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

[Jeyl]

The Bad:

Star Trek 2009: Ugh, where do I begin? While it's always good listening to a commentary track where the participants are having a good time, it's entirely another when they spend most of the time worshipping and praising each other over every little thing that goes on screen. Remember R2-D2's cameo? Well, when you get to that scene, all they do is say "Oh, JJ. Is this the scene where you threw in your easter egg?" and that's pretty much it. They don't tell you what it is, where to look for it and when one of the participants says "Right there!" he does it at the wrong spot!

But my favorite moment has to be when the Romulans first encounter the Enterprise and someone says "JJ, you decided to have all the Romulans speak english all the time. That was brilliant." Yes. When the only female character on this roster of nothing but men gets a position on the bridge because she knows Romulan, it's BRILLIANT that we made the Romulans speak english!

I'll post more as I go along.

 

[dbuck]

In addition to the many good ones already listed, I will add that I enjoyed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and The Queen.

 

[bleyd]

My favorite commentary and leads into the extras is Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He shares alot of the tricks he uses and how he benefits from using CG throughout his films. His love for shooting digital is great as he's always shooting even during rehearsal.

The firefly TV show stuff was fun to watch.

Gonna hafta agree with the Conan comments. Ello dis ees Ahnold undt I played Conan een dees film. I enjoy a little incite into the film and not a description of what I am seeing.

I recall Raiders of the Lost Ark Harrison mentioning how that poor SOB practiced for months with that sword. I was vomitting out both ends and just wanted to get that scene over with so asked if I could shoot him instead.

 

[Wes R]

I agree with the Superman Commentary, it's fun to just listen to them talk. I didn't see a new commentary since Reeves died though. I like the commentary they did on the Donner version of Superman II even though a few stories they mentioned on the original's audio. I'm a sick puppy so the Commentary on all the stuff for the Drawn Together animated series was a must. I tend to like the Family guy commentaries too.

 

[cayman shen]

I really enjoy Ritchie's commentaries on the Criterion Kurosawa discs. I especially enjoyed Throne of Blood, as before the commentary I wasn't sure I was quite "getting" it, and now I'm just enamored of the movie.

AVP:R's modelshop guys' commentary was long periods of awkward silences followed by encouragements to buy the book. Just awful.

 

[Wes R]

The commentary on the Evil Dead movies isn't too bad, it's always fun to listen to Bruce Campbell anyhow.

 

[MrSinistar]

One of the best DVD commentaries I ever heard is from UHF with Weird Al Yankovic and Jay Levey, the director and Weird Al's manager. A lot of the other cast members pop up as well and it's hilarious, entertaining and very informative.

The Goonies commentary was fairly disappointing, IMO. Seemed too "outta control", but that's bound to happen when you have the all the cast members in one room.

 

[Jannix Quinn]

The Resident Evil Commentary, you can hear Milla Jovovich & Michelle Rodriguez talk about such things as fisting, and Eric Mabius' love of yoghurt.

 

[Jeyl]

Ello dis ees Ahnold undt I played Conan een dees film.

That is *NOT* how arnold opened the commentary!

John: Uh, I'm Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Arnold: And I'm John Milius the great. And if you believe that, he also believe there're Richard Simmons Juniors running around! Hahahahaha!

I enjoy a little incite into the film and not a description of what I am seeing.

But Arnold does give great incite!

Arnold: I was getting laid a lot in this movie.

Alright, enough! For those who have not listened to the commentary track, here it is in a nutshell.

Conan Memories

 

[SSgt Burton]

Arnold had little to say other than "that's right" and "exactly".

Yeah I remember that- and it definitely became repetitive. Almost a running gag that wasn't meant to be that way. Mind you Arnold cracking up at the other "student" being kicked in the groin by the sword master was pretty damn funny! :lol

Another vote for Nick Meyer in ST:II- brilliant! I especially liked how he described the difference between an "actor" and a "moviestar", and his explanation of how he toned down Shatner's classic overacting. :lol :thumbsup


Kevin

 

[JLeezy23]

The Resident Evil Commentary, you can hear Milla Jovovich & Michelle Rodriguez talk about such things as fisting, and Eric Mabius' love of yoghurt.

I love that commentary! I watch it with the comentary more than i watch the regular movie

Terminator 3 and the Star Wars original trilogy commentaries are hard to follow since they're all not recorded at once but cut to listen to all together, kinda wierd for me but still get info from them

 

[Sigma-LS]

Actually, Legend had a pretty good commentary too, but I always like hearing about the props in a film.

 

[The Wolf]

All time worst is William Friedkin's commentary on The Exorcist. He just describes what is on screen. "You see Raven's mother walk into the kitchen and get a mug from the cupboard. Raven is drawing something. Her mother pours some coffee or tea..." :confused
Stan Freberg's commentary on the Pete Puma cartoon is bad. He is a funny many but mostly just watches the cartoon and says his lines before the characters does and laughs.
The commentary for Kentucky Fried Movie is helped by having John Landis moderate whenever ZAZ stop talking and just watch the movie Landis starts asking them questions.
Both commentaries for The Specials are interesting. In the newer commentary James Gunn mentions he can't believe he wound up doing two commeantaries for a movie he was disappointed by. However in the first commentary the director keeps pointing out the mistakes he made, how bad things look because of budget, etc. Which was annoying after a while.
I agree that Used Cars is a great commentary.

I was listening to a commentary on an old film noir by an author who had written a book about noir. He wasn't that informative and I found him so annoying I didn't finish listening to it.

A commentary that I recommend to all commentary is the one for Man of the Century. Make sure you listen to the end.

Wolf

 

[joker-scar]

has there been any Quentin Tarantino commentary's? i have Res Dogs and Pulp DVD's and nothing from him other than a few clips gathered together in a making of doc. For such a movie geek, the dude gives nothing in that regard. i don't have have any other flicks by him so can't say in regards to these films....

 

[Jet Beetle]

Funny thing about doing commentaries - they don't pay you. It's usually scheduled on a Saturday at some early hour - and it's a weird feeling looking around the room knowing all the sound people there are getting a check - the only person who isn't is the talent whose laying down behind the scenes info.

 

[Jeyl]

Funny thing about doing commentaries - they don't pay you. It's usually scheduled on a Saturday at some early hour - and it's a weird feeling looking around the room knowing all the sound people there are getting a check - the only person who isn't is the talent whose laying down behind the scenes info.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $75,000 to do a commentary for Total Recall.

 

[Jeyl]

has there been any Quentin Tarantino commentary's? i have Res Dogs and Pulp DVD's and nothing from him other than a few clips gathered together in a making of doc. For such a movie geek, the dude gives nothing in that regard. i don't have have any other flicks by him so can't say in regards to these films....

Quentin Tarantino is one of those directors who won't do a commentary track for his movies. Like Woody Allen, he wants his films to speak for themselves.

However, that does not mean that he doesn't do commentary tracks period. He actually recorded for Hot Fuzz with Director Edgar Wright and he's pretty entertaining. Even Edgar Wright nudges him a bit to shed some light on some of his work which Quentin actually agrees to. It involves Reservoir Dogs and it's pretty funny.

 

[Solo4114]

Not so. Tarantino did a commentary track for True Romance which was actually pretty good. He talks about how he wanted the film to end, where the scene with Blu Lou came from, etc. It was actually pretty cool.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Did I miss it or has no one mentioned the fantastic commentaries on the LOTR DVDs?

Also... for the "bad" list... the SW prequels. It's like even the commentaries were aimed at ten-year-olds... but DUMB ones. Graphics artists popping in to say stuff like "Oh, and here we added some computer graphics to the shot..." makes for some dull commentary.

 

[nickytea]

The Wachowski's don't generally discuss any of their work, but before the Matrix boom they did a commentary track for "Bound" and I personally found it very enlightening.