Great Audio Commentaries (1 Viewer)

Reading over the thread on bad audio commentaries got me interested in finding out what some of the best are. My current favorites are PTAs Boogie Nights track and Jean-Pierre Jeunets Amelie track. I also enjoy Kevin Smith's commentaries, and Roger Ebert's commentaries on Casablanca and Citizen Kane.

I love the Fight Club track with Fincher, Pitt and Norton.

IMHO the Apollo 13 track by Jim and Marilyn Lovell, though not the most "sparkling", was unique and interesting in that the movie was a dramatization of real events, and they got two of the main protagonists to comment on it.

Apparently the scene in the shower where Marilyn's wedding band slips off her finger and into the drain really happened! But she notes that in real-life, she was able to get her ring back...

Other good commentaries would be Coppola's on the Godfather trilogy -- but that's 9 hours of commentary to sit through...

Most of Ridley Scott's are also pretty good.

Evil Dead 2
Kurt Russell/John Carpenter commentaries
Kevin Smith commentaries
Conan the Barbarian-Arnold - I get laid alot in this movie!

The Howling
Once Upon a Time in the West
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
True Romance
Used Cars

I really enjoy Terry Gilliam's commentaries. He really covers all aspects of the film while keeping it very light and entertaining.

Hunter S. Thompson's commentary on the Criterion Fear and Loathing disc was worth the price of the disc alone. The other track with Johnny Depp, Benico Del Torro and Lalia Nuboulsi (sp?) was also good.

The cast commentaries on the FOTR and TTT was were also great.

The commentary for UHF is my favorite.

It's mostly Weird Al, but he gets Emo Phillips to join in on the "table saw" scene, Michael Richards for the 2nd half of the movie, and Victoria Jackson during the credits. Jay Levey says a few things, but he's mostly quiet... and the 2 "video" gags with Al are great.

Patrick, you already listed one of my favorite tracks, being UHF.

Another 1 that I really like and listen to several times over is the track for Ghostbusters.

Kevin Smith tracks are fun, as are the Pixar tracks.

Um.. yeah.. I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there.

I thought that one was pretty boring myself.

Fight Club is a good call.

Pretty much anything by Ridley Scott.

Legend: UE
Thelma and Louise
Alien
Gladiator
Hannibal
Black Hawk Down


He's easy to listen to and has so much to say. I've found him to be very articulate and he doesn't waste a minute. He's never boring, nor does he give useless information. You'll find out everything about whatever movie it is by listening to him. Plus many of the movies hes made that are on DVD also happen to be excellant DVDs in terms of both the film and special features. BHD in my opinion is his best, which he does along with producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The soon to be released Matchstick Men has a commentary by him also, which should be worth a listen.

Several of his other films have yet to see a DVD release or a decent special edition, such as GI Jane, Black Rain, Blade Runner, and 1492: Conquest of Paradise.

Cannibal the Musical - a commentary track that rivals and (IMHO) actually surpasses the movie in terms of laughs.

The Hunter S. Thompson track from FALILV is excellent.

Stephen Prince on Kurosawa's Red Beard, one of the best scholarly commentaries around.

Ulli Lommel and Michael Ballhaus on Fassbinder's Whity

Jack Hill on Coffy and Foxy Brown

Peter Cowie on Hiroshima Mon Amour

I saw this disc recently, and although I didn't like the movie that much, I did think the commentary was quite good. Prince also did a commentary for Criterion's Straw Dogs, and while again I didn't think the movie was all that great, his commentary was really damn good.

I think the Rob Marshall/Bill Condon commentary on Chicago is great. Another one that comes to mind, which I rented once but don't own, is the Criterion commentary on Last Temptation of Christ. Multiple participants, including Scorsese, and it's all tremendously interesting.

I second Justin W's shout-out to Ebert for Kane and Casablanca. Also on Casablanca, and on several other classics (Notorious, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Adventures of Robin Hood), Rudy Behlmer does some very informative tracks. Props to him for his great work on those discs.

I like the commentary from ebert on Citizen Kane as well.

I'll throw this one out, but it is for a nitch audience.

The funniest commentary track I've ever listened to is done by Mick Foley.

On his Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops DVD, he does an audio commentary for 1 of the worst ideas for a match in wrestling history. The match sucks, but Foley ripping on it is so funny that it has to be listened to more than once.

One of my favorite sets of commentaries to listen to are the Futurama sets, I really love those commentaries because the people doing them seem to be having a good time, plus Billy West and especially John Dimagio (SP?) crack me up.

SPINAL TAP: SPECIAL EDITION

Nothing funnier than commentary by Guest, McKean, & Shearer IN CHARACTER and putting down Rob Reiner's character for making them look bad during the rockumentary.

I thought I should add while I'm one of few that wasn't impressed by The Royal Tenenbaums (to say the least). I found the commentary track very enjoyable.

From Dusk Till Dawn, the Tarentino and Rodriquez track was very entertaining.

Ditto on the Fight Club track with Fincher, Pitt, and Norton.

Favorite commentary ever - Mall Rats with Kevin Smith, Affleck, Mewes, Perrera, Mosier. That was hilarious! Runner up, Chasing Amy.

Cannibal the Musical is a classic.

Anything from Terry Gilliam is good.
All I've heard from Peter Bogdanovich, especially Targets, is first rate.

So far, few of the Fox Studio Classics commentaries have been at all disappointing.

Besides the already mentioned David Fincher, Terry Gilliam, and John Carpenter & Kurt Russell commentaries, I'd add Cameron Crowe for Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky.

Also I'd add Jonathan Demme on Silence of the Lambs.

And Richard Dyer wrote a great BFI Film Modern Classic essay on Seven (it's fascinating analysis of the film and should be read by everyone who is a fan) and added comments to the New Line disc.

Kevin.