Your Favorite DVD Commentary?
 

I used to devour dvd commentaries as I am fascinated by film production, but now many commentaries are a complete bore, and I will probably never listen to them again. I do have some favorites that I always enjoy revisiting:


Road House - commentary with Kevin Smith - absolutely hilarious. You feel like you are right there with the guys ragging on this hokey flick.


Blade 2 - I don't know why this film is so poorly regarded. I thought the story and action was great. The director is quite entertaining, and the Wesley Snipes commentary is very interesting.


Survivor seasons - I do wish more ppl would give this show a chance on dvd. They are highly enjoyable even if you know the winner. The commentaries are a lot of fun with Jeff Probst and the players. I felt like I was watching home movies with friends, and you learn a lot about the Survivor experience.

Alien - director w/ cast

Pan's Labyrinth

The Who's Tommy - Ken Russell

"Elvis" commenting on Bubba Ho-Tep.

Doug

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

It is so cool to hear from the person the movie is about as he explains how close (or far) to real life the film gets. One of the cool quotes by him is during the school/rubber shoes scene. He is amazed by how the school room looks exactly like the real one even though no one from the production (except himself and he didn't tell) actually saw it.

David Fincher/ Ed Norton/ Brad Pitt -Fight Club
David Fincher-Zodiac
Oliver Stone-JFK
William Friedkin -The Exorcist (25th anniversary)

JFK is a great one, also...

Zemeckis on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Ebert on Casablanca and Citizen Kane
Emmerich on The Day after Tomorrow (yeah, actually good)
Schwarzeneggar and Verhoven on Total Recall
Cast and Crew on Boogie Nights

John Frankenheimer - Ronin

The kids commentary on School Of Rock

Evil Dead 2 with Raimi, Campbell, Spiegel and Nicotero.


Best dvd commentary ever

Carrot Top on Rules of Attraction.
By far the most hilarious one I've heard.

The Thing.

Mallrats & Dogma commentaries with kevin smith & the cast

Joe Bob Briggs - I Spit On Your Grave - hand's down the best commentary track ever... really.

Roger Ebert on Citizen Kane
Joe Bob Briggs on Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
...and just about any commentary by John Waters

A few of these have already been posted, but what the heck, I'll list the first ten great ones that come to mind, in no particular order:
1) The Thing with Carpenter and Kurt Russell
2) The Fog with Carpenter and Debra Hill
3) Escape From New York with Carpenter and Russell
4) To Live and Die in L.A. with Friedkin
5) Big Trouble in Little China with Carpenter and Russell
6) Assault on Precinct 13 (original) with Carpenter
7) Capturing the Friedmans with the director (Andrew Jarecki...I think)
8) DiG! with the director Ondi something...but the other two commentaries are good, too, each with members of the two bands involved in the documentary
9) Rules of Attraction with Carrot Top (hilarious)
10) Rushmore with Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schartzman (I think)

Those were the first ten that immediately come to mind. I know it's dominated by Carpenter commentaries, but his commentaries are always pretty relaxed but nevertheless informative. I didn't even mention the other great commentaries by Wes Anderson, as well as Paul Thomas Anderson's commentaries for Boogie Nights and Hard Eight...as well as a few Robert Altman commentaries, although sometimes his are hit and miss. Oh well, I could go on. But that's my two cents.

And for me, it's his track for
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You took my answer...

Joe Bob's commentaries are sheer genius. Who would have ever thought anyone could making watching I Spit On Your Grave an absolutely fun experience?

The combative track with Tom Clancy and the director on Sum Of all Fears. A close second is the actors track on Ocean's 11 - they may be acting, but it sure sounded like they were a fun bunch. Honourable mention for the commentary track on "The Private Eyes" - it was great that Tim Conway did this track for a budget movie's budget release. (Private Eyes is my all-time favourite movie.)

that commentary is a riot as well..

also Joe Dante does great commentary tracks as well.

Roger Ebert on Floating Weeds

Any commentary by Roger Ebert makes the DVD worth picking up for me

Also really enjoy any time Cameron Crowe does one

has there been a thread where the truly bad uninvolving commentary tracks have been listed? (ahem... Mel Gibson, 'Braveheart')

Any Kevin Smith Commentary.

David Fincher, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton - Fight Club
Francis Ford Coppola - The Conversation
Francis Ford Coppola - Rumble Fish
Capt. Dale Dye - Platoon

Tarantino's commentary track on True Romance
Cameron Crowe - Almost Famous Bootleg ed.

I think I'd have to go with American Splendor. Listening to Harvey Pekar and Toby Radloff being themselves showed how spot on the portrayals in the movie were.

Kenny Johnson----The Incredible Hulk series Pilot and the 2 hour episode "Married"

Bey Logan and Maggie Q---Naked Weapon (Region 2 HKL)----Probably the only time you will ever hear Maggie Q on a commentary track. She and Logan are very good friends.

Mark Gordon and Graham Yost---Speed-----Gordon and Yost were very fun to listen to and actually made fun of the movie at certain points. Gordon also mentioned that he had nothing to do with Speed 2 even though he was credited as Producer.

[QUOTE=jeffbase34]
Road House - commentary with Kevin Smith - absolutely hilarious. You feel like you are right there with the guys ragging on this hokey flick.

QUOTE]

I was looking forward to this commentary, and whilst its ok....they spend waaaayyyy too much time going through the Chuck Norris/Dalton jokes. It just seems like they have little to talk about and just put in the jokes to fill up time.

I really like the Fight Club commentaries with cast and director. Also Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has awesome commentaries. Especially the Hunter S. Thompson commentary.

I really enjoy Paul Verhoeven's commentaries.

Any Edward Burns films. I like the way he explains where the scenes were shot. They are usually places around New York and Long Island where he grew up, so he is very familiar with them. He also tells you little tricks to shoot movies on a low budget. Obviously, I'm a big Ed Burns fan, so that helps.

I met him at the Mill Valley Film Festival a few years back.

All of Terry Gilliam's commentaries. He's extremely engaging, funny, and insightful. He talks constantly and he never seems bored by watching his own films (something that I think even good commentaries often suffer from). I tend to prefer his solo commentaries, such as the one on Brazil, but he is also good with other people. The Jabberwocky commentary with Michael Palin (I think?) is more entertaining than the film IMO. The two have great chemistry together, even on a commentary track. The track on 12 Monkeys is good as well, although I would say it's good despite the producer's presence rather than because of it.

Fear and Loathing has excellent commentaries as well, not only from Gilliam, but from Hunter S. Thompson himself. A real treat for any HST fan, this has to be one of the most unique commentary tracks out there, with Hunter randomly letting out high pitched screeches for ten seconds at a time.

I have yet to hear either the Munchausen commentary (finally released on the 20th anniversary DVD this month, so I'll have my chance soon enough) or the Fisher King commentary (my favorite Gilliam film), both from the original Criterion Laserdisc releases. Hopefully Fisher King will get the 20th anniversary treatment in a few years.

I like Cronenberg's commentaries quite a bit as well, particularly on History of Violence. There's so much in his films that I don't pick up on, or that I interpret in entirely different ways than Cronenberg himself does. You also get a really good sense of what his directorial process is like and how he works with actors. I had a whole new found respect for Maria Bello after listening to Cronenberg talk about her performance, and I really interpretted the character, and even the entire film, in a different way afterwards.

While it sort of feels like "cheating" to watch the commentary to help figure a film out, I always find it enjoyable and I don't think it corrupts my own idea of the film at all. Cronenberg's commentary on Spider for instance was completely removed from anything I ever thought while watching the film. I didn't particularly like it when I first watched it, I suppose it was over my head, but after listening to his thoughts on it I was really blown away by its treatment of sexual identity, trauma, and the massive impact that a damaged sexual psyche can have on one's entire life. Really astounding stuff if you ask me, and it takes a lot of the more disturbing themes of Crash to another level.

Speaking of Crash, I'd love to hear the commentary track for it but it's only on Criterion laserdisc. Someone posted the last ten minutes of it on Youtube, and it sounds like its really fascinating. I've actually considered getting a laserdisc player to finally hear some of these, as I love commentaries, but I haven't come up with enough titles that would be worth the investment, not to mention that some of the ones I had wanted are still coming out on DVD. Anyone know of other lost laserdisc commentaries not transferred to DVD? I know that there's a slew of Criterion editions that never made the switch.

On another Cronenberg note, has anyone heard the eXistenZ commentary? It's available on the Australian DVD I know, but not on R1. I've considered importing it, but I already have the R1 so I'd basically be paying for the commentary and nothing else.

I also like Michael Jeck's Kurosawa commentaries for Criterion. Donald Richie is okay as well, but I really prefer Jeck overall. His Seven Samuria commentary is one of the most in depth I've ever heard.

For least favorite commentators, I would have to say that I really don't like Bey Logan for some reason. A lot of people seem to, as he does almost every Dragon Dynasty release, and used to do almost all the commentaries for Hong Kong Legends releases as well. I love Hong Kong action cinema, but I really don't find this guy particularly interesting. I think RZA and Tarantino are far more interesting, Logan seems very dry to me. RZA on 36 Chambers for instance is a really great commentary track, not only does he know the movie inside out but he knows the specific Kung Fu forms practiced in the film, he even mentions the lineages of the masters who teach them.

This is Spinal Tap -- commentary by Spinal Tap (in character)

they are both excellent, the way Gilliam talks never seems tiring and he always finds something fascinating to say about the film

~

The Jungle Book's commentary is the by far my favourite Disney DVD commentary (sans the Pixar films)

MGM's commentary for Fame is fascinating because while it's Alan Parker in audio form, the DVD offers a branching off point to various cast members during the duration of the film in video form, the real surprise though is

[side comment: Room with A View has one the dullest most unengaging commentaries - a major disappointment for such a great film]

his commentary WITH Arnold for Total Recall is excellent btw.

Also Arnold's and director's Conan commentary was good.

I liked both commentaries on the DVD of May.

I should add also the commentary on Black Hawn Down from the army ranger guys was really good.

Practically anything by:

Kevin Smith
John Carpenter
Bruce Campbell
Joe Bob Briggs
John Waters
David Fincher
David Cronenberg


They certainly are. Hell, the man got me to purchase The Double-D Avenger for christ's sake! :eek: That is truly one of the worst movies ever made, yet his commentary had me in stitches for the entire 77 minutes.

I don't know if this counts but for you wrestling fans, Mick Foley and Kevin Kelly's commentary on the "Kennel in Cell" match on the Mick Foley: Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops DVD. It's basically a 20 minute riff on Al Snow and that ridiculous match.