Best and Worst DVD commentaries ever

[mad-sci]

Out of all the thousands of commentaries out there, which are amongst the very best, and which should be avoided at all costs?

My choices:-

Best:-

(1) Bryan Singer on X1 and X2 - starts off a little nervous, but becomes both entertaining AND informative (you should hear his plans for X3 - oh well.....)

(2) Nick Meyer on Star Trek: Wrath of Khan - Here's the most successful writer / director of the film franchise starting a commentary by admitting his first response to directing the film was "Star Trek - that show with the guy with the ears?". Yet, listening to this commentary, you get an idea that this guy respected the series MORE than Rodenberry, Braga (and probably Abram's too).

(3) Shatner and Nimoy on Star Trek IV - Its Kirk and Spock on the funniest Trek movie - enough said!

(4) Joss Whedon on Angel / Buffy / Firefly - I don't need to comment on this anymore.....

(5) Bruce Campbell on Evil Dead (and as Elvis in Bubba Hotep) - again, no explanation necessary...

(6) Richard Donner and Tom Mancieweiz on Superman The Movie - Donner forgets half the stuff they did, half the stories they tell are already known, but when both act like 5 year olds when the Salkinds names come up, you've struck gold!!!!

(7) All Star Trek text commentaries - informative and easy to fast forward!


Worst:-

(1) The cast of Star Trek 3 - Nimoy or Bennett (the producer) alone were OK, but a cut and paste job of 5-6 people makes me give up.

(2) Tim Burton - the cure for insomnia.

(3) Ridley Scott - If Tim Burton doesn't work.

(4) Lucas and co. on the Star Wars DVDs - Cut and paste jobs - check. Droning voices - Check. 10 minutes of talk on effects and advances in CGI - check. 5 seconds of comments on plot/character in the WHOLE commentary at a moment you miss - Check.

(5) Bond, James Bond. See above.

 

[cryptic name]

All of John Carpenter and Kurt Russel's commentaries together are awesome. informative and funny as hell

 

[mad-sci]

All of John Carpenter and Kurt Russel's commentaries together are awesome. informative and funny as hell

I've heard about them. Apparently, both do commentaries whilst getting sloshed! Now THAT'S how you do a commentary!

 

[cryptic name]

that would explain a lot. but their commentary on Big Trouble in Little China is one of the best i've heard

 

[black_dust]

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the evil dead ones are funny

 

[Redwoods Wolf]

Any commentary done by multiple people and not scene-specific is an automatic worst.

For best...yeah, Bruce Campbell's pretty good. Can't think of any others offhand.

 

[Addendum]

The commentary on Cannibal: The Musical is excellent.

The worst one I've ever heard is the commentary on The Exorcist.

 

[matrix_ghost]

The negative and positive commentaries done by the critics and philosophers on the 10 ultimate matrix collection.

Hearing the philsophers talk about all 3 movies are great and shed a whole new light on the 3 movies and IMO would make alot of sense to people who thought that reloaded and revolutions aren't as good as the first movie , storywise .

At the same time the critics commenatary reminded my why some people just hate the movies because it's the cool thing to do and also proves that some critics really are morons.

 

[black_dust]

I really hate those ones they crop down out of interviews and then wack in on the dvd and its by numerous people like the producer and lighting guy, and the dude who brought the coffee on set one day

another good one is Shaun of the dead

And anything by Mat stone and Trey parker

 

[ToddIsDead]

I remeber John McTiernan being pretty boring on the Predator commentary.

 

[Addendum]

Wait, there were sequels to The Matrix?

 

[Flexo]

The Predator commentary was terrible.

Guillermo del Toro always does an excellent job on his commentaries. (I wish Hellboy had one between him and Ron, however the cast and director commentaries are still great.)

 

[WorthyStevens]

The X3 commentary was beyond horrible.

 

[Bat Attack]

Best: 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'
Worst: 'Predator'

 

[O'Haire]

Best (that I can think of right now) :
Evil Dead Trilogy and anything else with Bruce Campbell
All of John Carpenter/Kurt Russel's
Everyone of them from The Simpsons season sets
George Romero's for Dawn/Day/Land of the Dead
Kevin Smith movies
First Pirates with Depp and Gore
Arrested Development's
All of Robert Rodriguez's
Freddy vs Jason (Love Robert Englund. Dude is awesome)

Worst: When they take a bunch of people and cut them into one. It's just so irritating. I can't make it through them.

 

[Obsidian]

Worst: Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski on "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" - it's not the worst, but i was expecting more than the dull mumbles emitted by Depp and Verbinski

Best: Keira Knightley on the same film...she has much more enthusiasm and humor than Depp or Verbinski

 

[Noir]

Depp sucks at comentaries, The best in my opinion is Bob Gale on BTTF, really really insightful.

 

[ghost_x]

any Arrested Development commentary where they have the entire cast in is simply the funniest thing you can listen to

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

BEST:
V-The Original Mini-Series -commentary by Kenneth Johnson
Very imformative and Johnson remembered almost every detail.

Robocop -commentary by Paul Verhoeven and scriptwriters
It was a cut and paste but very informative.

Total Recall -commentary by Arnold and Verhoeven
Very informative if you can get past laughing at both their accents.

Transformers The Movie -fan commentary
Neat to finally hear urban legends about some behind the scenes stuff.

WORST
Hulk -commentary by Ang Lee
Too much silence and not enough info

The Matrix -commentary by Carrie Ann Moss and two other guys
Very boring and I thought it would explain some insight into the Matrix

Accepted -cast commentary
Too much rambling along and nothing of interest to specific scenes

Terminator 3 -commentary by Arnold and cast
Cut and paste and Arnold only points out how cool the effects are.

 

[Asr]

The director/writer, design crew, and production crew commentaries on FotR, TTT, and RotK. The cast commentaries suck.

 

[Episode29]

Best:
Anything Kevin Smith
Evil Dead 2 & Army Of Darkness: DC
The Simpsons
Arrested Development
This Is Spinal Tap
Devil's Rejects
Forty Year Old Virgin
Daredevil Theatrical/DC
Ghostbusters

Worst:
Star Wars - all of them
Spiderman 1 & 2
Batman & Batman Returns

 

[Jack Bauer]

Freddy vs. Jason (I love the bit when Ken goes to the dentist to get his teeth fix and the lady in the waiting room thinks he's a escape convict or something), The SAW commentaries (The commentaries for them are always funny) and Sideways are some of favorite commentaries.

However these are my least favorite commentaries: Blood Rayne and Ultraviolet.

 

[Elisha Cuthbert]

Best:
Guimelio Del Toro on Blade II - Just so ****ing badass, anyone who doesn't think Blade II is the best blade movie needs to watch this.
Michael Mann on Collateral
Anything Martin Scorcese
WORST:
Anything George Lucas
Anything Ridley Scott

 

[Joker]

Worst would have to be Joel Shumachers, especially on Phone Booth...it's essentially him verbally sucking off everyone involved with the movie for an hour and a half...best I would say would be any of Joss Whedons commentaries, he's funny, and insightful

 

[THE WIDDLER]

Frank Darabont commentaries are always good stuff