Best / Worst Commentaries.

Well, it's about time we talked about DVD commentaries. there isn't already one thread out there for this is there? I didn't find one - ANYWAY..

Commentaries people, what film, whose commentary and why?

Kung - Pow commentary:
Steve Oedekerk & Paul Marshall cos they're informative and hilarious at the same time. This is how commentary should be, not dull and encyclopedic like... Dustin Hoffman, no disrespect to Dustin, he's a great actor, in Sphere for example, that's why there's a making of. So there's the worst I have heard, too.
Metropolis has a rather dull commentary too, like its read from a film historian's essay. Very informative and interesting though. I suppose you can forgive dullness if you actually find the commentary interesting!

"Hey, where did I put my ammo? Oh, there it is..in your skull."

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"More success than most, but not as much as some.."

Best commentary:
Neon genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth
Neon Genesis Evangelion: End Of Evangelion
All volumes of Angelic Layer
All commentary on Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi DVDs
Puni Puni Poemy (world's first 5.1 commentary- and it's hilarious!)
Steel Angel Kurumi: Encore!
Resident Evil
Evil Dead 2
Night Of The Living Dead (Mike Nelson from MST3K does it )
Queer As Folk

Worst Commentary:
FLCL- in Japanese
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon- in Cantonese
Just Shoot Me!- Boring and dull- the writers haven't got much to say...
Absolutely Fabulous- Jennifer Saunders is funny in the show, but lacks energy in her commentary.
The Mummy- Brendan Fraser whispers as if he's in a cinema, and laughs a lot at the funny parts.

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I'm not wearing any pants...

Yes, of course there have been threads about audio commentary tracks, including THIS ONE and THIS ONE.


The most recent one I've listened to that was fantastic was Michael Apted's on 42 Up. But Gilliam and Scorsese are still my two all-time favorite filmmakers to hear talk about their films.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

John Frankenheimer (director) on Ronin dvd. Best directors commentary I've heard. Makes you feel you could go out and direct a movie once you've listened to him.

(Ok, not a movie, but the gang on the Seinfeld dvd boxsets are great fun to listen to.)

Also the Python boys on Holy Grail and Life of Brian. Hilarious.

I'll second that.

The best commentary I've heard has to be The Wicker Man - Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward and Robin Hardy get conspiritorial.

Friedkin and Ridley Scott are always good value, as is Fincher.

The worst I've heard recently is Open Range - Kevin, shut up about your bleedin' dog!

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

You forgot this one as well, Pike.

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Everything I do, I do to make my second stepdad proud.

I thought that the LOTR EE commentaries were very interesting and told you a lot about the movie trilogy that you previously might not have known.

Holy crap, people actually bother to re-watch the movies just to hearwhat the director has to say about a particular scene? Wow I wish I had that kind of determination.

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"All I have in this world is my balls and my word, and I don't break them for no one."

For determination read 'time on my hands'.

I really liked the commentary by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber for The butterfly effect (2004). I found it really funny how they inserted themselves into parts of the movie and used all these weird colour associations.

In the DVD version (obviously) you see after Evan's unfortunate exit (trying not to give away) you see his mother remarry and kiss a man (one of the director's) and then you see Kayleigh get married and kiss another man (the other director). Then they say "well this is what you can do when you are the director" .

Then they randomly put themselves in the background of scenes and put their voices on answering machines, they're just so funny. Also they use this certain colour called 'Miller Red' in scenes where something bad is about to happen or it relates to the child molestation, most of the audience has no idea about these subtleties but in the commentary they talk about how they had to dye the napkins green in another scene in relation to Evan's grandfather's madness (or is it madness?).

Also they talked about their struggle to get their movie picked up (it took 6 years), before Newline picked it up and even then they fought to keep their movie from being manipulated by hollywood. That's why the movie was quite shocking to some people because it was not toned down all that much by the hollywood jerks. and at the end they make fun of the people who tried to make them have a "happy sappy" ending to please audiences. I just loved it, maybe even more than the movie

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Concert Tab!! MOFO poetry Been Dreaming Lately?

Holy crap, people who claim to have a love of movies aren't at all interested in hearing the people responsible discuss their craft? Wow, I'm glad I don't care that little.

Hey, I listened to Dude, Where's My Car comentary once. It was 3am and I was quite bored so i thought what they hey. It was actually pretty stupid, DUH. Sean William Scott had some funny things to say in it though, like about the part where him and Ashton kiss.

Yes, listening to drunken idiots ramble on about a total piece of crap is roughly equivalent to listening to Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker discuss Raging Bull.


There are a couple other drunken audio commentaries out there, if you're interested. Another even more amusing one is on the '80s flick Vamp.

The Onion AV Club's reviews of bad audio commentary tracks.
Or rather, commentary tracks on bad movies. They're all pretty spot on.

And funny enough, alphabetically the horrendous The Butterfly Effect's commentary is the first.

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"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill

I was rapidly losing the will to live after sitting through TBE, so the commentary remained unlistened to. Sometimes a movie's just too bad....

Well, maybe because that movie didn't even deserve a commentary in the first place.

Try listening to the LOTR EE commentaries then post about how commentaries are stupid.

Do you honestly think I'm willing to give up 9 hour of my life just to see what Jackson has to say about the size of the dwarf's beard?

"Now the, uhhh... the beard in this scene... It's really big. And I remember having to fight with ummmm.... who was that?"
"That was... Phil, I think"
"Yeah. Yeah it was Phil. I... We fought about the beard thing. Now that I see it, though... I think maybe he might've been right."



Still, you're an idiot to wholly dismiss commentaries. It's insight into the process of creation.

Sure, may it be, it's just not my thing.

It's not everyone's bag, but you should still check it out if you have nothing to do......