Best and Worst DVD commentaries ever

[thedeadite]

some of my favourite commentaries that weren't mentioned...

Futurama commentaries
C.H.U.D.

i'm sure there's more i can't think of right now.

 

[Clerk]

The Batman/Batman Returns commentary was such a letdown. Burton would start to tell an interesting story, laugh as he was remembering the event, then go "yknow" and move onto another half-finished topic.

 

[cryptic name]

some of my favourite commentaries that weren't mentioned...

Futurama commentaries
C.H.U.D.

i'm sure there's more i can't think of right now.

oh yeah, the C.H.U.D. commentary kicks ass

 

[KingOfDreams]

This is Spinal Tap has the only good commentary because it's all three in character. All others are boring. I'm not that much of a film nerd and commentary always ruins the movie-watching experience for me. I've tried to listen to a few but I always stop after a few minutes. Well, MST3K has great movie commentary...of a different kind obviously.

 

[Golgo-13]

Best
Both Blade 2's commenteries with Snipes/Goyer and Guillemo/Frankfurt is the best, most entertaining commentaries i have ever heard.

Transformers:The Movie 20th Anniversary edition. The fan commentary rocked!

Worst
Spiderman 1 has the most boring commentary ever.

 

[cryptic name]

the commentary on the first Blade is pretty terrible. they should have only used goyer, he had the most interesting things to say.

another good one is laura herron's commentary track on American Psycho

 

[lonzoe]

Danny Elfman's commentary for planet of the apes was great. Should've done one for Batman, Batman Returns and Spiderman.

 

[Wolfwood]

The worst would be Me, Myself and Irene. It was like being stuck watching someone's home movies and listening to them list out every single friend and family member that appeared in their movie. I don't remember one single thing about the movie being said, they just continuously listed people they knew who made cameos.

Best is a little harder, but I'll just say the Gojira Special Edition DVD that came out last year had a pretty informative commentary. I learned a great deal from it.

 

[Spidey1111]

Evil Dead 2, Boogie Nights, Kevin Smith's films, all the seasons of the Simpsons.

 

[R_3]

My favourite DVD commentary: SPEED
The one with the writer and producer is so entertaining. Both guys are hilarious. They were informative and for the most part had fun with the whole thing, too. Since it was recorded in November 2001, long after the movie's release, they knew the movie was a huge hit so they had no prbolem making fun of some things.

Worst DVD Commentary: Frequency

I say this only because one guy actually LEFT in the middle of it to go to some doctor's appointment. The worst thing was the other guy (who is the director and brother) was kind of surprised. He was like, "now?" and the other guy was like, "yeah, it's almost 3:30!". Meanwhile, I'm thinking, 'you guys are recording a damn commentary. Not only can you guys NOT find time to record this thing, but you're talking about it while the movie is still going?' Terrible.

 

[Addendum]

Worst DVD Commentary: Frequency

I say this only because one guy actually LEFT in the middle of it to go to some doctor's appointment. The worst thing was the other guy (who is the director and brother) was kind of surprised. He was like, "now?" and the other guy was like, "yeah, it's almost 3:30!". Meanwhile, I'm thinking, 'you guys are recording a damn commentary. Not only can you guys NOT find time to record this thing, but you're talking about it while the movie is still going?' Terrible.

Doesn't say a lot of good about the movie, if someone involved with it walks out while making a commentary track

 

[Flexo]

If I remember right, someone answered a cell phone during the AvP commentary.

 

[Ender Durden]

aqua teen hunger force - horrible commentaries. mainly in the latest season on dvd. i think they even said they got bored doing commentaries, so they just took a recorder to some bar or restaurant and talked about everything BUT the show. you couldnt even make out wut they were saying most of the time cuz of the background noise.

 

[Sam Fisher]

Anchorman-lame. Just lame.

 

[\S/JcDc\S/]

Rocky Balboa commentary is good.

 

[blud_knight]

Conan the Barbarian.
Funny. Arnold is unreal. I think he ate a bunch of paint chips growing up.

 

[Artos]

If I remember right, someone answered a cell phone during the AvP commentary.

The cast of Arrested Development called Jeffery Tambor during one episode commentary...

 

[mad-sci]

One of the weirdest commentaries was with Nick Meyer and the screenwriter (I forget his name) on Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.

In the scene where Spock mind-melds with the traitorous vulcan Valeris, the commentators talk about how erotic the scene is, when what you're seeing is akin to rape. Just too bizarre for words...

 

[Jspider13]

Worst: Anchorman

 

[mad-sci]

Another great commentary is Joss Whedon on the Firefly series and Serenity film. Not only does he tell funny stories, but he shows you glaring errors (like Mal piloting the ship whilst pretending to hold a steering wheel!!) and takes it on the chin.



BTW, Schumacher's Batman commentaries almost make you believe he had no role in the campness of BF and B&R.... almost.

 

[Darkfly]

The cast of Helloboy on Hellboy
Will Ferell and the cast on Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Nathan Fillion/James Gunn on Slither
Nathan Fillion/Alan Tudyk on Firefly
Joss Whedon on Serenity & Firefly

 

[odiin]

Can't say who the best or worst are but I do know what the best number of people is:

2.

You have one person on a commentary and it gets boring with way too much silence, and with 3 or more everyone is talking over everyone else. Someone starts an interesting story about a scene, and then someone starts talking over them and that story is never finished, or a really cool scene comes up that you'd like to hear some insight on, but the lighting assistant's cousin's son's barber is still talking about what an amazing job the 2nd unit director's personal assistant's manicurist does and it gets totally passed over.

No, commentaries should enforce a rule of two, just like the Sith: "Always two there are. No more, no less."

 

[Dave McFly]

some of my favorite commentaries are:

Armageddon: Criterion Collection it is also a 'cut and paste' in some parts. it is mostly Michael Bay and Ben Affleck, just a sample:

Ben: "Michael, why is it easier to train oil drillers to be astronauts, than it is to train astronauts to be oil drillers?"
Michael: "Ben, shut the F*** up!"
t:

Detroit Rock City, which has cast commentary, directors commentary, and KISS commentary. in the middle of the director's commentary he leaves his session to listen in on the cast commentary .

Not Another Teen Movie: i disagree on cast commentaries, i like them, and this movie has one of the best ones I have heard .

 

[Gilpesh]

Can't say who the best or worst are but I do know what the best number of people is:

2.

You have one person on a commentary and it gets boring with way too much silence, and with 3 or more everyone is talking over everyone else. Someone starts an interesting story about a scene, and then someone starts talking over them and that story is never finished, or a really cool scene comes up that you'd like to hear some insight on, but the lighting assistant's cousin's son's barber is still talking about what an amazing job the 2nd unit director's personal assistant's manicurist does and it gets totally passed over.

No, commentaries should enforce a rule of two, just like the Sith: "Always two there are. No more, no less."

Amen. Unless it is Firefly/Serenity related cause they break the rule of two and it actually works.

 

[Moviefan2k4]

Generally, I often have trouble defining a personal "best and worst" of anything, and this is no exception. However, here are a few of my favorites, and less so...

The 2004 "Star Wars Trilogy" Release: Don't get me wrong; it's cool that we got any commentaries at all, and Carrie's opinion was nice to hear...but Ben Burtt talks way too much, and that's coming from a fellow chatterbox! It seemed like on any truly great scene, you'd expect to hear Lucas or Carrie say something about the story, but no...Ben jumps in with yet another piece of audio trivia. Now, I have a huge amount of respect for sound artists, but this is where a separate audio-related commentary would come in handy (Sony did it right, providing an alternate technical track for each of the "Spider-Man" films). Don't mix sound or VFX guys in with the actors; it jumbles all together, and ultimately crashes into a million pieces.

Now, as for commentaries I hold in high regard, the "Back to the Future" tracks by Bob Gale and Neil Canton were great, and in his defense, Gale tried very hard not to repeat anything he'd said on the other interviews. This shows a genuine concern for the audience's patience, which is always cool. The commentary on the director's cut of "Daredevil" was impressive as well.