Top 5 commentaries? (1 Viewer)

[Patrick G]

I need something to watch tonight, and I've been in the mood for commentaries lately. I've watched 3 the past 3 nights. What are considered to be some of the very best, like maybe a top 5 or 10, commentaries out there?

 

[MaxY]

As Good As it Gets was Fun.
12 Monkey's with Terry Gillam.
But the most fun best overal commentary has to be the one on Cannibal:The Musical with Trey Parker and Matt Stone and some friends getting drunk and stoned and being smashed by the end.
Max

 

[Brian Lawrence]

1. Can't Hardly Wait

2. A Boy and His Dog

3. From Dusk Till Dawn

4. Dark City (Ebert)

5. The Sweet Hereafter

 

[Patrick McCart]

In no order...

Citizen Kane (Roger Ebert commentary)

Superman: The Movie

Shrek

Notorious (Rudy Behlmer commentary)

Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

 

[rhett]

The Thing (1982)

Used Cars

Mallrats

Evil Dead II

Big Trouble In Little China

Runners up:

Terminator 2

Assault on Precinct 13

Conan the Barbarian

 

[Yee-Ming]

surprised no one's mentioned The Godfather Collection yet. the moment I got my mitts on the set, I promptly watched the movies again, then the extras and then sat through all three commentaries. although that's 9+ hours of commentary to listen to...

also, for something different, the commentary by Jim & Marilyn Lovell on Apollo 13. it's unusual, I suppose, for the real-life persons to be commenting on a movie of what they actually lived through, so it's a unique perspective on things.

I am told (by brother and sister -- have not heard them myself yet) that the commentaries on Toy Story 1 and 2 are quite entertaining as well.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Marian Keene - NOTORIOUS

Stephen Soderbergh, et al - THE LIMEY

Anthony Minghella - THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY

Marian Keene - THE LADY EVE

Michael Jeck - SEVEN SAMURAI

 

[MartinTeller]

5 best (that I've heard):

C.H.U.D.

Army of Darkness

Evil Dead 2

The Limey (both tracks)

ANY John Waters commentary

5 worst (that I've heard):

Desperately Seeking Susan

Edward Scissorhands

The Player

When Harry Met Harry

Spaceballs

 

[Kenneth Vestergaard]

Boogie Nights (PTA alone)

 

[PatrickL]

There are many commentary tracks I've yet to hear on discs I own. Of the one I have heard:
Sense and Sensibility
Still my all-time favorite. The track, with producer Lindsay Doran and star/writer Emma Thompson, is relaxed and conversational but jam-packed with information and anecdote. And it's often funny besides.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Director Anthony Minghella's comments are constant and constantly interesting, especially when he talks theme.
Autumn Sonata
Peter Cowie, a Bergman scholar, offers a track that some might consider dry and academic, but I found it insightful and highly informative. I'm impressed at how he makes use of revelant quotes not only from Ingmar Bergman but also from the biographies of Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullman.
Notorious
The attention to semiotics on Marian Keene's track lifts it above Cinema Studies 101.
Moon Over Broadway
Many of the personalities involved in the sometimes unhappy documentary get to have another say a few years later, armed with a little hindsight. Hearing this track is like seeing a second, even more revelatory version of the film.

 

[LukeB]

Toy Story 2

Ghostbusters

A Bug's Life

Toy Story

Mrs. Doubtfire

 

[Artur Meinild]

Toy Story 1+2

Evil Dead 1+2

The Prince of Egypt

Big Trouble in Little China

 

[Howard Williams]

My favorites:

Citizen Kane: Roger Ebert

Ronin: Frankenhiemmer

Dark City: Roger Ebert

Belly: Hype Williams

 

[Mark_vdH]

1. Casper Tybjerg on The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
2. Vivian Kubrick on Making The Shining
3. Francis F. Coppola on The Godfather Part I & II
4. Terry Gilliam on 12 Monkeys
5. Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane
The commentaries by Tybjerg and V. Kubrick are the only ones I ever listened twice.
The fact that the Gilliam commentary on 12 Monkeys ends abruptly, is highly annoying though.

 

[Scott_MacD]

Both Ebert commentaries

Criterion Robocop

Marian Keene on Notorious

Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and others on Evil Dead 2

 

[Jon Robertson]

One commentary which is bound to be amazing is on Chris Morris' DVD of Brass Eye, his brilliant media satire and hoax on investigative journalism. There's a commentary on the episodes on drugs with several tramps from off-the-street brought into the recording studio by Chris Morris, fed lots of beer, then asked to describe the episode.