best commentary! (ON DVDS OR WHATEVER)

on learning about arnold commentaries on the action movies poll. also elvis telecom said something about john carpenter/kurt russell. YOUTUBES ENCOURAGED SO WE CAN ALL LAUGH WHILE WE'RE AT WORK AND/OR ORDER DVDS OR WHATEVER WHILE WE'RE DRUNK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDPjHetAG1M

are we allowed to include stuff that actually expands your knowledge of the film? or too joyless

i for one welcome awesome commentary of all kinds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncR2_pnzngM

i think the onion has discussed this one, but the commentary on "the limey" is great.

frankenheimer's commentaries are almost always good, esp. the train and ronin.

Roger Ebert's commentaries on Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Dark City are all entertaining and educational.

The Kevin Smith crew commentaries on his movies are, in most cases, better than the movies.

i think the onion has discussed this one, but the commentary on "the limey" is great.

Oh yeah, the director/screenwriter argument is terrific.

the commentary on robocop is great true. i wouldn't say the screenwriter and the director are at cross-purposes, but they definitely have very different agendas and interests.

too not true

Jerry Lewis did a bunch for his "collection" where his sit-in guest was vintage Vegas '60s crooner Steve Lawrence, who also provided a laugh track.

spinal tap duh

the worst commentary track i've heard is blake edwards for days of wine and roses.

it begins, "wait, did we make this in black and white? why isn't it in color? i don't remember this at all" and goes downhill from there.

I'm fond of Jack Nicholson's commentary on The Passenger. He really demonstrates his intelligence and knowledge of film history.

yeah, nicholson is smart.

on the other end the Zucker Bros stuff on The Naked Gun series is piss-yourself hilarious.

casper tyberg (sp?) does great commentary tracks on several dreyer DVDs. his best is probably "the phantom carriage" criterion.

which is sjostrom, not dreyer.

Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh on the Touch of Evil re-model.

Scorsese and Coppola were above average on Criterion's Thief of Bagdad

The one on California Split (w/Altman, Gould, Segal & Joseph Walsh) is all-time, like an Altman audio movie unto itself.

Most Altman commentaries are great fun and informative, particularly 3 Women and Thieves Like Us.

ohh this is already great, thanks guys!

crispin glover's commentary on his music video for his cover of "ben" on the 'willard' dvd is him breathlessly reading a prepared text/explanation of the video for the entire three minutes, like no pauses or rests or anything

David Fincher & Brad Pitt on 'Seven' is pretty entertaining iirc.

Most Altman commentaries are great fun and informative, particularly 3 Women and Thieves Like Us.

― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, February 17, 2012 3:28 PM (45 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh, disagree. a lot of 'em are like ten minutes of noisy breathing followed by some token "she was nice to work with" comment.

also john waters' dvd commentaries for his own films are reliably entertaining

The two I mentioned are actually edifying

xpost

Ernest Lehman on 'North By Northwest'

^^^ yeah

I haven't yet heard a Preminger movie commentary track that wasn't a film school guy being pedantic.

XP - Although he was 85 and repeats himself a bit, bless his heart.

Did Jack Cardiff do any I wonder.

the john boorman/steven soderbergh commentary on point blank is good right? that exists right?

soderbergh should just do commentary tracks in his retirement from filmmaking.

Director Peter Hunt's commentary on On Her Majesties Secret Service is stellar and my favorite of all the James Bond ones.

that's the best bond movie too

you guys!

John Frankenheimers' Ronin commentary is all-time.

Oh, man, there are so many good ones ...

frankenheimer just seems like a great talker. i always get really sad that he's dead after i listen to that track, where he is so lively and on point. :(

Cannibal The Musical! Trey and Matt just get drunker and drunker as the commentary goes on. almost better than the movie. ALMOST.

xpost amateurist otm ;_;

Apparently somewhere on a hard-drive in Warner's vaults is an unused Soderbergh commentary for Zabriskie Point.

Playing the obscure card, but the Sonny Davis/Lou Perryman/Doris Hargrove commentaries on Watchmaker's Eagle Pennell set are wonderful.

Screewriter Daniel Waters commentary on Heathers - brutal and just fucking funny. Cuts loose on Catcher In The Rye, Shannen Doherty, John Hughes, and everything else. No one is safe.

'Rocky Horror Picture Show' - Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn, a mixture of banter, gossip, and filming details. I probably watch RHPS with the commentary on as often as I do without.

Ron Howard's commentary for Apollo 13, a summary.

'Okay that shot was in zero gravity...
Oh right, but that one of Bill was on a see-saw...
That one was zero gravity...
back to the see-saw...
and that's zero gravity again...
there's my mom...
there's my Dad...
and back to Tom on the see-saw...
there's my brother...
and that's zero gravity again...'

Oliver Stone's commentary tracks are usually all pretty good too. Especially like the ones for JFK and Born On The Fourth Of July

Should also mention that Criterion's Repulsion has a Polanski/Deneuve commentary that's a must listen.

are we allowed to include stuff that actually expands your knowledge of the film? or too joyless

No, sorry, Morbs. The strawmen have forbidden it.

The commentaries on the current set of Kubrick discs are worth a listen too. McDowell on A Clockwork Orange, D’Onofrio and Ermey on Full Metal Jacket

I know mostly everyone hates the Matrix trilogy as a whole...but the commentaries on the Matrxi Trilogy box set are pretty great. (I'm a fan)

Cornel West + Ken Wilber do their own commentary track on all 3 movies and it's cool as shit.
Todd McCarthy, David Thompson and John Powers do all three as well - they have a field day with the 2nd movie in particular, HAAAATE it. It's kinda cool to hear a commentary where someone isn't stanning for the movie. The Wachowskis let them go to town, which I thought was kind of awesome of them.

I found I got kinda bored with the movie critic commentary after a while, but West & Wilber is alltime. Worth a go if are open to their philosophical interpretation of the movies, which I really dug.

abel ferrara, driller killer.

he seems to be grossly titillated by his own movie and has incredible stories

Second on the Simpsons and Futurama commentaries. Especially any of the Swartzwelder- or Meyer-penned episodes, the former because he never shows up and they talk about him in awe, and the latter because he is more responsible for the classic Simpsons humor than anyone.

David X. Cohen is a riot on the Futurama stuff, esp. when it comes to math/nerd jokes.

Tim Burton has the worst commentaries ever in the history of everything.

The Talmud.

Mamet's commentary on Edmond: "Woah, look at that," when an attractive woman appears in the background in one scene.

Tim Burton has the worst commentaries ever in the history of everything.

― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, February 17, 2012 5:07 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tim burton is incredibly inarticulate in general.

Second on the Simpsons and Futurama commentaries. Especially any of the Swartzwelder- or Meyer-penned episodes, the former because he never shows up and they talk about him in awe, and the latter because he is more responsible for the classic Simpsons humor than anyone.

David X. Cohen is a riot on the Futurama stuff, esp. when it comes to math/nerd jokes.

― A Full Torgo Apparition (Phil D.), Friday, February 17, 2012 11:07 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

love the swartzwelder stuff too. didn't they call him during one?

and david x. cohen is totally my fave thing about those futurama ones. guy has the funniest voice!

Burton's commentary = the world's most boring chainsaw slowly, nasally sawing through your skull

Ooh. Ronald D Moore's Battlestar commentaries. AND he did a whole podcast where the episodes were basically weekly commentaries, including the associated sounds of him him pouring a glass of scotch.

My favorite Simpsons commentaries -- by a wide margin -- are those with David Mirkin. He'll go into (sometimes excruciating) detail about how his comedic influences informed certain jokes, he never shies away from dredging up past arguments with Groening (which Groening always lost, to the show's benefit), and his enthusiasm is unmatched by any other Simpsons commentator.

Also, the commentary by Roger Daltrey on the Simpsons episode he and John Entwistle (but not Pete Townshend!) were in is really sweet. He was completely star-struck upon meeting Dan Castellenata, rather than the other way around.

xxp not exactly

He has also famously not participated in any of the audio commentaries on the The Simpsons DVD sets to date, despite being asked multiple times. Executive Producer David Mirkin even offered to have him make a brief appearance in a prerecorded bit in which he would be asked if he wanted to take part and he would respond, "No," as an ironic punchline, but he refused. During the recording for the ninth season (released December 2006) episode "The Cartridge Family"'s commentary show runner Mike Scully called Swartzwelder's home on the phone. After speaking for a few minutes with him (presumably), the man on the other end of the phone ended the call by saying, "It's too bad this really isn't John Swartzwelder".[11]

BTW Swartzwelder's novels are an absolute laugh riot. They're all available on Amazon.

OK, I overdid it on the Mirkin enthusiasm, because I forgot about David X/S Cohen, who's incredibly entertaining as well.

xp

Now I want to spend the evening watching Simpsons commentaries.

Every Mann commentary is a wealth of knowledge, film or otherwise

The "Spinal Tap" commentaries are all hilarious. Philip Kaufman is a bright commentator. PTA on "Boogie Nights," back when he did commentaries. Fincher on "Zodiac." Want to say Soderbergh interviews himself on "Schitzopolis."

Futurama famously had something like an all PhD writing staff, so all the Futurama commentaries kick ass.

I've never watched a Simpsons commentary! And we have a bunch of the tv sets. Hmm...

otm Fincher's Zodiac commentary

Second Moore's Battlestar talks.

Ridley Scott is pretty good. He starts off the director's cut of Alien stating flat out that the theatrical cut is his director's cut, and that he only added stuff to the other version because the studio was going to do it without him.

Mann's Miami Vice commentary is full-paragraph explanations of the drug trade and the rest.

Oh, man, the Tom Cruise/Paul Brickman commentary on "Risky Business" is pretty good, not only because Cruise opted in, but because Brickman is a bright guy (the movie is basically a Michael Mann teen sex comedy, i you think about it).

On the Vice commentary he also talks a lot about all the guns.

The Ali track is awesome, too.

Yeah, Risky Business is definitely a good double-feature with Thief.

Futurama famously had something like an all PhD writing staff, so all the Futurama commentaries kick ass.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, February 17, 2012 5:20 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

too bad they couldn't write a decent episode with all that brain power.

http://www.bigoven.com/uploads/shallot.jpg

lol @ "an all phd writing staff"

THE DOCTORS ARE IN

I used to know a message board where you could DL commentary tracks as MP3s. It got banhammered before I could really dig in though. Not hearing commentary tracks is the major suckage of no longer having DVD service from netflix IMO.

I once watching a commentary. At one point one of the actors said "You have to be a real fan to sit through this bit." I turned off the DVD and never watched a commentary again.

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Friday, February 17, 2012 5:57 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ive def heard stuff like this 4 or 5 times...can't really place them but i do remember i listened to the 'cold weather' commentary and they gave out their gmail address & said something like if anyones listening write to us. i wrote them saying i agreed w/ the idea aaron katz had expressed abt using will smith's wild wild west in the last scene in the car. he wrote back saying thank you, cc:ing his producers, one of whom then responded and said he was more of a boom shake shake the room guy

xp ive always thought abt DL'ing them as mp3s but couldnt really work out abt how to search for them

has anyone mentioned John Waters' commentary on "Mommie Dearest" yet? so awesome

I used to know a message board where you could DL commentary tracks as MP3s. It got banhammered before I could really dig in though. Not hearing commentary tracks is the major suckage of no longer having DVD service from netflix IMO.

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Friday, February 17, 2012 7:05 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i would be way into that

Waters did a Mommie Dearest commentary? Wow. I would watch that/listen to that/whatever the right thing to say is

the film's pretty funny as it is, but it is fuckin HILARIOUS with Waters involved. ("Why is she going to the beach? doesn't she know it's just made out of dirt?")

I am going to find that and watch the shit out of it.

IIRC the commentary track on wenders' american friend (underrated film BTW) is quite good.

ooh ooh, I remembered some more

-Evil Dead 2: Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and Greg Nicotero. It is beyond great. (Also Bruce's solo Evil Dead commentary is hilarious, he pretty much riffs the whole movie)

-Chopper: Andrew Dominik (director) commentary is great, he has some really interesting takes on Chopper vs Mark, really good stuff; there's also a commentary from Chopper himself which is good just as an oddity, kinda interesting to hear his reactions to various scenes w/r/t Dominik's perspective on the ways Read hides his true nature.

-The Proposition: John Hillcoat & Nick Cave, Cave not super chatty but still Hillcoat has great anecdotes about the shoot, also I am a huge Cave fangirl so, hi

-Stand By Me: I love Reiner's commentary, he sounds like a dad talking about his kids the way he talks about the boys. )Apparently there's a new commentary for the 25th anniv edition with Reiner, Wheaton and Feldman too, but I haven't heard that one.)

the frankenheimer commentary on ronin is so so good and it is such a disgrace it did not end up on the bluray

I was outraged by that. in fact I STILL AM

One of my faves was Soderbergh and Cameron (producer) on the Solaris remake. Cameron, knowing perfectly well what his reputation is, keeps telling Soderbergh completely straight how scenes could be made so much better if everyone was armed and there were more explosions

I will def check out the Ronin commentary based on all these recommendations

If I could only recommend one, it would def be Ronin.

I bought the DVD a year ago, made sure to get a version that had the commentary, and still haven't listened to it yet.

you have your mission, should you choose to accept

I seem to recall the Roland Emmerich and his producer doing a commentary for The Day After Tomorrow where the producer revealed that the studio asked them if these two minor characters had to be an interracial couple and the producer said "I don't give a fuck what someone in Alabama thinks".

Schrader/Scorcese/Dafoe commentary on Last Temptation of Christ is one of my favorites

it's crazy we apparently haven't done this before?

tim burton is incredibly inarticulate in general.

explains his Cannes jury win for Uncle Boonmee. (not a diss!)

a couple other Verhoevens have been brought up but the Starship Troopers track w/ him and the cast is an absolute riot. For those unfamiliar, let's just say that it was clear no one was in charge of mastering the audio on that thing, and someone involved got screamy.

Just came here to big up Futurama commentaries but everyone else already has. The Simpsons ones can be a bit dull - although when they get Kelsey Grammar in to comment on Sideshow Bob, thats excellent. But John Dimaggio, Billy West and David X Cohen are all great commentary ppl. I learned so much more about the nerdier jokes from the commentaries!

friends w/ benefits commentary is p funny -- they talk abt shooting in ny & ppl yelling shit @ them and at one pt a cabby drove by & yelled @ mila "im going to jail to fuck your mother!"

rip ronin commentary :(