Tarantino's solo commentary on True Romance is a great, breezy, entertaining listen.

Anything with Scorsese (Last Temptaion, Gangs of NY, the Powel&Pressburger films from Criterion, the upcoming Scorsese discs from WB)

I have to admit that when I buy a DVD, I usually look to see if it has at least one commentary. However, I hardly ever listen to them.

However, I have listened to maybe a half-dozen or so commentaries. One in particular, was very interesting. It got pretty political and heart felt. It was on the Tears of the Sun DVD. Where the black director while making the movie really gained a huge amount of respect for the American military. This commentary was recorded before the Iraq War, but made reference to that the war was probably inevitable and what not. The thing that impressed me was that he, as a "Hollywood" director knew what what right and that dictators like Saddam Hussein and Mugabe needed to be dealt with. (The movie itself was about the genocide that was occurring in Niger.)

Evil Dead, I believe I like watching with commentary better than without.

any of the Evil Dead commentaries, and the John Carpenter/Kurt Russel commentaries are great as well.

and of course you can't go wrong with the Blood Simple commentary!

The first commentary I ever listened too has in my mind stayed the best. It was by Joss Whedon on the Episode "Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest" On the first season of Buffy DVD Set Before I heard the commentary I had no idea about how the show was picked up, casted, written, filmed, all that stuff. It was really educational on the making and maintaning of a drama television show. All of Joss's commentaries have been fun, but the first one stands out as the best (although his commentary with Mari Noxon & Seth Green on Season 4's "Wild at Heart" is a very close second)

As mentioned, any Carpenter/Russel commentary, especially The Thing. Ebert's commentary on Dark City is great, and I listen to the Mallrats commentary more than I listen to the movie itself.

ANY Gilliam commentary is great, he just gets going and doesn't stop. The cast commentary on the Criterion print of This Is Spinal Tap is great. The newer one is funny too, but not as strong on repeat viewings. The Fincher/Norton/Pitt commentary on Fight Club is good, and Fincher/Pitt are strong on Seven as well. Actually, most Pitt commentaries are pretty entertaining.

Fishing With John is also entertaining; it's packed with some great little bits. It's just Lurie by himself so it's kind of dry (big surprise), but still funny. Dry in humor, that is.

The commentary on Ghostbusters is entertaining but I think the MST3K-style overlay is a bit overdone.

And just for the sake of completeness: The two worst I've ever heard: The Arnold commentary on Conan The Barbarian is two hours of "Here I go up the stairs... there, I'm going up the stairs. This part, I draw the sword and chop the heads off. There's the sword and there's me chopping."
And the commentaries on The Matrix. Just awful.

The Usual Suspects - Writer Chris McQuarrie and Director Bryan Singer. Just hearing where they developed the concept was amazing.

Swingers - Favreau and Vaughn were hysterical.

Commentaries are my favorite special feature too, if I'm split on buying a movie usually a commentary will decide it for me. Save for a really good documentary it's usually the only extra I watch (listen to) more than once.

My favorites are the in-character and Criterion cast commentary on This Is Spinal Tap, all of the Kevin Smith commentaries, Evil Dead 2, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Conner on Singin' in the Rain, on some of the Universal Classic Monsters discs has one of my favorite authors, David J. Skal doing great commentaries. Then there's the Day of the Dead commentary on the Divimax disc (anything with Tom Savini I'll listen to a lot) anything with the Monty Python crew, and my favorite director Terry Gilliam. John Carpenter also does great ones (especially with Kurt Russell) and Broken Lizard on Super Troopers and Club Dread.

Recently shooting to the top of my list is the commentary on Criterion's Testament of Dr. Mabuse. The guy has so much information, and he presents it so clearly and entertainingly, that you just can't stop listening

Then you need to check out the dvds of Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler and 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, since both releases from Image have a commentary from the same guy (David Kalat), and they are just as good, if not better, than his track on Testament. The amazing thing is that throughout all three tracks, even though they are mostly about Lang/Mabuse/Germany, he rarely repeats himself (even more amazing, considering Gambler is 4 hours long).

The Simpsons season commentaries

I picked up 1000 Eyes last tuesday, but I haven't watched it yet

Almost Famous - Cameron and Alice Crowe
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Criterion - Hunter S. Thompson
Dark City - Roger Ebert
The Simpsons - Matt Groening, Al Jean & Mike Reiss (can't wait to hear Conan on season 4!)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers - Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens
Futurama - Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and other writers/directors/actors
Fight Club - David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena-Bonham Carter

Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane
Carpenter/Russell on any film
Jim & Marilyn Lovell on Apollo 13
The King on Bubba Ho-Tep

quote:
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Originally posted by dhmac
And Mike Nelson's commentary on the recent Reefer Madness: Special Addiction disc is, by far, the funniest one I've ever heard.
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He definitely prepared ahead of time. And although it's more of a funny commentary on the film, he does slip into MST riffing mode a few times.

(And if his comment that he's working on new DVD commentaries with Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett is true, then those will probably be even more MST-like.)

for me the Donnie Darko commenteries were both good

the new zealand movie Stickmen the region 4 release had a good commentary. they director and the writer explained everything about the movie well. A good repeat listen.

The Muggers one was good also explaing about the movie and about the cast.

The Honourable Wally Norman was good also. Rather interesting. The movie will be a pickup when it available to buy

sorry if you don't know a few of these movies. they are from australia as I live there.

DOG SOLDIERS!!!

Ebert on Citizen Kane - Made me really appreciate this film.
Fincher/Norton/Pitt on Fight Club - fun
Cast commentay for Final Destination 2 - fun
Siger/McQuarrie on the Usual Suspects - interesting
Alot of the Commentaries on the Pixar Films really give you alot of insight into their creative thinking and their love of their work

And I definately need to check out the Blade 2 Commentary.

Big Trouble in Little China is a good one. I also enjoy anything Terry Gillium does. Fincher does good commentary.

The Farrelly brothers are the Worst! How can guys who make such funny movies be so frickin' boring?
Also Morgan Freeman's commentary on Se7en was maybe the toughest to get through. Was he even watching the film as he spoke? He just rambled on.

One of my favorites is the PTA solo track from Boogie Nights. One of the worst would have to be Mel Gibson on Braveheart...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Hunter S. Thompson on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

I don't usually listen to them, but of the few I have....I was very impressed with Silence of the Lambs commentary. Alot of factual FBI stuff in there, and how they used it to make the movie.

Bey Logan on HKL discs. He really knows his Asian cinema.

I also thought the group commentary on Versus was very funny. Ragging on each other and making jokes about the acting, plot, etc. (although I thought the movie itself was mediocre at best).

My ususal contribution to this type of thread is to recommend Hershcell Gordon Lewis on Blood Feast. His discussion about the bad acting, music, and even directing is not only informative but very funny indeed. Him talking about how they dealt with the budget limitations was great. But even more interesting was how they were able to finance, make, and distribute this movie (arguably the first "mega-splatter gore-fest") in 1963 drive-in America. Fascinating stuff.

Just watched the Blade II commentary with Guillermo del Toro and I gotta say it was great. Del Toro is a funny bastard and he just gives soooo much information on alot of the shots, setups and backstories. Thanx for the recommendation.