Commentary Tracks

[Morpheus2000]

I've compiled a list of those I've listened to and those I haven't. Here's the 16 commentary tracks I've listened to:

12 Monkeys, Alien, The Big Boss, Final Destination, Game of Death, Ghostbusters, In the Mouth of Madness, The Matrix, Men in Black, Police Story, Purple Storm, Robocop, Shanghai Noon, Starship Troopers, The Thing and U-571!

The worst being The Matrix which is extremely boring (so is Men in Black). The best I've listened to have been the ones by Bey Logan on The Big Boss, Game of Death and Police Story. In the Mouth of Madness is an interesting commentary as it gives the viewer a very clear understanding on how to shoot a film!

The next bunch I want to listen to are:

2000 AD, American Beauty, Blade, Drive, Fist of Fury, Gladiator, Miracles, The Omen, Ravenous, Rush Hour, Superman and Vampires! Finding the time to listen is the problem. After those, there's 36 I haven't listened to either and a lot of which I never will. I'll be looking forward to listening to commentaries on Escape from New York and Starman when they're released next year.

Certainly commentary tracks are very good addition to a DVD and if the commentator is good you're in for a treat. The best the commentators I found are John Carpenter, Terry Gilliam, Bey Logan and Ridley Scott.

Have you listened to any same ones I have? What did you think of them? Who do you find the best?

[Mike]

Both "The Omen" and "Superman" are highly enjoyable, thanks to the self-deprecating Richard Donner and his assistants - Stuart Baird on the first, Tom Mankiewicz on the second.

[SqueakyG]

I love a good commentary track. They can be so informative, and sometimes entertaining too. I'll list the ones I've heard.


Commentary tracks that are very funny:

American Pie (group party feel)
Cruel Intentions (drunken group party feel)
League of Gentlemen (group feel)
This is Spinal Tap (in character)
The Evil Dead (Bruce Campbell... enthusiastic and funny)


Commentary tracks that may not be funny, but are very informative:

Alien
Gladiator
Armageddon
The Exorcist
Fight Club
Seven
Ghostbusters
The Phantom Menace


Commentary tracks that pretty well suck:

Austin Powers (kinda smug, doesn't say much)
Men In Black (Just Tommy Lee Jones saying, "Is this real or on the computer?" over and over and over again)
Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton either stoned or very very bored)

[Mark.Anderson]

My personal favorite is the Robert Rodriguez one on El Mariachi. Not only is he very informative - explaining how he shot stuff, but he is also very funny with some great sorties about the guerilla filmmaking (and a real prison escape!). His opening comment about the logo costing more then his entire film just starts if off brilliantly.

The Usual Suspects one (that was on the VHS edition and I assume (?) on a version of the DVD) is also very informative.

[kanedaa]

Commentary tracks are one of my fave extras and i've listened to many of those contained on my DVDs....a quick summary of the good and the bad follows :)

Good.

Evil Dead Series - 4 Tracks in total, all top stuff and very funny.

Kevin Smith stuff - Mallrats has the best commentary, then its between Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy for 2nd best, with the cartoon proving to be quite dull - oi, Smith - you shoulda made a documentary explaining the release problems of the series rather than bog down the commentaries with the info!!

HKL Bey Logan Commentaries - great to listen to, informative, funny - best commentator alongside Bruce Campbell for me.

Pixar - Toy Story 1&2, Bugs Life - top commentaries, Lassiter is an enthusiastic guy who loves his work - and check out the Terminator story in Toy Story 1 :)

Hard Boiled - only heard the Criterion track with John Woo and Terence Chang - very good, triad stories etc! not heard the new one on the Winstar disc.

The Killer - Woo is again informative, this time round i've only heard the Winstar track (so we loose Terence Chang which is a shame as i liked him on the Hard Boiled commentary).

Blair Witch - quite fun, explain how it was made etc.

Ginger Snaps - just finished the two commentary tracks on Canadian edition, both very good, quite humourous but informative.

Scream 1 - very good track, the sequels didn't receive as good treatment though.

Shanghai Noon - again good, shame Jackie wasn't in the booth with Owen Wilson and director though.

The Thing - outstanding commentary - Carpenter and Russel on top form.

Fight Club - only managed one so far - with Norton, Pitt etc, great stuff.

From Dusk Till Dawn - rodriguez and tarantino, nuff said :)

Wings of Honneamise - anime & commentary track = rare! plus its a great listen (well read unless you understand Japanese)

Bad.

HKL Stefan Hammond Tracks - boring - hey Hammon, there ARE subtitles on these DVDs ya'know!

Austin Powers 1 & 2 - you'd expect greatness with Myers etc but these are generally dull as hell.

Big Trouble in Little China - not bad as such, just a major disappointment over the other Carpenter tracks - we don't wanna hear about your damn kids!

Me, Myself and Irena / Theres Something About Mary - again, you'd expect hilarity but instead its a family tree description throughout! possibly the worst tracks i've ever attempted to listen to (couldn't manage them all the way through although i skipped through and it does not improve!)

The Simpsons - not that bad, but not what i expected by a long way. mostly dull but its worth sampling a few episodes worth.

think thats enough for now :D

dave.

[Michael Brooke]

Anything by John Waters, Herschell Gordon Lewis or Frank Henenlotter is invariably worth a listen - and in some cases is worth buying the DVD for, as truly terrible films are transformed into laugh riots!

[Robby]

I have to agree with Kanedaa that Comms by the Farrelly's are DIRE another bad one is Mystery Men. I really want to listen to the Comm on The Mexican but from what i've heard on the deleted scenes it could turn out to be a stinker.:(

Out of your list Morpheus2000 i would go with Gladiator that is quite good, the only others i've listened to are American Beauty, Blade and Rush Hour. All three are interesting if not terribly enthralling but definetley worth a listen.

I'm half way through the Star Wars comm at the mo and i think Lucas is the most boring on it. How many times is he gonna say '....thematic device......'. McCallum and Burtt have been consistently the most informative IMHO.:D

[Bolch]

I'd just like to say possibly the worst commentary ever is Rob Schneider's on 'The Animal'.

There are a couple of 'infomative bits but the vast majority is..


Oh there he is.
Check out what he does this is cool
Thats a nice shot
John C McGinley again
This is cool
Look, Theres your production value right there
Thats another nice shot
He's dead now, died just after filming.

:rolleyes:

But I'm a big fan of the Kevin Smith commentaries (looking forward to the JASBSB which apparently will feature a Jay and Bob commentary!), Superman and the Goonies are also my favs.

[SimonI]

I have to agree that the Men in black commentary is pretty boring - we switched to the main track after 20 minutes or so...

Haven't really been able to muster the time to listen to many of the many commentaries in my collection, but those that are memorable are:

Chicken Run (R2) - it seems dull at first but is very interesting; the story about the deleted scene that was going to take off the scene from The Great Escape where Steve McQueen steals the motorbike is very funny.

The Red Shoes and I know where I'm going! (Criterion) commentaries by Ian Christie are, from the bits I've heard, very interesting.

[Michael Brooke]

Criterion commentaries are usually superb - not least because they're carefully edited to remove the boring bits.

The downside is that they sometimes lack the spontaneity that you get with two or three people being recorded at the same time, but the major advantage is that there are no embarrassing gaps or rambling anecdotes.

[Madm@tt]

From Dusk Till Dawn is my favouite commentary as it manages to be funny; informative; cool and VERY enthusiastic - they talk ALL the way through the credits and don't have time to say goodbye!

The Thing comes a close second...

Fight Club - the first one - is my third favourite: hilarious.

Blade is very good too although not up to the standards of the above.

Hannibal is another good informative commentary as Scott says exactly how he would do it if he had total control.

Armageddon the cast commentary - Ben Affleck: very funny.

I REALLY dislike the James Bond commentaries as they can be extremely boring.

PS - I enjoyed the Austin Powers commentaries - even if they are a little too pleased with themselves.

PPS - I look forward to seeing all the Kevin Smith commentaries too: but I haven't bought the DVDs yet...:(

[Tyler Durden]

My faves are :-

Alien
Big Trouble In Little China
The Thing
Seven
Fight Club
Pitch Black
Braveheart
Armageddon
Evil Dead II

Boring ones :-

Matrix
From Dusk Till Dawn (might give this one another go as I love the film)

[The_Evil_Dean]

Bruce Campbell is the undisputed KING of commentary in my book there are none greater.

Second is Quentin Tarantino he is so damn enthusiastic with his work that what at first seems annoying soon becomes very endearing ....

I have a few to listen to

Shrek
House
House 2

and I will soon enough get the Kevin Smiths ( I cant think of a reason I dont own these as I love the guys films)

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh

[Arch Stanton]

Can't beleave no one mentioned the fantastic commentry on the new version of the Coen Brothers Blood simple.


Shame on you all.

[tpr007]

Bey Logan's commentaries are generally superb! The time just flies by.

I particularly liked:
Miracles
OUATIC2
Police Story

Fist of Fury (not HKL's but the Bey Logan one from a few years ago on MegaStar's DVD release in Hong Kong)

[FaustBos]

Oh gosh, the only ones that come to mind right now:

My favorite commentary track... Dark City with a commentary by my favorite critic, Roger Ebert.

And for the absolute, "why did they even bother", commentary goes to The Exorcist with a commentary by director William Friedkin. An greuling step by step of every motion. "first , here is where she walks across the floor, she'll wait a moment, now grab the door to open it". Hello!!! I'm watching the movie!!!

It really was a waste of time.

I generally enjoy commentaries, even if they are just a one time listening thing. Some I listen to more than once like Dark City.

Another that just popped to mind is the commentary on Logan's Run. I think thats a good one, and Young Frankenstein wasn't too bad either.

[Robby]

I went a bit comm. mad yesterday and listened to both the Star Wars one and the Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis etc Armegeddon. That was an excellent track. All four contributors had something interesting to say and needless to say Ben was the funniest, his self depreciating humour was a relief from all the technical and logistical output from Bay and Bruckheimer (although that was also great):D

I get the feeling NASA bods are not going to be big fans of Affleck if they listen to that track. http://www.theunholytrinity.org/cracks_smileys/cwm/cwm/face82.gif