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

[MarcoBiscotti]

Haha, thats funny that someone else mentioned 'Meet The Parents'... Is it just me or does Deniro's commentary, or lack of it, come off a little weird? He seems like he's got some sort of antisocial issues. I cringed whenever he managed to mumble out a few monotone syllables, it was so uncomfortable... It sounded like he was afraid to speak, I always assumed social confidence would've been a required personality trait for movie actors? The director would pose direct questions to Deniro every 20 minutes just to let people know he was still in the room, which were borderline condescending and sounded as though he were addressing a shy elementary school student, and Deniro would stutter and mumble out an inaudible response than quickly trail off after realizing his words were going nowhere and just end mid-sentence. Is he featured on any other commentary tracks, I can't imagine anyone would bother putting him in a recording session for one after this...

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

OK, time to raise this creature back from the dead... http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/images/smilies/naughty.gif


I just finished listening to both commentaries on Star Wars: Clone Wars - Vol. 1 by the Director/Producer Genndy Tartokovsky. Oh my... his first commentary could quite possibly challenge William Friedkin's dreadful commentary on The Exorcist: (The Version You've Never Seen) as the most dull, mind-numbing obviously overstated commentary ever recorded. They should not call these commentaries, but rather Audio Guides for the Visually Impaired.

Tartokovsky spends about 95% of the time in the first commentary simply describing what is on the screen and nothing more. Frankly, I would be morbidly curious how many times he says "and this is where... (insert action on screen)".

Maybe that is why he recorded a second commentary track, but even that one barely scratched the surface on shedding light onto this otherwise remarkably clever animation project.


OK... I feel better now. I just had to get that off my chest after wasting over two precious hours listening to that junk.

 

[Jesse Blough]

Best: The Beyond

Worst: Memento

 

[Scott Shanks]

Best:
APOLLO 13: Jim Lovell
BROTHER BEAR: Even my 8 year old son loves to listen to this commentary. ("That looks more like the place where the sun meets McDonalds, eh.")
THREE KINGS: David o. Russell
THE MASK: Chuck Russell
ROCKY: John Avildsen
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION: Frank Darabont

Not Worst, but disappointing:
BULL DURHAM: Costner and Robbins (a little too self congradulatory - everyone was a genius)
THE INCREDIBLES: Brad Bird (I felt like I was listening to an Oscar acceptance speech - always mentioning the animators names and how difficult everything was. I wanted more about the influences and the references made.)
NORTH BY NORTHWEST: Ernie Lehman. Nice man, but was totally lost doing a commentary.
LAST OF SHEILA: Racquel Welch, Dyan Cannon and Richard Benjamin. (Too much laughing at themselves. I loved this movie and was hoping for much more, I guess. Racquel had nothing to say except that she didn't do much acting in the movie.)

 

[walter o]

Colin Jacobson, what was wrong with Mena Suvari's commentary on AMERICAN PIE 2?

 

[Herschel]

Hmm, right now there are 9 tracks between that Exorcist one and Clone Wars on my site's worst commentaries list (yes, the Exorcist track has the honor of being the lowest-rated one on the site). I wonder if Clone Wars might drop some more when it gets some more votes, though.

On a more positive note, I'm about 30 minutes into the Joel Bakan commentary on The Corporation, and it's really good stuff. Recommended. The other commentary track on that disc isn't nearly as interesting, though.

 

[dave bula]

OK, here's one of my favorite commentaries that no one has mentioned in this thread. Writer/director Jessie Nelson's commentary for her film I Am Sam is superb, one of the best I've ever heard.

 

[Drew Mertz]

2 more duds.

Anchorman with Will Farrel and
Rollerball with LL Cool J.

 

[ChristopherBlig]

It's crunch time and I can't believe the two I'm going to mention have not been before me but i'll do it anyway:

BEST COMMENTARY-

Catch-22 (Steven Soderbergh and Mike Nichols)

With an experience commentating director and a rare listen at a director that you don't hear on a track like this but talks volumes about his movies in the past in interviews, this is a rare treat to have essentially one of the most underrated movies of the last 40 years given the diary treatment and great reminiscing about the casting, filming, little secrets, regrets, attempted shots, input from cast. It always sounded to me like a great film professor, who did an obscure classic, and his favorite student chatting away about the film. A definite must listen.

and as for WORST COMMENTARY:

The commentary on the original Ocean's 11 with a self congratulatory Frank Sinatra Jr. with gaps, descriptions and a too little too late inclusion of Angie Dickenson for the short time onscreen. A big disappointment for a sixties classic. What should have insight has intended compliments.

"...and that's the way it goes (bom-bom)"-Andy Kaufman

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Favorite tracks...
Apollo 13 with Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn. Every moment is entrancing, and sometimes emotional, like during the launch sequence, Marilyn get's a lttle misty at that point. Nothing better than hearing right from the man who actually lived it!

Yet another vote for the Evil Dead trilogy. I could sit and listen to Bruce Campbell talk all day and never stop laughing until I was dead of exhaustion!

A more obscure choice, the cast commentary on the Smallville episode Rosetta. Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex Luthor, is a freaking trip! "Somebody take Greg's Bong away from him."

The cast commentaries on The Lord of the Rings trilogy. So much fun and informative. I love commentaries where you can tell their obviously having a good time talking about the film. If their having a good time, i'm usually having a good time listening to them. I keep meaning to listen to Peter's commentaries, but the films are so long I have to set aside a lot of time.

John Carpenter and Debra Hill's commentary on Halloween. Nothing more needs to be said here.

Cast commentary on the Gremlins SE. One of my old favorites, I just loved hearing Dick Miller, God bless him. Also was both surprised and not so surprised to learn that Zach Galligan had a thing for Pheobe Cates while they were filming. I was surprised because I didn't know that, and not so surprised because, well, can you blame him!

Commentaries on the Star Wars Trilogy. Again, nothing more needs to be said.

The Back to the Future trilogy. Great stuff!

Now for the worst...

Anything by John Mctiernan! I adore the man's film's, but he is such a bore on his commentaries! He just sounds so damn depressed, and it also sounds like he has nothing but complete and utter contempt for the microphone. It always sounds like the next word's out of his mouth will be "I hate doing this bullshit, will someone kill me, please?"

Pretty much anything done by only the technical crew, for example the special effects teams or sound designers and so on. Whenever I read that on the specs for a dvd, I know i'm almost assured to have a boring time. I like hearing about ALL of the aspects of filming the movie, not just one or two.

I can't really think of any others in the worst category right now.

BTW, chalk me up as another who absolutly HATES commentary tracks where the volume of the film suddenly gets blaringly loud during the pauses in comments! I like to watch the commentaries at night since watching the film at my usual volume is prohibited, this is impossble when the volume keeps getting lower and than louder!

A note to the studios, keep the volume of the film low at all times during commentaries.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

She sounds like an imbecile. Here's what I said in my review:

"First up is a track from Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, and Thomas Ian Nicholas. All three were recorded together for this running, screen-specific piece. On paper, this sounds like a fun prospect, but in reality, it’s often painful, largely due to Suvari. She may be the winner of the 2001 edition of the Melanie Griffith Dopiest Commentary Participant award, as she seems to be in her own world throughout the track. And it’s an obnoxious world where she spouts inanities on a consistent basis."

 

[Bill Parisho]

HANDS DOWN, MY FAVORITE COMMENTARY IS FROM THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF OCEAN'S ELEVEN. FRANK SINATRA JR. DOES A WONDERFUL JOB OF TELLING YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PRODUCTION,THE STARS,THE CO-STARS,THE MUSIC, THE CREDITS, AND JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE. HE ALSO DID A GREAT JOB WITH ROBIN AND THE SEVEN HOODS.
THE WORST ONES ARE ANY THAT HAVE LOADS OF GAPS BETWEEN COMMENTS.
Bill Parisho

 

[Richard Hardbattle]

There are some amazingly good commentaries on the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes releases....

 

[Mike Wadkins]

Best

apollo 13
all evil deads
anything by kevin smith
both daredevils dc/se
the usual suspects
se7en (the cast/fincher one)
fight club (all tracks)
austin powers 1
underworld ext ed
terminator 2
x-men 1.5 + 2
anything with Robert Rodriguez
top gun
Out of sight

Worst

the thomas crown affair (remake)yawn
spider-man spec ed (both tracks) boring no new cool info no fun being had
austin powers the spy.. (it just ends no warning)

anything by mr harlin YAWN
ditto paul verhoven most anoying voice ever, the word puppets being a good example

 

[Kevin M]

I don't know, I think Paul Verhoven's tracks have a nice insanity to them that is interesting....just keep the volume down on the Starship Troopers track as it will blow your speakers and freak out the cat.

Just finished Orgasmo's drunken track.....funny but not quite as good as the similar track on Cannibal The Musical, it does have some good moments though...."Look, there's Dian with a D**k on his head! BRAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAAA!!"

 

[Bill Williams]

My picks (in no uncertain order):

Best:
- Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, "Superman"
- Peter Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, and Fran Walsh, "Lord of the Rings" trilogy extended versions
- LOTR cast commentary on the extended versions
- Larry the Cucumber and Mr. Lunt, "Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie" (this one was tongue-in-cheek hilarious!)
- Mr. Incredible and Frozone, "Mr. Incredible and Pals" (on Disc 2 of "The Incredibles" - this one is a riot! "And that rabbit is getting on my LAST nerve!")
- Roger Ebert, "Citizen Kane"
- the philosophers, "Ultimate Matrix Collection"
- the anti-commentaries, "Ultimate Matrix Collection" (where else can you listen for six and a half hours to three guys ripping into how bad the films are just for the hell of it?)

Worst:
- audio commentary on Kino Video's "Metropolis"
- William and Lisabeth Shatner, "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"
- Stuart Baird, "Star Trek: Nemesis"
- any and all commentaries by Kevin Smith on his "movies"

 

[Jesse Blough]

"Anchorman with Will Farrel"

I actually really like the commentary track on the unrated DVD.

 

[Ruz-El]

I second the commentary for Orgazmo (drunken). and agree it's not as funny as Cannibal.

"I praticed for weeks with a mirror to perfect the subtle look of wanting to see my girlfriend, but not wanting her to know about the porn, and you see it righhht....THERE!"

Actually, censored or not, all of Matt and Treys commentaries, and comentary-mini's are pretty fun. I'm hoping for more on "Team America"

Clerks animated is my favorite Kevin Smith. The bitterness just flows out of this track.

 

[Kevin M]

Yeah, I loved how Trey kept beating that horse on Orgazmo:

"Ok I was really trying to convey the emotion of being glad that she was gone but then again not, you can see it right..............here!

 

[Eric_B_C]

Kevin's commentary on Clerks: The Animated Series is just great. As you said, bitterness When he rips into one of the ABC execs in particular, my jaw about dropped. Let the rage flow, Kev!

I would add the two commentaries from the region 1 of Shaun of the Dead onto the best list. Pegg/Wright give good, not to mention funny, insight into the movie. The cast commentary, Dylan Moran in particular, is fantastic.

Spaced is pretty good too, from what I've listened to so far.