DVD with good commentaries

[Van Basten II]

When i buy or rent a DVD, i like to have the time to watch all the features. However There is nothing more i enjoy than listening to the audio commentary and l whether it's the director, actors or a specialist commenting the movie in an informative and at the same time entertaining way.

Unfortunately, i fear we have more bad examples of this features. Too often, i feel that the people are either not taking it seriously or are not well prepared for this exercice. Also it's not a given to talk throughout a feature while still being able to keep the viewers interest even for pros of communication.

As instructive they can be it's often way too gruesome to listen to some scholar talking in a monocord way that can bore you to death.

The best examples of great commentaries would be what we can find in the Simpsons and Futurama DVDs.

Anybody else has recommandations of movies, tv shows, live concert on DVD with worth wasting your time audio track

[Van Basten II]

Two things, either nobody listens to commentary tracks or nobody ever found one that was remotely interesting

[Quincy]

I've been wracking my pee brain trying to remember, cause I know I've bumped into a couple that were very good. Can't recall which movies, but Werner Herzog commentaries are always worth hearing. So there ya go!

I bought the Criterion Life Of Brian in part because it had multiple commentaries. Cleese & someone on one side, Palin & so-and-so on the other. Is there even a third one? (I'm too lazy to check.) Perhaps my expectations were too high, but from what I've heard so far they aren't "all that."

Edited August 19, 2007 by Quincy

[Jazzmoose]

To be honest, my favorite is still the Roger Ebert commentary on Citizen Kane. The Simpsons commentaries held my interest for about two and a half seasons, then I quit listening.

[ejp626]

I think the Futurama ones are still the best, but that is because I like the shows so much. Actually, I liked the Men in Black commentary, esp. when you turned on the graphics -- it was like John Madden at the movies. Venture Brothers is a real mixed bag. I liked some (the early ones) a lot, but then there were some towards the end of season 2 that were awful -- just laughing at each other and nothing at all about the episode.

For "serious" movies, Criterion usually has the best.

[sidewinder]

John Hurt's commentary on '10 Rillington Place' is the best example I have heard so far.

Chistopher Lee and Edward Woodward on the Director's Cut of 'The Wicker Man' are excellent too.

Edited August 19, 2007 by sidewinder

[Matthew]

I think the Futurama ones are still the best, but that is because I like the shows so much. Actually, I liked the Men in Black commentary, esp. when you turned on the graphics -- it was like John Madden at the movies. Venture Brothers is a real mixed bag. I liked some (the early ones) a lot, but then there were some towards the end of season 2 that were awful -- just laughing at each other and nothing at all about the episode.

For "serious" movies, Criterion usually has the best.

I also like the Futurama commentaries, though on the very last episode, some idiot talks over the final lines of the series -- :rmad: . Other than Futurama, I also found the commentary by Frank Sinatra Jr. for Ocean's 11 interesting, especially about the downfall of the Vegas lounge.

[jazzbo]

I don't listen to too many commentary tracks. . . but I do like those on the Cat Ballou dvd.

[md655321]

Fight Club has a great commentary track with Ed Norton waxing philosophic about the film with Brad Pitt just making jokes. Entertaining and informative!

Mel Brooks commentary tracks are almost universally awful. He just sits and laughs along with the movie.

I need to go back and listen to some others, its been a few years since I made it a priority to listen to them.

[Uncle Skid]

I don't listen to the commentaries much either, but I learned all kinds of interesting facts on the Godfather and Godfather Part II tracks (commentary by Francis Ford Coppola).

The severed horse’s head was real!

[Rooster_Ties]

To be honest, my favorite is still the Roger Ebert commentary on Citizen Kane.

What an amazing film. I'd love to hear Ebert's commentary, and may have to rent the DVD sometime. Is there a special edition that has Ebert's commentary?? - or is it the standard DVD edition that has this??

I've seen Citizen Kane probably 10 or maybe 12 times in my life, but nearly always on the big screen (which I consider quite a feat, considering I first saw the film in 1988). That said, it's been a good 8 years since I've last seen it. (And what few times I've seen in on video (maybe twice), it was always in the context of some "public"-like viewing, like on somebody's big-screen TV in a room with 20+ people.) Thus, I've never seen Kane at home, on my own TV.

There was a major re-release of the film (with a majorly restored print) back around 1995 or '96, and it was playing on the biggest screen in town here in Kansas City for one week only. I had just moved here about 2 years before, LOVED the film, and told EVERYONE I knew that we HAD to go see it when it was playing that week. Well, what I didn't count on was most of those people taking me up on my offer -- but them NOT being able to all go on the same night ( )...

Thus, I saw Kane FOUR times in the SAME week (all on the big screen). And I'll be damned if I didn't see things I'd never noticed before each and every one of those four viewings that week.

Edited August 19, 2007 by Rooster_Ties

[mgraham333]

Ghostbusters

[Kalo]

One of the best commentaries I can think of is on the Shattered Glass DVD. The movie, about disgraced journalist Stephen Glass, is excellent. The commentary features the film's screenwriter/director Billy Ray and the real life Chuck Lane, the editor of the New Republic who discovered Glass's forgeries and fired him (depicted by the superb Peter Sarsgaard in the film). Fascinating, especially for anyone in the journalism racket.

[BruceH]

One of the best commentaries I can think of is on the Shattered Glass DVD. The movie, about disgraced journalist Stephen Glass, is excellent. The commentary features the film's screenwriter/director Billy Ray and the real life Chuck Lane, the editor of the New Republic who discovered Glass's forgeries and fired him (depicted by the superb Peter Sarsgaard in the film). Fascinating, especially for anyone in the journalism racket.

It's one of those commentaries that makes you like the film more, that's for sure.

I tend to like commentaries by noir sage Eddie Muller and DVD Savant Glenn Erickson.

And that "20th Century Fox Studio Classics" series of DVD re-releases tends to have good-to-excellent commentaries, and often two commentary tracks, which is nice.

Got to mention Criterion of course: The commentaries on their The Lady Eve, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Notorious, Grand Illusion, and Trouble In Paradise are pretty good. I'm not so happy with the commentary on the new edition of The Third Man but you can't have everything.

Gun Crazy and Murder, My Sweet from the first Warners Noir Box have very helpful, information-packed commentaries that add greatly to an appreciation of the movies. (The other DVD's in the box, not so much.)

Finally, I hate to admit this, but the Ebert commentary track for Citizen Kane is pretty top-notch, believe it or not. (There's also a second commentary track by Peter Bogdanovich that isn't as good.) It's on the 2-disc "special edition" DVD, but this has been the standard edition in the US for some time.

Rooster, you've got me beat---I've only seen Kane 7 or 8 times on the big screen! The most memorable was at the 4,000-seat Metropolitan/Wang Theater on the 50th-anniversary re-release. The place was sold out and people loved it!

Edited August 24, 2007 by BruceH

[Shawn]

The commentary tracks on The Big Sleep are quite good (from what I remember), helping to clear up confusion around the alternate versions.

Also liked the commentary by William Peter Blatty on The Ninth Configuration, detailing all the various production problems and editing changes that occured with that film over the years.

Overall I'm not much of a commentary buff, I'm usually critic enough for myself.

[B. Clugston]

The commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell on Big Trouble in Little China is funnier than the movie itself. Sounds like they downed a few. They are also highly entertaining and informative on The Thing.

The Phantasm commentary by actors and director is also very good.

[sal]

David Cronenberg is great on his DVD commentaries. I've heard "The Fly", "Videodrome" and "A History of Violence" and they are all very well done.

A more entertaining commentary is the Cop and Crook commentary track on the "Goodfellas" DVD. It has commentary from a former FBI agent and the real Henry Hill!

[Patrick]

I infrequently listen to the commentary. If I really like the film initially, I sometimes will watch it again the next day and listen to the commentary. The most recent time I did this was for the excellent Breach--Chris Cooper was outstanding as Robert Hanssen. Commentary was provided by director Billy Ray and real life (former) agent Eric O'Neill. Ray spends a lot of time explaining how shots were set up, his tributes to favorite 70s films (like All the President's Men and Kramer v. Kramer), which scenes were reshot months later, etc. O'Neill explains a bit about how things really went down. Quite interesting.

[BruceH]

They sure come out with DVD's of new movies fast now; I feel like I just saw Breach on the big screen.

Just bought the DVD of The Lives of Others and it has a very good commentary by the director.

[ejp626]

David Cronenberg is great on his DVD commentaries. I've heard "The Fly", "Videodrome" and "A History of Violence" and they are all very well done.

A more entertaining commentary is the Cop and Crook commentary track on the "Goodfellas" DVD. It has commentary from a former FBI agent and the real Henry Hill!

Agree that Cronenberg is usually worth listening to. I went to some lengths to get the Canadian version of eXistenZ, since it had commentary and some additional bonus features.

[BruceH]

A more entertaining commentary is the Cop and Crook commentary track on the "Goodfellas" DVD. It has commentary from a former FBI agent and the real Henry Hill!

Now THAT sounds like it could be really interesting!

[king ubu]

I never watched any DVD with commentaries, so far... just doesn't interest me that much... (to be honest, I wouldn't even know if any of my DVDs has such comments by actors/director/whomever).

Though Scorsese's long film about the american cinema is kind of going in that direction and I love his remarks and thoughts about the (usually fairly short) snippets of films that are shown! One of the best lectures on cinema I ever attended was a screening of that (and his Italian film history, too, but that one was less entertaining - I knew much more about it and there were much less films being discussed, and excerpts shown were much longer... I'd just rather have caught the actual films there... even though Scorsese's affection and admiration were touching.)

[nmorin]

Ths Is Spinal Tap, where the commentary was done by the band members in character--damned near as funny as the movie itself.

[Kalo]

Ths Is Spinal Tap, where the commentary was done by the band members in character--damned near as funny as the movie itself.

Good one! As I recall, they constantly belittle director Mary DiBergi (Rob Reiner) for only focussing on the things that went wrong. Then, whenever one of the songs is being performed, one bandmember (Bassist Derek Smalls/AKA Harry Shearer?), with an almost reverent tone, recommends that we just listen to the performance...

[BruceH]

Ths Is Spinal Tap, where the commentary was done by the band members in character--damned near as funny as the movie itself.

Good one! As I recall, they constantly belittle director Mary DiBergi (Rob Reiner) for only focussing on the things that went wrong. Then, whenever one of the songs is being performed, one bandmember (Bassist Derek Smalls/AKA Harry Shearer?), with an almost reverent tone, recommends that we just listen to the performance...

An inspired idea. Reminds me of one of the commentaries in the Freaks & Geeks DVD package: Three actors do "in character" commentary for one episode. The characters were the gym teacher, the counseler, and the math teacher. Not nearly as successful as the Spinal Tap commentary, but still a nice little extra, and for all I know, may have been an homage to it.