Anybody hear any good DVD commentaries?

[mrbasehart]

After listening to the fantastic film-maker's commentary of the Lord of the Rings DVDs, I've rediscovered my hankering for DVD commentaries.  The problem is, I think I've listened to every one I own.  Anybody got any recommendations? I don't mind what kind of commentary they are, be it funny or informative. 

For starters, I'll recommend Roger Ebert's commentary on the Dark City DVD.  It's pretty cool.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Ebert's Casablanca, of course.  Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn on Rocky Horror,  Anything David Skal.  The commentary Rick Baker was part of for The Mummy. The one for Kentucky Fried Movie - Zucker, Abrams, Zucker, Landis and the producer - was funny stuff.

I'm sure that there's more that I'm forgetting.

[Compound]

Well, I've listened to the commentary on every Simpsons episode so far. All twelve seasons worth. (twitch) But other than those, let me recommend:

This Is Spinal Tap - A commentary by the band, done entirely in character.

Armageddon (Criterion version) - There's actually several of these on the disc, ranging from the technical advisers (who comment "Well, this could never have happened in reality" a lot) to the more interesting cast/director commentary with Affleck, Willis, Bruckheimer and Bay. They all were in different rooms and recorded them at different times, but they still pack a lot of interesting info into them, both from the production standpoint and from Affleck, back in his "I'm a cocky young guy" phase. For that matter:

Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Jay & Silent Bob- Ah, back when Kevin Smith made watchable films.  These are both interesting from a "how we made this" point of view and also from the other tracks, which are basically the cast members ripping on each other, especially on Phantom's Ben Affleck.

Big Trouble in Little China -  Less a commentary track and more "Carpenter and Russell sit and chat for 90 minutes." Still very interesting to listen to though.

Robot Chicken Star Wars Special - For the first special they did, Robot Chicken put out a DVD with about a dozen commentaries on it, ranging from cast commentaries to technical ones to dragging Lucas' teenaged kids into the studio to talk to them about Star Wars.

Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long Blog-  Two tracks, one full of technical detail about the series and the other - Commentary! The Musical!

Cannibal the Musical - Trey Parker and Matt Stone's first film about famed Colorado cannibal Alferd Pakerd, which includes a commentary track where the participants are getting progressively more drunk as the track rolls along. (Side note: I think Trey & Matt may have been subtly inspired to do this by a pair of cartoonists for the Colorado Daily who did a handful of comics the same way while the pair attended CU. Or not. I may be the only person who noticed that both groups did it.)

[dalem]

I've listened to Ridley Scott's commentaries on The Duellists and Gladiator and I can note two main things:

1) He is NOT the kind of director whose comments are few and far between.  You'll be lucky if you hear three lines of actual dialog.

2) It is essentially a lecture in filmmaking.  He's constantly pointing out to "any young directors out there" ways to save money by cutting scenes, faking up locations, redressing sets, etc.  I would say he leans more to "here's what I/we did" as opposed to "why".

Anyway, to me, a guy who likes movies and finds their innards fascinating, he doesn't come across as pedantic or droning or anything.  Maybe to someone in film school it's boring, but not to me.

I really like the Star Wars commentaries.  Again, two main things:

1) Hearing Lucas explain his thought process, even though it's diluted through 30+ years from the "beginning" gives some real insight into what his vision is and what it isn't.  That helped me like the prequels a lot, and chill the Eff out about the fact that SW ended up being about what George liked more than what I liked.

2) Hearing Lucas and Burtt and some of the other guys talk about the production side of things helped show how really disconnected they always have been from the fan reaction to the franchise.  Again, helps ease the pain of what was compared to what could have been.

On a hint from here I watched the Spinal Tap one last night - it is indeed quite funny.

Nothing compares to the LOTR ones though - wow.  Just, wow.

-dale

[MrTorso]

My favorite commentary track that I have listened to several times is the one for Evil Dead 2. It has Bruce, Sam Raimi, Greg Nicotero, Rob Tapert, Scott Speigal. It is hilarious.

[afterburn610]

I love commentary's there my favorite special feature that being said here are some of my favorites in no particular order


The Director/Actor on AVP
The Director /Actor on Gremlins
The Goonies
The Evil Dead 1 and 2
One crazy summer
Zoolander
Tropic Thunder
This is spinal tap
Seven
Escape from new York
The Thing
Big trouble in little china
Any thing by Kevin Smith or Mel Brooks
The Karate kid
Super Troopers, Club Dread, beer fest   

[Russell]

You know I think it's quite unusual that there aren't more unusual dvd commentaries out there. Sometimes they can make the movie more entertaining than the movie itself. We don't need more actors commentaries, we need more of stuff like the commentary for films like Spinal Tap, Blood Simple, and especially for Monty Python's the meaning of life, there's multiple commentaries on that one and it's really funny. It's just supposed to be some slob watching the movie. Weird stuff, but very funny.

[D.B. Barnes]

I don't know if you ever got into Home Movies, but I think those are great commentaries. Brendon Small and H. Jon Benjamin are hilarious together on the season one commentaries, and there are plenty of other folks that get in the mix.  Season four includes also includes some fan commentaries from The Onion staff and Modest Mouse. There's a bonus feature on the season three set that's the audio from a radio interview with Loren Bouchard and Jon Benjamin that I've listened to many times. Always makes me laugh.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I don't know if you ever got into Home Movies, but I think those are great commentaries. Brendon Small and H. Jon Benjamin are hilarious together on the season one commentaries, and there are plenty of other folks that get in the mix.  Season four includes also includes some fan commentaries from The Onion staff and Modest Mouse. There's a bonus feature on the season three set that's the audio from a radio interview with Loren Bouchard and Jon Benjamin that I've listened to many times. Always makes me laugh.

The problem I'd have with listening to commentaries for that show is that the show's dialogue already sounds kinda commentary-ish, thanks to all the improv (if that makes sense at all). Man I love that show...

I very rarely listen to Commentaries, but I'm hoping to start doing it soon. I listened to the one for World's Greatest Dad recently, and it was very good. Bobcat's a funny guy, and he was a little out of it on pain pills in this one. He also doesn't like teenagers, which made it funnier for me.

[CrowTeeRobot]

I believe that some of the best commentaries are the ones for Futurama, God are they funny. Seriously, you've got Billy West, John Dimaggio, Maurice Lamarche, all the writers and Matt Groening bouncing off each other. I actually prefer listening to some episodes with the commentary on than the sactual episode, plus, you learn and hear all these hilarious little stories. Gay guy and the ghost anyone?

[Courtney]

All the Kevin Smith ones. I own Jersey Girl because the commentary's so good.

Orgazmo and Cannibal! The Musical

Say Anything

Kids in the Hall: Same Guys, New Dresses

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

You know I think it's quite unusual that there aren't more unusual dvd commentaries out there.....

Probably because people charge to be on the commentary track....and some people probably charge more to do more than just show up and comment moment-to-moment on what they see in front of them.

I've heard some where people are doing the track like they're seeing the film for the first time....

[stansimpson]

You know I think it's quite unusual that there aren't more unusual dvd commentaries out there.

Check out the alternate language track for Galaxy Quest.  The whole movie was dubbed into the near-unlistenable language of the aliens (and I mean whole movie).  So that's kind of an unusual sort of dvd commentary.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

You know I think it's quite unusual that there aren't more unusual dvd commentaries out there.

Check out the alternate language track for Galaxy Quest.  The whole movie was dubbed into the near-unlistenable language of the aliens (and I mean whole movie).  So that's kind of an unusual sort of dvd commentary.

And a complete waste of time.  Such a missed opportunity.

[Russell]

Check out the alternate language track for Galaxy Quest.  The whole movie was dubbed into the near-unlistenable language of the aliens (and I mean whole movie).  So that's kind of an unusual sort of dvd commentary.

I gotta admit, that is unique but perhaps a tad misguided.