Some films I like I have seen so often, I can only be urged to see them again if I listen to the commentary or look at the extras.

Two candidates for this category are Children of Paradise (Criterion) and Mary Poppins (40th anniversary edition). I don't always feel like re-watching the whole thing and getting all poetic over the first or teary-eyed over the second, but when I think of the marvelous commentaries on those DVDs (one very informed film scholar for each part of Children and a Julie Andrews-Dick Van Dyke-Richard Sherman-Karen Dotrice reunion plus archival recordings of Walt Disney, Bill Walsh, Irwin Kostal and Bob Sherman on Poppins), it makes me want to see them all over again.

Comments?

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I bought it for the Roger Ebert commentary and the variety of extras. The same with the Vista Series DVD of Pearl Harbor. The extras are pretty good.

I'm not sure if that's exactly what I meant, unless you consider Boyond the Valley of the Dolls and Pearl Harbor movies you have actually enjoyed watching before on their own, without the commentary

The 3-disc Black Hawk Down. Great commentaries and documentaries.

Will get the 4D Pearl Harbor if the price ever drops.

Brazil CC

Speed has a really funny commentary by Mark Gordon. He even made fun of Speed 2 and mentioned that he had no involvement with it even though he was credited an an Executive Producer.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has an excellent cast commentary.

I now know how that Aflac duck felt listening to Yogi Berra .... but I think what you're saying is that when the a movie you really love doesn't turn you on anymore, you use the commentaries and/or extras like a dose of Viagra to get yourself going again.

Did I get it right?

I'm not sure if that's a potent comparison. The movies I mean are movies I will always like and consider great examples of film-making. But I find it's OK at times to watch them with the commentary on - because of its information value - rather that invest myself all over again in the film itself, which I will certainly do again at other times.

If I wanted "viagra for movies", I'd simply light a joint...

The Simpsons DVDs have some very good commentaries by most of the cast and crew, it's interesting to hear how some episodes are planned in detail while other episodes utilized a mixture of editing and writing tricks to lengthen certain dead spots.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Criterion is another DVD I often come back to for the extras, in particular the commentary by the late Hunter Thompson, it is still a hoot to listen to.

I bought Citizen Kane as a blind buy because there's Roger Ebert commentary in it. I never knew I'm going to like the movie but fortunately I loved it.

Bought THX-1138 for its movie but ended up not very liking it. The commentary is interesting but the American Zoetrope feature really blow me away.

I think I'm going to buy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls blind for Ebert's commentary.




I'm an Ebert sucker.

Panic Room: SE. Fincher always delivers with his commentaries and there's two discs of special features. 'Nuff said.

I usually re-watch Kevin Smith movies with the commentary on, and I'm slowly working my way through all the commentaries on the Lord of the Rings DVDs. A few other good ones: Freaks & Geeks, Star Trek CEs, Godzilla 2000, UHF. Though I can't think of any DVDs that I've re-watched just for the extras.

I've listened to (and thoroughly enjoyed) all the commentaries for Futurama seasons 1-4.
Funny and informative, just like The Simpsons tracks.

I liked Beyond the Valey of the Dolls and semi-liked Pearl Harbor as a popcorn flick.

I liked Beyond the Valley of the dolls. In a cheesy way of course, but the dvd was fun.
I didn't listen to the commentary, but the other features were pretty interesting.
I'm not sure I have any films I've seen so many times I can only watch it again with a commentary. Most of the films I've seen more than four times are films I'd watch more regardless. I guess Citizen Kane would be one where I had to listen to the commentary.
I have seen it three times, so I guess a commentary viewing would do me good.

The commentary for "Darkness Falls" is absolutely hilarious, as the writer and producer spend a great deal fo time ripping on their own film.

"Spinal Tap" commentary is hilarious and double the laugh than feature film itself.

"Platoon" commentary by Capt. Dale Dye for interesting insight in US troops equipment and trivia of Vietnam War.

"Silence of the Lambs" outtakes and deleted scenes, probably the best I've ever seen.

Hmmm... That's all I can remember for now.

I enjoy the LOTR EE's a lot...

my favorite of all time to pull off the shelf and go through all the stuff, would be Alien Quadrilogy. Great commentaries, and woah nelly, lots of extras.

John Carpenter's The Thing. The 80-minute documentary is terrific and I enjoy listening to Carpenter and Russell on the commentary.

"Driven" - for the deleted/extended scenes section with Stallone commentary. One of the most dramatic examples I've seen of a potentially good movie having it's heart and soul gutted. You can hear the sorrow in Sly's voice.

Batman & Superman & Justice League & Batman Beyond Animated Series sets get me to watch commentaries,frequently.

It may not count, since I'm always in the mood to watch Dark City in some form, but that disc has two fantastic commentaries. It also showed me that Ebert isn't just a pretentious film snob, but actually knows what he's talking about and can provide intelligent, well thought out critical analysis. And the extras aren't bad considering it was an early generation disc.

Well SOMEBODY needs to mention Cannibal! The Musical. The drunken commentary is really the only reason to watch the disk.

The group commentary and doc on Evil Dead II are aces. The Bruce Campbell commentary on Evil Dead is also great fun. When I think about listening to a commentary, those are the ones I think about first.