I'll second that. Especially the point during the commentary on "Even Dwarves Started Small" when he starts talking about why chickens frighten him.

On a more serious note, David Kalat's commentaries on Dr. Mabuse the Gambler & The Testament of Dr. Mabuse are great to listen to -- I'm looking forward to watching Scarlet Street and checking out his commentary on that as well.

Jim

Detroit Rock City

The cast commentary is exactly that... damn near EVERYONE that worked on the movie is in the room, doing the commentary. Sam Huntington (Jam) wasn't in attendence, so they called him on a cell phone and had him participate while he was having lunch in New York City with his mother. Hell, they even managed to get her on the phone for a while. James DeBello (Trip) was the only cast to record his commentary seperately. His comments are random, and hilarious. Even Miles Dougal (Elvis) and Shannon Tweed (Amanda) are in attendence.

The sense of comraderie on that commentary is the strongest of any I've heard, and it's fascinating to listen to. The actual commentary breaks down as the credits start to roll, with everyone in the room just chatting and having fun. You can even hear Melanie Lynskey talking to Sam on the phone, asking when he's going to be in L.A. so they can hang out. It's not the most informative track out there, but it's one of the most entertaining for me.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

This is a very interesting commentary in general. There are plenty of good anecdotes to be had, but this one sticks out in my mind since it's the only commentary I've heard that continues after the credits are over. The filmmakers keep talking several minutes after the screen fades to black.

Nobody mentioned this one, and it's not so surprising, but Christophe Gans on Brotherhood of the Wolf. You want informative, christ, the guy never stops talking for 2 1/2 hours, and he talks about EVERYTHING...
Apart from the usual Bruce Campbell/View Askew/LOTR tracks, which are all great, some that weren't mentioned that I loved..
Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace (cast track) - funny and informative
Versus (cast track) - funny as hell
Guillermo del Toro - name the movie, he's always willing to give you himself
Seven Samurai (Michael Jeck) - informative as all hell
Kagemusha (Stephen Prince) - ditto
any CC Kurosawa commentary, come to think of it...
The Killer (Fox Lorber DVD) (John Woo) - although a lot of people don't think it's as good as I do. One of my fav movies, so I'm kinda bias...
Rob Cohen - kinda disappointed Stealth didn't have a commentary, but I like his tracks. He's informative and he knows how to talk about his movies.
Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace - for some reason, this one always stuck with me. Very informative.
THX 1138 - another great track by Lucas. This movie is so interesting, the track sort of HAS to be great. Lots of great information and Walter Murch and his sound design ideas are always so much fun to hear.

also the fact that in the commentary track, they mention that David Lynch was in line to direct, I would acutally like to see that version of the movie.

The Empire Strikes Back- I find Irvin Kershner to be my favorite of the commentators. Unfortunately i had to watch the botched 2004 version to hear the commentary, hopefully i'll be listening to his comments while watching the 1980 original in the near future.

My favourite commentary was the fake Dodgeball one.

It was so evil. All they did (Stiller & Vaughn) was be really arrogant and talk crap about the director. Stiller just walked out 25 minutes in then Vaughn kept having a go at the people behind the glass. Everyone left about an hour in and the guys behind the glass just played the commentary to There's Something About Mary for the rest of the film.

I found the real two though.

DVD Commentaries currently on my iPod to listen:

Darren Aronofsky - Requiem for a Dream
David Fincher, Brad Pitt & Edward Norton - Fight Club
David Fincher, Morgan Freeman & Brad Pitt - Se7en
John Badham - Saturday Night Fever
John Carpenter & Kurt Russell - Escape from New York
Judd Apatow, Steve Carell & Cast - 40 Year Old Virgin
Roger Ebert - Citizen Kane & Casablanca
Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson & Jason Schwartzman - Rushmore

Just finished listening to Coppola`s Godfather & Burton`s Batman.

Never really had the time to listen to commentaries while watching the movie again. Listening to them as MP3`s is a great way of catching up.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven on Total Recall.Excellent commentary,i found it quite funny as well listening too these two...good stuff indeed

The Rocky Horror Picture Show commentary with Richard O'brien and Patricia Quieen is funny, informative, and never boring. A goldmine of info for fans of the cult classic, and O'brien/Quinn both have that classic dry British wit....

This is the one I was going to mention. It's a total riot.

I'll also add the commentary by Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman on Blood Feast. Fascinating look at making and marketing the first splatter movie, in early 60's America, and all the low-budget compromises necessary to actually make the film. ("We don't want it good, we want it Thursday.") Very funny and insightful.

Most of the Bey Logan commentaries on Hong Kong Legends DVDs are extremely informative and interesting.

This is an interesting thread to read through. As I don't have many DVDs and don't like watching a movie and listening to a commentary, I don't have much exposure to them. Having said that: I liked Friedkin on To Live and Die in L.A.. Conan O'Brien on the Simpsons has been mentioned; I particularly liked the Simpsons commentary with John Lovitz. I believe it was the first episode of Season 6, he wasn't even in the episode, didn't really know what was happening, and Reiss and Al Jean give him shit for it. Strangely funny.

I really liked Deadwood Season 1 episode 12, the season finale, with commentary by Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane. Some interesting tidbits, e.g., Ricky Jay is a master slight-of-hand artist, something I didn't know, and they were constantly giving each other shit. Good stuff.

Also John Waters on Cry Baby. I wish he could pause the movie and talk at length about something and then move on as he pleases, as he has so much to say.

I liked Carpenter and Russell on The Thing, but Carpenter did too much explaining what's on screen.

Hmm. I might actually have to get an iPod now.

Bruce Campbell - Bubba Ho-tep
Uwe Boll - House of the Dead & Alone in the Dark. This guy is so full of himself, and so dead wrong about everything that these commentaries make the films "must haves"

The most suprising one for me was the season 1 finallie of Sledge Hammer. During the recording of the commentary there was an actual earthquake.

Any Ebert Commentary

one not mentioned (I think) Oliver Stone on JFK

Where can you get mp3 versions of commentaries? I would love to load up my ipod with that.

Well, a little while ago I started a thread about [blankety-blank]-ing commentaries and I've since found a program to do that, and you can use Audacity to edit it into tracks. That thread was deleted, so we can't discuss it here. I guess I can't be PMed, but send me an email.