. I got the vibe he didn't talk because he had little to say- and didn't really wanna reveal how little he knew.

He never directed (or aspired to direct) anything aside from a few Al videos and UHF.
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post #51 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:48pm
Thread Starter 
Intresting. I didn't know that. Did they even mention that on the track? Or perhaps there wasn't room after Al read off all the addresses.
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post #52 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:56pm
Quote:
I couldn't help but feel the director was a little embarassed being connected to the whole affair, though, as he barely contributed more than a few dull comments
UHF is that special case where you don't really want to hear the director. Whenever he says something you pretty much want to say "Shut up and let Al talk". It doesn't really matter who might be. This is Al's movie after all.
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post #53 of 234
1/27/04 at 4:58pm
i usually don't listen to commentaries, or watch that many extras at all for that matter. but when i do listen to a commentary, what pisses me off the most is when who ever is talking goes on with some irrelevant rambling while an amazing scene is going on, and then the scene passes and you don't get to hear anything about it. makes me want to send hate mail.

eric
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post #54 of 234
1/27/04 at 5:00pm
To be honest I kind of liked it, but Freeway is probably not to everyone's taste.

There's a whole lot of "awestruck Hollywood gee whiz I'm just a regular guy" blathering....

"Look, I got that guy from the Pretender to play this part. He was AWESOME in the Pretender.... Okay, now see where his hand is shaking. See he's playing a drug addict and the Pretender guy ACTUALLY spent time with REAL drug addicts and their hands shake EXACTLY the same way!!!!!"

It's amazing. I don't even think he knows his actor's name. (Well okay that's an exageration, but he really comes off as an idiot throughout the commentary.)

It makes me laugh though,
Greykell
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post #55 of 234
1/27/04 at 5:31pm
I dare anyone to listen to the cast commentary to HOLES. I dare you. it's like being in a day care with noisy kids.
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post #56 of 234
1/27/04 at 5:37pm
I think one of the rising problems with "Mainstream" commentaries being as stilted & boring as they are is the fact that many times the directors and/or actors are contractually obligated to participate in a future DVD commentary track before one frame of the actual film is even shot, there's a big difference between someone who genuinely loves the film and takes delight in sharing his/her/their memories with whomever might listen....and someone who is basically just doing a job.
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post #57 of 234
1/27/04 at 5:49pm
There's a commentary track on Monty Python's The Meaning of Life that was pretty unique and sometimes hysterical, it's not really a commentary, it's basically a guy sitting on the sofa watching the film with you, he belches, farts, sniffs, laughs, talks to himself, goes to the toilet, answers the phone etc while the film is playing. Classic Python humour.
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post #58 of 234
1/27/04 at 6:13pm
Mel Brooks on Space Balls

He uses the "I haven't seen this in so long..."
line and the worst, he says this general statement several times
"This scene is so good I am just going to stop talking and let the scene speak for itself" followed by minutes of dead air.
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post #59 of 234
1/27/04 at 6:53pm
My least favorite so far is the commentary on K-19 the Widowmaker. The commentators don't sound like they're even watching the film, never refer to anything that's happening on screen in any way shape or form. The whole commentary seems totally unconnected. Sounds like they just talked to each other for an hour and a half about making the film while someone recorded them, but they weren't actually watching the film. Could have been released in audio-only form and nobody would have thought it was a dvd commentary at all.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf has only one commentary, by the DP, and it's actually quite good and technically informative, talks a lot about Mike Nichols (sp?) and has a few good anecdotes about Liz and Dick.
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post #60 of 234
1/27/04 at 7:06pm
I was just listening to Ang Lee's commentary of "Hulk" last night. BORRRRING. It actually put me to sleep, and I *wasn't* tired to begin with!
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