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

[Jeff D Han]

Here's a third vote for The Exorcist: The Version You
Never Seen having a terrible commentary. Friedkin isn't
very good at doing audio talks. The track for To Live
And Die In L.A. isn't so hot either.

Some of my favorites-

P.T. Anderson (solo) for Boogie Nights
Russell and Carpenter for The Thing
Danny De Vito for The War Of The Roses
Fincher, Pitt, Norton and Bonham-Carter for Fight Club
Jackson, Walsh and Boyens for both Fellowship and Towers
Group track for The Silence Of The Lambs (Criterion)

Leat favorites-

Friedkin for Exorcist
Mel Gibson for Braveheart (it sounded like he didn't
want to bother with doing the track)
Melanie Griffith for Crazy In Alabama (completely
worthless- I shut it off after 20 minutes)
Most Rob Reiner tracks (too much silence)
Cast track for Jerry Maguire (they just laughed at
each other's appearance on screen without saying
anything worthwhile)
Group track for The Goonies (everybody tries to talk
over each other so all you hear is noise)
Cast track for S.W.A.T. (worthless)

 

[David Illingworth II]

I can't believe no one's mentioned the Bryan Singer-Christopher McQuarrie commentary on The Usual Suspects as the best. Great track. Y'know, a lot of commentaries suck, but when you get a good one you remember why you bother in the first place. A great commentary is truly great.
Another great one is Randall Wallace on We Were Soldiers. Much better than the making of, which is rarely the case with commentaries. Gives you a lot of information, points out useful facts about locations (like, "This doesn't look like a jungle, but that's because not all of Vietnam looks like a jungle. This looks like the actual location"), and takes pains to get across why he made the choices he did, and what is literally true and what is "true in spirit."

As for worst, I'd have to put American Beauty right up there. Fascinating movie, unbelievable success, and all the director can talk about is the lighting. The writer must not have really wanted to do it because he says only about two things. Really, the whole track is about lighting. It's terrible.

 

[Kevin M]

Yes, but it wasn't supposed to follow on screen action as it was a "book on tape", it was Carl Macek reading his book Heavy Metal: the movie, it says this on the back cover...it's even underlined.
If you want a scene specific commentary then the feature length Rough Cut has a rather good one by the same man (Macek) that covers everything you would want to know about the making of the film.

 

[Jeffrey]

>Worst: The Manchurian Candidate

Different strokes for different folks....I think Frankenheimer's commentary for this film is one of the best I've ever heard. Informative, lots of great stories, particularly during the pivotal scene between Sinatra and Lawrence Harvey.

Highly recommend the movie, too. For those who haven't seen it, grab the re-issue in July.

Jeffrey

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Noteworthy Commentary Tracks:

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series
- Wet Hot American Summer
- Almost Famous Untitled: The Bootleg Cut
- Once Upon A Time In The West: Special Collector's Edition
- Open Range

and anything with Kevin Smith or Cameron Crowe.

 

[David Galindo]

A great one is Roger Ebert's commentary on Dark City So far thats 3 commentaries for Ebert, correct? (Dark City, Casablanca, and Kane). I also like all of the Futurama commentaries.


The worst...hmmmm...so far, I havent heard one that was plain awful. Imagine that.

BTW, is it worth blind buying Conan for the commentary alone? Havent seen the movie...

 

[Anthony Thorne]

William Friedkin's commentary for THE EXORCIST - 25TH ANNIVERSARY S.E (the original theatrical cut, but with lots of extras) is actually really good. Most reviews I've read seem to agree that his commentary on that disc is worth a listen, while his talk on the later expanded edition is pretty dull.

I like the Bruce Campbell talks on all three DEAD discs, Del Toro on BLADE 2 (very funny and engaging), Carpenter and Russell on THE THING and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, the wild Brian Smedley Ashton/Joseph Larraz chat on Blue Underground's VAMPYRES (Larraz, who must be pushing 70, is hilariously ribald) and most of the discs that William Lustig has chatted on. I think Ridley Scott is usally an excellent commentator but never really got into his GLADIATOR chat. (His talks on ALIEN and HANNIBAL are both very good, and I'm keen to hear his tracks on DUELLISTS, BHD and LEGEND). Bey Logan is very good on the various Hong Kong Legend discs (Region 2 from the UK - I hope he's on their upcoming BULLET IN THE HEAD). Finally, I remember enjoying what I've heard of Martin Scorsese's commentary tracks (he did talks for Criterion's old LD's of TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL) so I'm keen to hear him again on the various upcoming Warner S.E's of titles like GOODFELLAS.

Interesting thoughts above about the Fincher Tracks. I have the FIGHT CLUB and SEVEN discs on my shelf but have never dug into the commentaries that much. I'll have to give them a try.

 

[Al (alweho)]

IMHO...

Best: Sydney Pollack, Criterion "Tootsie" LaserDisc.

Worst: Barbra Streisand's loopy remarks on a few scenes on the "What's Up Doc" DVD.

Funniest: Spinal Tap's on the "Spinal Tap" MGM DVD (He's dead now.).

Most Exotic: Jean-Pierre Jennet, "Amelie" DVD.

Snarkiest: Richard Donner & Tom Mankiewicz, "Superman" DVD.

Spookiest: Walt Disney, "Fantasia" DVD (Even creepier, but technically not a commentary: Roy Disney commanding the Magic Mirror on the "Snow White" DVD.)

Best peek into the mainstream Hollywood actor's brain (it ain't pretty): Cast commentary on "Goonies" DVD.

Dead Air: Christoper Guest as Christopher Guest on any DVD version of a film he has directed.

Three chicks in desperate search of a writer: Jennifer Coolidge, Jessica Cauffiel & Alanna Ubach on "Legally Blonde 2."

 

[Drew Reiber]

Best: Blue Underground's The Crazies (George Romero w/ Bill Lustig)
Worst: Fox's Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter and Kurt Russell)

 

[Chris]

Best:
"Jonah: A Veggietales Movie" the animated characters commentary. One of the funniest and industry oriented commentaries I have ever listened to.

 

[Seth--L]

Best
"Silence of the Lambs"
"Raging Bull" (criterion LD)
"Alien" (first release with Scott only)
"The Fall of the House of Usher" (Corman version)

Worst
There are zounds of extremely poor commentaries out there, but the only one I've never had the patience to listen entirely to was "North by Northwest" (in general WB did a horrible job with the extras on this release; the documentary is horrible, especially when compared to the 90 minute ones Bouzereau made for "Psycho" and "The Birds").

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

True, that was a great track.
It was the first commentary I ever listened to. It was before I even had a DVD player - I found a VHS box set second hand with two tapes, Usual Suspects in widescreen, and Usual Suspects with commentary.

Also great - Ebert on Citizen Kane, the PJ tracks on LOTR, and any by Terry Gilliam.

Can't comment on the worst, because I only listen to commentary tracks if general opinion is that the track is worth listening to - the idea of spending two hours listening to a bad track is really unappealing.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

I just finished listening to one of the worst commentaries in my collection: Harold Ramis on his remake of Bedazzled. He not only describes what's going on in each scene, he also constantly recites the upcoming lines and explains plot details that are completely obvious. It was excruciating, but he did occasionally provide a few nuggets of interesting information, which compelled me to listen to the entire thing. At least I got a bit of satisfaction when he pointed out the blackboard gag involving Fermat's Last Theorem (a good joke for math geeks).

 

[Pete-D]

The Godfather trilogy has great commentary from Coppola.

I thought the commentary for The Royal Tenenbaums was great. Just Wes Anderson by himself. Provided a lot of depth to things. If you want to understand more about filmmaking this is a great commentary track to look into.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery with Mike Myers is hillarious too. It's probably a commentary track even those who don't like that sort of thing would enjoy.

The Goonies has a fun commentary track, since its a part reunion with Joel Silver and the Goonies kids (well now grown up).

I wish Speilberg and M. Night Shyamalan would do commentary. I understand their decision's not to do it as far they feel their films speak for themselves and whatever, but it'd be great to be able to listen to them speak about their films as you watch them.

 

[Josh Simpson]

Best:
This Is Spinal Tap (MGM)
U.H.F. (not really educational, but fun as only Al can be.)
Evil Dead trilogy with Bruce Campbell (need I say more?)
Superman: The Movie

Worst:
Burton's Planet of the Apes
Meet the Parents (why was Deniro(sp) even there?)
The Mummy Ultimate Edition with Brendon Fraiser

 

[david*mt]

My favorite commentary would have to Roger Ebert from Casablanca. My least favorite would be the ID4 commentary with Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin.

 

[Shane_Anthony]

I recently listened to the Katherine Orrison's commentary for "The Ten Commandments" she did a great job and talks from beginning to end with nearly a pause. She obviously loves the movie and it shows in her enthusiasm and knowledge of the production

One of the worst that comes to mind is John Mcteirnan for "The Hunt For Red October." He's a great director but his montone voice nearly put me into a coma

PS. I also thaught Gibson's commentary for Bravheart was pretty useless

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Carpenter/Russell commentary on Big Trouble in Little China; it has almost nothing to do with the movie itself, but it's so much fun that you forgive them for it, especially with self-deprecating comments like, "y'know, the audience probably really doesn't care about our lives, so we should probably get back to the movie."
The commentary on the Director's Cut of Legend in the UE is also a great one; listen to Ridley Scott's comments about the dubbing of David Bennent's lines by Alice Playten.

 

[Nate Anderson]

I never made it past the "travelouge" joke, figuring, "Well, it's not going to get any better than that."

 

[Chris Parham]

Another "I can't believe nobody has mentioned" post but I would have to say that the Tarantino/ Rodriguez commentary on From Dusk Till Dawn is my all time favourite! I had it on a special edition laserdisc and it was ported onto the second release of the DVD. If memory serves, they actually discuss the fact that it is a LASERDISC commentary and that this line is unedited on the DVD port. I'll go back and check as this thread has reminded me of how much fun this commentary was to listen to.
You really get the feeling that your sitting in a darkened theater with a couple of insightful guys who really love film and this genre in particular. I'm pretty sure that Tarantino jokes that he hasn't had enough time or desire to do a commentary for Pulp Fiction yet and Rodriguez sticks him on this point. For those of you holding your breath for a Tarantino commentary on one of his own films, I highly recommend giving this one a try.