Although I would also love to see them run a little longer, they did have some serious problems with dead-air with the whole-episode commentaries for season 1 (especcially towards the end of the season). And they recorded all of that only to see it be cut from the dvd as well.

Any film with commentary by Richard Schickel must be avoided at all costs, unless you have a lengthy nap scheduled.

And he's done lots of them..

My worst vote goes for Arnold Schwarzenegger, take your pick as to which commentary.

Best is Darren Aronofsky on Requiem for a Dream or any Rogert Ebert commentary. I also like the commentaries on Peckinpah discs. I can't remember those guys names off hand but they are very informative. I tend to like Wes Anderson's commentaries too.

Honestly, most of the time I never get around to listening to them.

I'd have to say another vote for the Spaceballs commentary.

Barry Levinson's track on Rain Man is pretty bad. Just watched it last night, and he probably only speaks for 20 minutes of that movie. I guess he got caught up in watching his film and forgot to say anything about it.

The Enter The Dragon SE commentary was the lamest thing I've ever heard. I agree the writer phoning his part in was stupid, and it wasnt even a good phone, he sounds like his part was recorded from the bottom of a very deep lake. :( Hell, they could have got ANYONE to do a commentary on the new SE.

The Goonies, Damn you Corey Feldman! Damn you!

how are the other commentary tracks on Episode 4,5 and 6?

Well, to bump an old thread, with another reference to John Carpenter and Kurt Russell... I found it very funny that Russell takes advantage of the commentary to complain about almost breaking a leg on the set of the movie "Soldier", but continued filming because the pay was good, even if the movie wasn't.

After so many years, i still get irritated by the commentaries done in the "cut and paste" manner - you know, when several people who are not actually sitting together are spliced over one another... so annoyong. I just tried the Tony Scott/Susan Sarandon commentary on "The Hunger", and it's really annoying, especially when you think how great it would have been to have these two discuss the movie together...

I enjoyed Arnold and John Milius' commentary on Conan the Barbarian.

It's probably been mentioned before, but John McTiernan on "Predator" SE. Jesus Christ. When the first words out of the man's mouth are "I haven't seen this film in a loooooong time...", you know you're in for a treat. I was lulled to sleep by his non-chalant, careless ramblings about random shit, rarely pertaining to the movie.

The Matrix and Braveheart are tied for worst commentaries ever.

There are a few I hate for various reasons:
AvP - I agree with Buckee 1,not that bad for the most of it (the reason for lance-doing-the-pen-stabbing- around-hand-thing is for the fans, REALLY!!) but when the woman says she didn't know what "retrofitted" meant!
Resident evil - was again not terrible but at the end when Michelle Rodriguez asks about how they managed to make their own newspaper. Kids can make their own newspaper yet she thinks it would be a problem for a film company.
General daughter- Simon West tells us that the use of light makes us feel a mood. He will be telling us that cars going fast gives us an idea of speed!

The commentary track on John Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness was dreadfully boring. It was more or less he and the cinematographer discussing lighting.

Oldboy - excellent movie but the commentary is all in Korean so it's subbed & almost entirely a discussion on technical aspects. Well, I guess so. I could only make it thru 20 minutes. :yaaaawn:

Last House on the Left - both Steve Miner and Craven give a commentary that is just plain dull.

Not sure if anyones mentioned it, but any Farrelly Brothers commentary is really annoying. They continuosly point out their friends or family in every scene and tell us stories about them. Real interesting.

Do the Futurama commentaries get any better? I don't remember season one being this bad, but I tried to watch the season 2 commentaries, and they are just atrocious. They don't really have anything to say. The only time any life comes into the room is when they say something will "pay off later," but they don't tell you how. Thanks guys, this is a great show and you are giving me no insight at all into your process.

I think the problem is the people who haven't seen the show or movie and decide now is the time to watch it, and refresh their memory, instead of just commenting.

:hscratch: It's been a while since I listened to the Futurama commentaries (I did listen to all of them), and I thought they were pretty enjoyable. The voice actors rarely ever contributed, but I always thought David Cohen did an excellent job with his comments. He has said multiple times that he watches the show the night before the commentary so he is prepared.

Not a mention of Frakes on ST:First Contact? Never ever will I listen to one of his commentaries again.

His commentary track for She Hate Me was sleep inducing as well (although nothing could save that film). Spike isn't the most compelling of speakers.

Although I respect both these men highly as film historians, if I ever have trouble sleeping, I always put on a Peter Bogdonovich or Richard Schickel commentary track and off I go to slumberland.

Frakes seems low-key; wouldn't be surprised if his commentary reflected that. Not sure if anyone's mentioned this one, but how about Stuart Baird's commentary for Star Trek: Nemesis? Only listened to a minute or two, but he sounded like he didn't particularly care to be there. Possibly why Harve Bennett recorded an additional track for the Special Collector's Edition DVD.

--THX

Claire Danes and Jonathan Mostow's commentary on T3 was a difficult listen as well. Mostow is articulate and understands how to keep a commentary moving, Danes was clueless. Mostow would ask her a question about a certain scene and she couldn't articulate a comprehendible thought. She would answer questions like:

"Oh wow! That was like uhhhh so totally cool, uhhhh"

I'm so glad this thread was resurrected (although we need to resurrect the "good" commentaries thread now).

First off - a GREAT site to evaluate commentaries and look at reviews, etc... They have a top 100 and bottom 50 list. I try to vote after every commentary I listen to:
http://www.ratethatcommentary.com/

Bottom 50 here

I've listened to quite a few commentaries in the past 2 years since this thread was resurrected. Here are some real stinkers (in no particular order):

1. Virtually any Seinfeld commentary. Especially the ones with Seinfeld and/or Larry David. C'mon... can you just watch the episode before hand? Good lord, nothing is said at all.

2. The Matrix (from the original release, not the new one) - Actress Carrie-Anne Moss, editor Zach Staenberg, and special effects supervisor John Gaeta. Here's what I posted:
"This was just a very poor commentary. Carrie Ann Moss goes MIA besides the first 20 minutes and at the very end. In addition, it didn't seem like the commentary was sync'ed to video very well. It was hard to tell because no one ever said anything! The only bit that I found interesting was the fact that the helicopter scenes were real stuntmen over a town in Australia."

3. Spaceballs - Mel Brooks. Although not in the "terrible" category IMO, pretty slow and marginally interesting.

4. Kingpin - Farrelly Brothers. Someone already mentioned how all they do is point out the people they know in the movie, this is EXACTLY what they do. I am a pretty big bowling fan, and when the finally got to the end tournament, and had some of the professionals in the movie, they said almost NOTHING about them at all. Very weak.

All in all, it's hard for me to find a commentary uninteresting/annoying/boring, simply because anything that adds insight into the movie/tv show is valuable to me, and I almost always end up appreciating what I'm watching more... Even if the commentary isn't very good. Commentaries are my #1 favorite special feature that a DVD can have. I will buy a movie/show I normally wouldn't purchase if it has a commentary. I've even purchased titles that have high ratings on ratethatcommentary.com simply because of that rating.

Thanks for the info on this site -- looks interesting.