The DVD commentaries thread

[Famous Mortimer]

Inspired by this excellent AV Club article:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/now-with-extra-farts-25-12-gimmicky-dvd-commentary,47021/

Tell us your favourites. Tell us of those which bored you so much you turned them off (Big Trouble in Little China, for me, where Carpenter and Russell sounded like they couldn't be bothered to be there).

[paint]

The DVD commentaries for Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre: Wrath of God are full of interesting anecdotes and commentary on the films.  Herzog doesn't say too much by himself, but he has someone with him who asks him questions throughout, and that brings up a whole lot of great stuff.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

The Bruce Campbell track on Evil Dead is as entertaining as the film itself.

[BJB]

This Is Spinal Tap has one of the best ones, done completely in character and just as sharp as the actual movie.
24 Hour Party People has a cracking one by Tony Wilson that does a good job at de-constructing a lot of the myths that the film apparently perpetrates.
Pink Floyd The Wall, with Roger Waters and Gerald Scarfe, was surprisingly interesting. I'd heard all these horror stories about Waters being an absolute cunt, He seemed likeable, and even kinda funny sometimes.
Bruce Campells commentaries for the Evil Dead movies, particularly the first one where he does it alone.
Noel Gallagher's commentaries for the Oasis videos are hilarious, as he dosen't seem to be particularly enjoying watching his past, and spends almost the whole time taking the piss out of everything about the videos. When one of the first things he says is "I hate music videos", you know its gonna be good.

And a shitty one...

Lisztomania (Wow, I've mentioned this movie in about the last five posts I've done, I need some form of help). Ken Russells commentary is awful. He dosen't seem to remember fuck all about the film, and just hangs back on describing what happens on screen. I think the longest time he talks is for about  a minute.


Whoops, was beaten to Evil Dead. Oh well.....

[El Unicornio, mang]

The Bruce Campbell track on Evil Dead is as entertaining as the film itself.

I was about to say that. The one for II is just as good, both very funny.

Also, the Fight Club commentary with Pitt and Norton is very entertaining, as is the Goodfellas one with the real life Henry Hill and the cop who got him into witness protection. Must be bizarre to do a commentary over a film based on your own life (see also Chopper)

[Serge]

I've still got a lot of time for the 'Usual Suspects' commentary, because that was the first one I ever heard - on video, too, as they released that special box-set version. Singer and McQuarrie are very entertaining, sportingly point out mistakes, and generally come across as likeable.

As I've mentioned on here before, the 'Se7en' and 'Fight Club' commentaries are great. The former has Fincher and Pitt talking, with bits of Morgan Freeman edited in, and the latter has Fincher, Pitt and Norton, with Helena Bonham-Carter similarly stitched in. My favourite bit is at the end of 'Se7en', when Pitt says it's the film he's most proud of, and Fincher jokingly asks, "What about 'Fight Club'?" and compares it to an aunt getting you a red tie and a blue tie, and if you turn up at her house in the blue one, she says, "What's wrong with the red one?"

'Dodgeball' has the entertaining fake commentary, with Vince Vaughan audibly eating crisps and drinking and Stiller acting like a prima donna, though it only runs for about half the film, when everybody allegedly walks out and two assistants put on the commentary from 'There's Something About Mary'. It does have a real commentary hidden somewhere on the disc too. And the 'Anchorman' commentary starts with Ferrell going on about various anti-social and illegal things he'd done the previous weekend, before he realises he's being taped. And I seem to remember Lou Rawls being on it for no reason whatsoever.

And '24 Hour Party People' has two very good commentaries, one by Tony Wilson, the other by Coogan and one of the producers. It's entertaining when they complement each other - for example, Wilson wonders in his commentary why Keith Allen, playing Roger Ames, head of London Records, didn't play him with a Trinidadian accent like the real-life Ames has. On the Coogan commentary, they explain that it didn't sound right when Allen did it, so they just had him use his own accent. Not to mention the quasi-commentary thing on Disc 2, where peter Hook, Rowetta, Miranda Sawyer and a few other people associated with the film sit in a bar and are filmed commenting on the film.

[SimonJT]

I like The Simpsons ones - I'm a total Simpsons nerd, and these were my first introductions to commentaries, and they're just perfect for me. Really funny and interesting. Obviously there are about 300 by now, and there must be around 100 participants, so I guess the quality varies, but not that much. My favourite participantts are Matt Groening, George Meyer, Jon Vitti, David Silverman, Rich Moore, Conan O'Brien, Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein, Greg Daniels, David X Cohen and David Mirkin (among others). I like Mirkin's commentaries so much that I'm tempted to buy his movies (which don't look like my kind of thing), just for the commentaries. Obviously I like the Futurama ones too.

Other than that, the writers' commentary for IAP is just brilliant - pretty much my 3 favourite comedy people being funny and informative for three hours.

[kidsick5000]

Futurama commentries are wonderful especially when they have Maurice LaMarche in.

Jack Nicholson's solo commentary on Antonioni's The Passenger is a perfect accompaniment to a film with very little dialogue. It is, according to him one of his favourite film and it shows in his enthusiasm. But he's full of anecdotes and behind the camera revelations all told in his laaaaid baaack delivery. Perfect for a meandering travelogue.

Mr Show commentaries are fascinating just to see how racked with doubt Bob Odenkirk is. David Cross and most of the others are fine and entertaining, but Odenkirk is still really critical over whether sketches worked or not, which is bizarre considering they're popular enough to warrant a DVD box set.

Not a fan of the film historian commentaries on older films though.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Verhoven's commentary on Starship Troopers is well worth a listen.  He talks a lot about the fascism references he sticks in, about how he remembers the Nazis parading on his street as a boy in Holland, and states the message of the movie is "war makes fascists of us all".  (But that many critics assumed any irony in the film was accidental.)  He also talks about how big a mistake the Denise Richards character was, about how they thought they were writing a feminist character but the audiences all hated her and wanted her to die, meaning they had to massively tone her down.  Oh yeah, and "every rumour you've heard about the shower scene is true".

Oh yeah, the commentary on Dog Soldiers is quite entertaining too, as it largely consists of the cast and director getting pissed.

[bloogoon]

I don't normally bother with the commentaries on DVDs but Brian Cox (the particle physicist not the original Hannibal Lecktor) does a really good one about the science and the fiction of Sunshire. He does go on a bit about  Danny Boyle basing the Cillian Murphy charactor on him though.

[Ignatius_S]

Royal Flash as commentary with Malcolm McDowell and a film historian (can't remember his name), which is rather good and is made rather charming as it's clear that the former haven't seen it since it came out. There are some nice anecdotes about the films and beautiful tangents, such as when Bob Hoskins appears, McDowell mentions how he used to work with Ken Campbell and says how wonderful Campbell was.

Alex Cox does good commentaries, especially if you're interested in the actual process of film making.

The Shield has some good commentaries – but the ones that are most interesting I found are for deleted scenes, where Shawn Ryan talks about why they were left out.

Inspired by this excellent AV Club article:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/now-with-extra-farts-25-12-gimmicky-dvd-commentary,47021/...

I'm pretty sure that AV Club has a series about commentaries on DVDs of bad films. I should have checked before typing, rather than after, as indeed it does.

From the ones I read ages ago, some of the commentators were treated quite kindly – for example, because they knew that the film had turned out to be a turkey and discussed what went wrong and why.

Verhoven's commentary on Starship Troopers is well worth a listen... states the message of the movie is "war makes fascists of us all".  (But that many critics assumed any irony in the film was accidental.) ..

I think a problem there was that the message was totally lost on a lot of the audience.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

But that was one of the things that was so good about it!  The attack on the hollywood war machine was so subtle many people missed it altogether.

[Goldentony]

Agree with the Evil Dead commentaries. The first DVD has two with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi/Tapert seperately which is a shame because together they probably would have played really well off of each other as proven in the 100% certified fucking amazing watch with commentary more than without Evil Dead II.

Seond favourite set of commentaries belong to the Naked Gun box set. All really really fun and whilst not exactly filled with technical knowledge the first two are genuinely as funny as the movies themselves.

I do really love commentaries but those are the only two I really revisit. I'm a big fan of the TV adaptation of IT, and since you never hear anyone from that movie talking about it it's good to sometimes stick that in and hear about the making of the thing, but at 3 hours long and it being a cut and paste job it's kind of disappointing. The actors do really well but their mood is a big 180 to the directors part of the commentary who seems very serious about discussing the film

Terrible as Total Recall's commentary is too, it's maybe worth a go just once, especially if you're in need of audio description

[NoSleep]

Agree with the Evil Dead commentaries. The first DVD has two with Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi/Tapert seperately which is a shame because together they probably would have played really well off of each other as proven in the 100% certified fucking amazing watch with commentary more than without Evil Dead II.

"Say hello to Papa!!"

I'm the same, regarding the Evil Dead II commentary frequency ratio.

[Famous Mortimer]

My favourite is probably "C.H.U.D.", a gem of an 80s horror film about the bad things that lurk beneath New York. actors Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Christopher Curry, plus director Douglas Cheek and writer Shepard Abbott just have a whale of a time ragging on the cheapness of the film, the producer (who none of them liked, apparently) and inventing a whole new subplot for it when things start to drag. They have love for it, clearly, but it's just so much fun to listen to.

I will be giving the joke commentary for "Talladega Nights" a go tonight, then I'll watch the first season of Mr. Show with the commentary enabled, as I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[babyshambler]

My favourite is probably "C.H.U.D.", a gem of an 80s horror film about the bad things that lurk beneath New York. actors Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Christopher Curry, plus director Douglas Cheek and writer Shepard Abbott just have a whale of a time ragging on the cheapness of the film, the producer (who none of them liked, apparently) and inventing a whole new subplot for it when things start to drag. They have love for it, clearly, but it's just so much fun to listen to.

I will be giving the joke commentary for "Talladega Nights" a go tonight, then I'll watch the first season of Mr. Show with the commentary enabled, as I've heard nothing but good things about it.

I also love C.H.U.D! I had to watch it after seeing Tom Green do a bit down in a sewer where he feared the C.H.U.D! I only have it on VHS though, so an upgrade is what I need. I should add, C.H.U.D 2:Bud the CHUD is to be avoided.

[Famous Mortimer]

Talladega Nights  was fantastic. Adam McKay and supporting actor Ian Roberts (who is, I think, one of the original Upright Citizens Brigade people, and a skilled improv comedian) talk about the film. They spent $3 million to have Sean Penn in the background in one scene; they mixed cocaine into the petrol to give it extra oomph; they filmed interior scenes from a specially built stage being towed by a helicopter flying over India...and so on. Frequently hilarious and certainly never boring.

There's a real commentary somewhere on there, but it's hidden as an easter egg, apparently.

[chand]

I like The Simpsons ones - I'm a total Simpsons nerd, and these were my first introductions to commentaries, and they're just perfect for me. Really funny and interesting. Obviously there are about 300 by now, and there must be around 100 participants, so I guess the quality varies, but not that much. My favourite participantts are Matt Groening, George Meyer, Jon Vitti, David Silverman, Rich Moore, Conan O'Brien, Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein, Greg Daniels, David X Cohen and David Mirkin (among others). I like Mirkin's commentaries so much that I'm tempted to buy his movies (which don't look like my kind of thing), just for the commentaries. Obviously I like the Futurama ones too.

The great thing about the Simpsons and Futurama ones is that the writers are total nerds, and most of them will come to a commentary recording having just re-watched the episode, so that it a) jogs their memory about scenes and anecdotes relating to the ep and b) so that they don't sit there watching the episode silently and occasionally piping up to say "oh, haha, we're just watching it! We should say something!", which is always death.

The worst thing in a commentary is when someone comes in who would never listen to a DVD commentary, fails to understand the point of it or why anyone else would, starts off with some rambling shit about how no-one's going to be listening, then just watches the episode with the occasional embarrassed interjection. The Simpsons and Futurama ones have mercifully little of that.

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

Love the tags in this thread.

[Harpo Speaks]

There was a commentary that Adam & Joe played clips of in the 'Crap Commentary Corner' segment of their XFM show once, where they had an expert of some kind who was aggressively berating the inaccuracies of the particular film - can anyone remember what it was?

I'm thinking possibly a Submarine film?

[chand]

One of the weirder bits of commentary I've heard was Mark Lamarr on 15 Storeys High. He helped write it but never saw any of it filmed and had never watched it until he sat down to do the commentary. If I remember rightly he says he never wanted to watch things he's only been partly involved in because it won't be done the way he envisioned in his head, so the commentary is basically him sounding tremendously disappointed at how the whole thing turned out, saddened that it was nothing like what he thought he was writing.

[uncle_rico]

(Big Trouble in Little China, for me, where Carpenter and Russell sounded like they couldn't be bothered to be there).

Really?  I thought that was generally regarded as one of the most entertaining ones.  I quite enjoyed it myself, though Kurt Russell comes across as though he likes the sound of his own voice at times (same with the Used Cars commentary).

[Steve Lampkins]

There was a commentary that Adam & Joe played clips of in the 'Crap Commentary Corner' segment of their XFM show once, where they had an expert of some kind who was aggressively berating the inaccuracies of the particular film - can anyone remember what it was?

I'm thinking possibly a Submarine film?

This?

The Sum Of All Fears

However, a second commentary is a nothing short of a knockout. Robinson is joined by author Tom Clancy, who proves to be a particularly tough critic. He begins the commentary by saying, "I'm Tom Clancy, the guy who wrote the book they ignored." It just gets harsher from there. Clancy is eager to point out every single instance in which Robinson made a technical mistake, which is often painfully funny. "Ha...those people would never say anything that pointless." "This scene is childish." "That thing you did there...that's total bulls—t." One of my favorite exchanges:

Clancy: Is that supposed to be a bomb or a torpedo?
Robinson: It's a bomb.
Clancy: Huh. You've got all the dimensions completely wrong.
Robinson: Wait...actually, no, it's a torpedo.
Clancy: The dimensions are still way off.

Clancy begrudgingly acknowledges a few small moments that he thought were nice, but mostly is content to sit back and take huge swipes at Robinson's work. After a while, Robinson starts becoming so fearful of Clancy's criticisms that he becomes quick to try and point out any possible technical flaws in each scene before Clancy can beat him to it. However, you can also sense him getting genuinely pissed off as things proceed, which can be particularly heard in one moment:

Clancy: You know, the President in the book was based on Michael Dukakis. Left-wingers are actually more likely to turn to nuclear weapons as a last resort, because they tend to get themselves backed up against a wall and then have nothing left to do. Right-wingers tend to catch that sort of thing earlier. I'm not saying that for political reasons, I'm just saying that tends to be the case more often than not.

Robinson (in a cold and extremely harsh manner): Oh, I will be glad to debate that point with you at some other time...sir.

[Harpo Speaks]

This?

That's the one - I obviously remembered the 'Torpedo' mention. Hehe, great stuff.

[SteveDave]

Listening to the Spaced commentaries used to be my hangover cure. "That's a pint of vodka...her regular daily dose"

[Tom Pynchon's Photo]

The DVD commentary for "The Passenger" was interesting. This is a Jack Nicholson art film dating back to 1970something and Nicholson does the commentary. And in it he tells us how whenever he is London he meets up with his old friend Ian Hendry and has to remind him they were in that film together.

ian hendry died back in 1984.

[NoSleep]

Amnesia is a side-effect of dying.

[Pepotamo1985]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5h9ZPBuBEs

[Artemis]

SBC's commentary with Larry Charles on Bruno makes the film really interesting and enjoyable. They keep having to pause what's happening on screen so they have time to tell the story of how they did it, and what actually happened. As such, the commentary is something like half an hour longer then the film itself (on the BD release).

[Rolf Harris]

The commentary on the very first Saw film is worth a listen. James Wan (the director) is incredibly fucking annoying, cracks painfully unfunny jokes and constantly laughs in his stupid surfer-dude voice, but Leigh Whannell (the writer) comes across as a pretty funny guy, and does a thoroughly hilarious Cary Elwes impression.