DVD AUDIO COMMENTARY’S...GOOD vs. SUCKY LIST

[joker-scar]

Ok. I Love DVD audio commentary’s. Sorry let me preface that with “GOOD” commentary’s. Here is a list of some good ones and crappy ones that I have seen so far. I wanna know some others by you guys. BUT lets try to make this a real list with reasons WHY they are good or bad. Doesn`t have to be an essay, but you get the point. And just to relieve any concerns this won’t turn into a Star Wars prequel bash, even if they DO suck. :love There it is... out there and gotten rid of. Moving on.
NOTE: my reviews are from DVD and or laser discs, I don`t have blue-ray yet so some may have been released on these newer releases. Let me know...
Here are some to start the ball rolling...

GOOD COMMENTARIES
THE GRADUATE - AMAZING! It is far and away the best. It is like a UCLA film class condensed into 2 hours. This is from an old Criterion laser disc so I am not sure if any DVD`s carry this commentary by film scholar, Howard Suber. MUST HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup
TAXI DRIVER – 2 disc Criterion CAV laser disc version. Amazing stories from Schrader and Scorsese, some heard before, some new. Well worth the time. Actually a MUST HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbsup I don t know if this version has been re-issued on newer disc releases?
DOWNFALL – very good by the director, informative both film wise and historical.
THE THIRD MAN – 2 disc Criterion version. Very informative and interesting about filming aspects I had never heard before. Some stories are well known but well worth the time.
CITIZEN KANE – 2001 2 disc version. very good. Great stories. Both commentary`s one by Bogdonovich the other by Roger Ebert are equally excellent for different reasons.
YEAR OF THE DRAGON – very interesting commentary by Cimino. Great story teller. Combo of on-set stories and general stories related to film in general.
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD- 2001 2 disc version – Excellent stories about making of the film by Rudy Belmer one of the better film historians out there. Love hearing him talk.
HIGH NOON – I don’t know if this is an older laser disc version or a DVD release because I haven’t heard it for awhile but EXCELLANT commentary. Again , another 2 hr film class condensed on this audio track. I am not much for westerns but this commentary made me like the film better. That says a lot.
CASABLANCA – 2003 2 disc version – 2 different commentaries, one by Rudy Belmer the other by Roger Ebert. Both very good, some good parts, some old stories (well they are ALL old stories but what I mean is stories that have heard stated many times before) but worth the listen. Also a different commentary from the 1991 criterion laser disc by Ronald Haver is good for info on making the film.
SE7EN – 2001 2 disc version. Very good filmmaking stories. Interesting. Been awhile since I watched it so can`t recall any details.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS – 2004 version – entertaining commentary by director and writer. Lots of funny banter and on set stories.
PATTON – 2006 2 disc version – As usual, interesting tales from Coppola, some new some never heard before about film and real Patton.
APOCALYPSE NOW – THE COMPLETE DOSSIER – Again interesting stories about making the film, some well worn stories , some new insights to the flawed masterpiece.

SUCKY
Any John Frankenheimer commentary, God rest his soul. Great filmmaker, LOUSY commentator. BORING. At one point during the commentary of MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE John goes, `Lets watch this scene...`` No S__t Johnny, I can do that on my own. Cop-out. :thumbsdown :thumbsdown
ENTER THE DRAGON 25th Anniversary version – Boring. Huge dead spaces. There is about 7 minutes of interesting info on Bruce in the 90 minutes of screen time. Waste of time. At one point the Producer, who is doing the commentary, answers the phone in the commentary with the writer who is calling in to add his worthless 2 cents. :thumbsdown
THE MATRIX – original single disc version. Some interesting story`s but mostly boring banter between cast and crew. Some long dead spaces here and there. If you have time to kill , throw it on.
KING KONG 1933 – 2005 2 disc version – Ok Ray Harryhausen is doing the commentary. This should be good coming from a special effects legend BUT it is as I suspected before I even put the disc in the player, an old man rambling with nothing much of interest to contribute. Not worth the time to listen. PASS.
300 – `Great film, B..O..R...I..N..G commentary. I turned it off after 10 minutes. If I want to know the mind numbing aspects of the CGI Ill read Cinefex magazine. PASS

 

[Alan Cross]

Agree with The Graduate commentary on the old laser disc. That Howard Suber made all kinds of interesting observations. About water imagery in the film, etc. Fun stuff.

Jim Cameron's commentary on T2 is fun.

 

[Wes R]

The one special edition of the original War Of The worlds is good as it has 2 commentaries on it. I haven't really heard horrid commentaries but what ticks me off is when they want you to buy the 2 disc special edition to get them instead of putting them on both versions.

 

[jcoffman99]

The Spinal Tap one is great. It's like getting a whole new movie because the guys do it in character.

 

[dualedge]

I think my favorite commentary to date is actually Roger Ebert's commentary for Dark City which he named his top movie of 1998. Of course, it helps to be a fan of the film.

My top wish for a commentary would be to have Joe Johnston, cast and crew create a commentary for the Rocketeer.

 

[Contec]

You can add Conan the barbarian to the sucky list....but it was a bit funny when arnold talked about the dogs that hunted him and he tripped and fell ...and the dog bit him

 

[SSgt Burton]

That's funny because I was just going to say Conan is on the Good list. Frankly I was laughing out loud severals times during Milius' and Schwarzenegger's comments!

And for me that's a good thing. :lol :thumbsup


As for bad... ST: First Contact with Frakes. HORRIBLE!

Very little insight on the directorial process, but a lot of Frakes nearly shouting-

"OH LOOK AT WORF! YEAAAAAAH!" LOOK AT THE BORG! YEAAAAAH!"

:angry :rolleyes


Kevin

 

[Wes R]

Frakes usually isn't that annoying. I agree the Conan stuff was really good. The commentary on the 25th anniversary Transformers the movie dvds was good other than you couldn't understand the head of animation as his english wasn't that good even 25 years later and he kinda killed the rhythm of everyone talking. The I, Robot commentary wasn't all that good either.

 

[weaselflinger]

Robert Downey Jr. fufills his promise to stay in character until the DVD commentary is over on Tropic Thunder, and it is just as funny as the actual movie.

 

[Jet Beetle]

Anything by John Waters is great -- well, fabulous. His movies are hit or miss with people but the commentary tracks he lays out have been loved by everyone I've ever played them for. Polyester is especially good - he talks about how they (he and Divine) almost got ***-bashed a few times while making the film.

USED CARS - Commentary by Zemeckis, Kurt Russell and Bob Gale - Okay, the movie is already side splitting funny - but when you watch and listen with those guys it becomes an event. They talk about all kinds of crazy stuff that you know they regretted saying later -- well, everyone but Kurt probably. He's the kind of guy who says what he wants and tough crap if you have an issue with it.

Tropic Thunder - Downey does the whole thing as his character in the film and even changes to Lazrus toward the end.

Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan. Nick Meyer is an encyclopedia - smart, funny and lets you in on how the script took shape and gives credit where credit is due.

Superman: the movie (the first dvd release with Donner - before Chris Reeve died. The funniest part is when Donner and Mank are watching the starship lift off from it's platform and Donner says something like "Remember we still had the kid in that thing for some reason and it was all only being held up with a few wires... ***** ******!"

 

[Solo4114]

Good (if unintentionally):

Total Recall -- Ahnold and Veerhoven: BATTLE OF THE ACCENTS!!!


Bad:

Big Trouble in Little China -- I can remember Kurt Russel and John Carpenter spending 10-15 min just jabbering on about their kids, the boots Kurt bought while they were filming and how his kid really liked them and blah blah blah GET BACK TO THE DAMN MOVIE.

 

[Treadwell]

That's funny because I was just going to say Conan is on the Good list. Frankly I was laughing out loud severals times during Milius' and Schwarzenegger's comments!

Funny, I hated that commentary. Arnold had little to say other than "that's right" and "exactly".

Maybe he got the memo, because in a later commentary he did for one of the Terminator movies, he's quite the chatterbox. Unfortunately he just describes what his character is doing on screen. "I really need to find the human I need to kill in this scene." Thanks. :lol

 

[Jeyl]

The Good

- ALIEN: Oh my god. I've never seen such a long list of participants for a movie this old before. The only time you can get this many actors and crew together is when the movie has wrapped and hasn't been released yet. Kudos to Veornica Cartwright for being an insanely charismatic speaker who's memory on the production is second to none. I'm serious. She played the most cowardly crew member onboard the Nostromo, but when she's in the same booth with Tom Skerritt and Harry Dean Stanton, she's the real pro. She puts Sigourney Weaver's comments to shame. Also, Ridley Scott gets cute points for making the most adorable sound effects while he's recording.

Ridley Scott: Rrrrrram! This is a vulnerable moment for how the Alien looks... Bang!

- ALIENS: Again, wonderful participants! James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, the late Stan Winston, Bill Paxton and many others. I'm so glad Charley got James Cameron to do this commentary track because James Cameron does some wonderful commentaries (The previously mentioned T2 for example). I think my favorite moment occurs when Lance Henrickson, who is sharing a recording booth with Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein. The characters are going over plans on how to barricade themselves from the Aliens, and Lance comes in and says "Wow. I'm barely in this movie." which causes both Bill and Jenette to laugh out loud. Really Lance? YOU SURVIVE THE FILM! Also, I would have never thought in a million years that Christopher Henn would do a commentary track for this movie. Wow.

- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: Hunter S. Thompson tries calling Benicio Del Toro. When he doesn't pick up, Hunter gets a little upset and leaves Benicio a message. "YOU JACKA** BAST***!. I was going to, I was going, oh fu** it. Who cares about you? You fu**** traitor! YOU *interrupted by assistant*. Classic.

- La Blue Girl Returns: Demon Seed: Oh, snap. I'm going into uncharted territory here. Yes, this is an adult title. Yes, this is a hentai anime with tentacles. But god, these two guys are some of the most professional sounding individuals (Even in Japanese) I've ever listened to. They honestly have interesting discussions with each other like talking about how this whole show came to be developed, what their thoughts are on censorship (Japan must always censor their releases while we get them uncensored), how women actually storyboarded some of the sex scenes and how they think we're immature in seeing animated 18+ year olds looks a lot younger than they actually are. lol. This was one of the most surprising commentary tracks I've ever listened to.

- This is Spinal Tap: While the "in character" commentary needs not be mentioned, the commentaries on the Criterion Collection do! Despite the very unpromising opening by Rob Reiner that he's against doing commentary tracks, he's actually pretty decent! But the highlight are still the trio stars doing the commentary out of character. It's very involving and a lot more dramatic than you would think it would be. They talk about how they tried but failed to give everyone credit for the jokes that made it on screen but failed, and also how the studios won't allow them to portray their own characters in events! "We're not in the business of loaning, we're in the business of acquiring." Pretty tough stuff.

 

[joker-scar]

Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan. Nick Meyer is an encyclopedia - smart, funny and lets you in on how the script took shape and gives credit where credit is due.

yeah , I forgot that one, very good. so is Star Trek 6.

- ALIEN: Oh my god. I've never seen such a long list of participants for a movie this old before. The only time you can get this many actors and crew together is when the movie has wrapped and hasn't been released yet. Kudos to Veornica Cartwright for being an insanely charismatic speaker who's memory on the production is second to none. I'm serious. She played the most cowardly crew member onboard the Nostromo, but when she's in the same booth with Tom Skerritt and Harry Dean Stanton, she's the real pro. She puts Sigourney Weaver's comments to shame. Also, Ridley Scott gets cute points for making the most adorable sound effects while he's recording.

Ridley Scott: Rrrrrram! This is a vulnerable moment for how the Alien looks... Bang!

- ALIENS: Again, wonderful participants! James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, the late Stan Winston, Bill Paxton and many others. I'm so glad Charley got James Cameron to do this commentary track because James Cameron does some wonderful commentaries (The previously mentioned T2 for example). I think my favorite moment occurs when Lance Henrickson, who is sharing a recording booth with Bill Paxton and Jenette Goldstein. The characters are going over plans on how to barricade themselves from the Aliens, and Lance comes in and says "Wow. I'm barely in this movie." which causes both Bill and Jenette to laugh out loud. Really Lance? YOU SURVIVE THE FILM! Also, I would have never thought in a million years that Christopher Henn would do a commentary track for this movie. Wow.

-yes thumbs up as well
- gotta watch FEAR and LOATHING again.

 

[Solo4114]

Oh, almost forgot:

Ghostbusters. Fantastic commentary track with Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis and, I think, Dan Akroyd, AND you can get them in the same kind of "MST3K Shadowrama" silhouette look on the screen. Love that one.

 

[HAL9000]

"Superbad" is a very funny.

"Ferris Bueller's Day off" is very informative.

 

[lonerthx]

The Thing - Kurt Russell and John Carpenter get drunk and reminisce.

 

[Sigma-LS]

The Thing - Kurt Russell and John Carpenter get drunk and reminisce.

Dude I was gonna say this one. It's the same as the laserdisc and awesome.

 

[Jeyl]

Ghostbusters. Fantastic commentary track with Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis and, I think, Dan Akroyd, AND you can get them in the same kind of "MST3K Shadowrama" silhouette look on the screen. Love that one.

That commentary track gave me the first "Aww, man!" moments I've ever had in a commentary. Near the end of the film when the crowds are waving their Ghostbuster T-Shirts, Ivan Reitman chimes in to talk about one of the extras on top of a car waving his hands around. Unfortunately he gets interrupted and never brings it up again. This stuff drives me crazy!

Just wait till you get to the Futurama commentary tracks. They bring up stuff that they'll talk about in detail later on, but they never do. They do that once out of every 5 episodes so it's not intentional.

 

[Jeyl]

"Ferris Bueller's Day off" is very informative.

Very informative and entertaining. It is a great pity that the new DVD did not include John's commentary track because that was one of those rare insightful commentaries that you don't get all that often for comedies.