I just finished watching a recently-released movie on DVD*, and enjoyed listening to the commentary track. It featured the director/writer/producer and his co-writer/producer. They gave a laid-back presentation, with a sense of humor and explained a few things that people might have seen as unauthentic. It featured some inside-baseball-technical stuff, interesting stories about the shoot, and genuine affection and credit to the entire cast and crew.
What kind of commentary tracks have you enjoyed, and who does the best job?
*OK, it was Apocalypto, but I don’t want the thread to be about Mel!!
Hands down best ever is Trapped in the Closet: R. Kelly sits in a big leather armchair, facing the “screen” and smoking a cigar, glancing at you over his shoulder and describing what you see happening on the screen, like that annoying old lady that always sits behind me and has to tell her companion “She’s getting out of the car! . . . He’s got a gun!”
I recently watched The Ladies Man, my favorite Jerry Lewis movie, and the commentary track was Jerry Lewis and Steve Lawrence–who had absolutely nothing to do with the movie–cracking each other up, reminiscing, commenting on the jazz musicians on the soundtrack, etc. Halfway through (I was playing it at work), Christopher McQuarrie came in, and stood and watched for a while, also cracking up at these two old dudes just having a blast watching a movie.
The commentary tracks on the “Futurama” DVDs are most excellent. If you’ve been putting off buying these DVDs because you’ve already seen every episode of “Futurama” umpteen times, the commentaries make these DVDs into a whole 'nother experience (almost as good as snu-snu).
Besides Futurama, The Simpsons have nice commentary tracks as well. They’re informative and often funny. The Season Eight DVD also has some amusing special guests on some commentary tracks- two feature the two children of one of the producers who ask questions and make comments, and Mountain of Madness features comedian Dave Thomas as a dim-witted fellow who won a “Be on a Simpsons DVD Commentary contest” and asks extremely stupid questions while the episode runs.
Hands down: This Is Spinal Tap with the stars speaking in character throughout.
I really enjoyed the commentary on “Objects in Space”, the last episode of Firefly. It was a little pretentious, but gave an interesting perspective on what Whedon was trying to accomplish.
Toxic Avenger’s Anniversary edition has a very funny commentary track with Lloyd Kaufman (the director, and creator of the Troma World), with someone who is supposed to be the ultimate geeky Troma fan. Some great stuff during it, and an interesting ending, which actually fits the Troma world perfectly.
By far… simply brilliant!
“Oh he’s dead”
lol!
Kenneth Johnson’s track for the V miniseries is very informative.
Least informative: Family Guy special features. Seth is just fuckin bored by this point and has nothing to say. Nothing!
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has always been a favorite of mine. Hearing Hunter S. Thompson’s stream of conscious narration is a blast. Highlights include taking phone calls during the taping and letting out a long, primal scream for no discernable reason.
I enjoyed the commentary by the writer of “Gosford Park”. He grew up in the type of society portrayed in the movie, and adds a lot of insight into the way the two sets of characters relate to each other. It turns out that many of the Maggie Smith character’s more outrageous comments are more-or-less direct quotes from one of the writer’s aunts.
The DVD also has commentary from Altman, which is interesting, too, but more typical and not so personal.
The commentary for the Weird Al Show DVDs is great. They express their bitterness toward the network (who wanted it to be “educational,” ruining most of the funny), and it’s all very snarky and fun to listen to.
The Lord of the Rings commentary tracks are brilliant, especially the cast track on Fellowship.
The Aliens commentary is also fun, because Lance Henriksen, Jeanette Goldstein, Michael Biehn, and Bill Paxton are all in a room together, and it sounds like they’re having a blast.
But my favorite DVD commentary track is the one on Conan the Barbarian, with Arnold Schwarzeneggar and John Milius sitting back with cigars and beer and getting drunker and funnier as the movie progresses. Plus, Arnold good-naturedly mocks my uncle several times (Terry J. Leonard, a stuntman/stunt coordinator on the film who also happened at the time to be dating the actress who played Valeria).
It’s not every day you get to hear the governor of California dissing members of your family by name.
I can’t confirm this, but I have heard that the commentary for Dude, Where’s My Car? is Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott getting very drunk over the course of the session; they end up being far, far funnier than the movie itself (though I haven’t even seen the movie so I can’t tell you how impressive a feat this is).
Agreed—this was going to be my answer.
The Casablanca and Citizen Kane DVDs have commentary tracks by Roger Ebert, which are great. They explain why these are important films, like that Citizen Kane was the equivalent of Star Wars in the way it pioneered special visual effects.
The movie 24-Hour Party People, about the music scene in Manchester, UK from the late 1970s (Joy Division) through the early 1990s (Happy Mondays and early rave culture) is a great film for those interested in the period, and has a commentary track by Tony Wilson, the TV reporter who started Factory Records and is the main character in the film. Listening to him humorously nitpick what he felt were factual inaccuracies of the movie and waxing hippy-poetic about the period is so transcendent that I watched the movie with commentary twice in a row.
I agree with the Roger Ebert commentaries on Citizen Kane and Casablanca.
Another of my favorites is Ron Howard’s commentary for A Beautiful Mind.
The film’s editor, Thelma Schoonmaker did what I thought was an outstanding comentary track for the anniversary release of Raging Bull on DVD. It was like a semester at film school in two hours. If I’m not mistaken she also did commentary for the Aviator.
I wasn’t sure if I really liked it after having watched Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but I couldn’t sleep and watched again with the commentary by George Clooney, who directed. His clear passion for filmmaking made me look at the movie differently. “This shot is an homage to a Frankenheimer shot that I really lived in…”
While my general preference is for commentary by filmmakers rather than actors, I’ll add a vote for This Is Spinal Tap. The commentary is hysterical and the only reason I bought the DVD before my VHS tape wore out.
The commentary for Cannibal! The Musical with Trey Parker, Matt Stone and fellow friends/cast members is hilarious. They are taking shots of scotch and chasing it with beer. Make it a drinking game and try to keep up with them!
At the end as the credits are rolling you can hear them debating on which titty bar they are headed to now.