DVD Extras Made Me Love/Hate This Person - Page 2

I quite enjoy the asshole-ness of his nature (and got to see it personally on the set of The Hunted when I was an extra in Portland), but the excruciating thing is him just describing what's on screen the whole movie. "...and here we see Merrin going up the stairs, to the room where a little demon possessed girl is waiting..."

Fun stuff!

Maybe I was really desperate for something to listen to, but I thought Burton came off interesting enough in the Batman Returns commentary. I agree he is generally the worst commentator... Am I crazy (for thinking the BR commentary is OK)?

Armageddon is required listening. Bay and some other dude are taking the movie way to seriously, Affleck is on there making fun of everything in the movie. Its great.

Best part of the Armageddon commentary; As the end credits scroll to its final line, JUST as the movie is about to end completely, after nobody on the commentary has talked for a while, you hear Bruce Willis quietly mutter, "God bless America."

I must echo the Ben Affleck comments. Fried gold.

And related to the Shaun/Hot Fuzz commentary praise (Nick Frost's contribution being the highlight of these), I want to throw out some love for the Big Train DVD commentary tracks by Graham Linehan, Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon and Mark Heap. Some really funny stuff in there, just reinforcing my opinion of how great these guys are.

I've always liked Soderbergh, but goddamn the Schizopolis/Limey commentaries gave me a newfound respect for him. Particularly on the latter where the writer is constantly bitching about the changes he made to his flick, and without batting an eye Soderbergh is brushing it off with the most awesome nonsequitors and basically making the dude look like a whiny crybaby.

That reminds me, I have yet to get through any of the over abundance of extra features of my LOTR dvds. Not that I'm complaining. It was a good deal.

Just spent some time going over the new Spaced commentaries featuring the 'American' guest commentators. I'd listened to them before a while back, but I forgot how fun these ended up being despite my initial misgivings about having the guests at all.

Wright, Pegg, and Stevenson simply have TOO great a camaraderie with all of the guests for it not to be good.

I think I came to love Edgar Wright even more as he started going off about the way the original broadcasts of the show had endings ruined due to some BBC douche announcing, "NEXT... ON FRASIER! NILES HAS ANOTHER PROBLEM!!!" to which Wright would scream, "SHUT THE FUCK UUUUUUUP!!!!!!!" with Bill Hader cracking up in the background.

Burton has actually gotten worse at commentaries. I'm not sure why he does them, really, since he seems to believe (like Spielberg, who doesn't do them) that the movie should speak for itself, and what the filmmaker has to say is extraneous. His commentaries these days come across as stammering nonsense from a man who literally doesn't want to say anything. They're painful.

I rewatched Sweeney Todd the other day, and was tempted to listen to the commentary. Then I remembered the pain of the Planet of the Apes commentary, and just sent the disc back to Netflix. Life is too short.

The Spider-Man commentaries are a disappointment as well. Raimi just talks about what a great job everybody did, which is one of my peeves on these things. On the plus side, I liked Kirsten Dunst on the first one, and especially Toby Maguire on the second. And he agreed with me that the final shot of the second film was reminiscent of The Graduate, so I have to like him now. He knows his shit.

That's very disappointing. Since Raimi admits himself to more like an entertainer/craftsman, I would hope that he'd go more into the development of the story and working with an old-school screenwriter like Alvin Sargeant (if he actually works WITH him at all...) in terms of structure and the like.

I love everyone involved with The Shield after the commentaries. Such a great bunch of people who loved their job and loved the show.

There's a little bit at the end of the last episode of season 1, if you let it run past the credits. It's Shawn Ryan and Michael Chicklis, both bald as dreams, hanging out...somewhere. They say thanks for watching, hope you had a good time and then Ryan says, "Stay tuned for next season where Mackey finds religion, starts helping people and not longer beats up criminals."
"What? Really?"
"Nah, just kidding."

It was just such a silly little thing to tack on, I catch it every time I watch that episode.

As silly as it sounds, Bruce Campbell should be involved with any commentary track Raimi ever participates in, posing questions about whatever film they're watching, bullshitting, etc.

Just listen to the Evil Dead II track, those two are bouncing off one another. You can see the "wild and crazy" Raimi there.

What I particularly liked about the Evil Dead 2 track was Campbell's "Sam and Rob are going to lie to you on their track, but I'm here to give you the straight dope" angle.

Always laugh at the bit where Raimi talks about taking Bruce out back and slapping him a couple times after "crying in front of the crew and embarrassing everyone."

But of course you're going to act differently with someone you've known your whole life. That's what's great about the Evil Dead 2 commentary, we're getting to see interactions between old friends.

It was a small moment, but back on the first Spider-Man dvd, after Uncle Ben's funeral, and Tobey is sitting on his bed, eyes welling up with tears. The commentary track is silent, and Raimi dryly, solemnly says "Just before we rolled on this scene, I told Tobey his name would not be above the title."

Gems from the Evil Dead 2 commentary track:

Bruce: Now see, right here you can see Ash telling it like it is, he knows the scoop.
*onscreen, Campbell takes a Shatner-esque pause.*
Sam: Yeah, he's trying to remember his lines.

*onscreen, demon Ash rips a screen door off its hinges*
Sam: Really milking that screen door, aren't you Bruce?
Bruce: That was my screen test.
Sam: You wanted more screen time.

*old lady Deadite's head becomes a giraffe monkey thing*
Sam: ....this is so bizarre...

The Evil Dead 2 commentary is plain gold. I can't pop in my dvd without listening to it. One of my favorite bit's is Raimi's talk about his signature car. "That car's as healthy as the day it came out of the Ford factory! Trouble is it's an Oldsmobile."

I found Tim Burton's commentary on Pee-Wee's Big Adventure to actually be a good listen and not boring at all. Although that's the only commentary of his I've heard.

McTiernan just puts me to sleep.

He's with Paul Reubens though, correct? He's much worse when he's flying solo.

I know family guy isn't too popular around here, but the "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" commentary track is pretty funny. Seth macfarlane and Ricky Blitt really lay into fox for canning the episode because of some jewish jokes. Made me respect them some more because they pretty much call Fox exec's cowards.

Listening to the South park mini commentary tracks made me realize trey and matt can be incredibly down to earth one moment and completely arrogant and full of shit the next. Guess it depends on how much I agree with them on the topic they're discussing.

Glancing at this thread, I just wanted to note that the argument that commentary tracks don't let the movie speak for themselves is bullshit. I mean, if it's a movie that's open to interpretation and meaning, nobody says you have to explain your position. I personally think there's a lot of untapped potential in a commentary track, because you can do whatever you want, as long as it involves sound. If you were a director, you could talk solely about how you felt watching the performances come off the page. You could talk about day-to-day set incidents. You could talk about the genesis of yourself as a filmmaker and how you came to write and direct the picture. You could even just compose music that the final product inspired in you, and/or license and play tracks that inspired the movie. The commentary is a tool designed to enrich the audience about something relating to the film it's playing over, and yet nobody seems inspired enough to try to stretch or bend the format and create something fascinating.

That said, ironically, most of the commentaries I've heard and enjoyed were just amusing group tracks with lots of entertaining back-and-forth: Evil Dead II, Re-Animator (cast/producers), Freaked, UHF, Cannibal!, Airplane!, Mallrats, anything with Pegg/Wright/Frost.

I admire the Wachowskis for including that baleful critics' commentary with their big boxed set of The Matrix Trilogy. I also found a great love for Val Kilmer thanks to the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang track. I already liked RDJ and Kilmer a lot, but I now want Val Kilmer to be my father. Or uncle. Or whatever. He rules.

As much as I despise MacFarlane, he gained my respect with his commentary for "Movin' Out (Brian's Song)" where he called out The Simpsons staff (particularly Al Jean) and the blatant hypocrisy of the network.

He called out the Simpsons staff for what now?

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

He explains it better than I can.

Innnnteresting! Thanks for the link. I make no attempt to hide my utterly irrational contempt for Family Guy, but still, that certainly wasn't fair.

Really interesting was the female writer who calls out how bad The Simpsons got and admits it took her some time to get used to Family Guy's broadness.

The Eastbound and Down commentaries make you realize that Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Ben Best, and David Gordon Green are just as funny and down to earth guys as you could hope.

A fun activity is the following blitzkrieg of accents:

Paul Verhoeven in Starship Troopers and Verhoeven and Schwartzenegger on Total Recall

and then Wolfgang Petersen on Air Force One.

What's interesting to note is the very similar way in which the two directors talk about special effects (what's 'real' and 'not real' in a scene). it can get slightly annoying when the director is in the middle of some interesting anecdote or bit of trivia but then slips into this listing cadence of what's fake or not.

also, seconding the love for Kurt Russell and John Carpenter commentaries.

Ben Burtt. Boy, does this guy seem to hate John Williams and the music that "ruin" his sound effects.

My favorite part of that commentary is when they both realize they haven't really talked about what's going on in the film for a good 45 minutes or so.

Seeing the David Twohy introduction to Chronicles Of Riddick DC showed me what a weeeeeird guy he is, with a somewhat unsettling voice. But then, seeing him doing video rehearsals and other behind the scenes stuff on the Below DVD made me realize what a creative and awesome guy he is. I'd work for him in a heartbeat.

Amazed (in a good way) how despite his insane-intelligence, Cronenberg never comes off as a snob in his commentaries. Maybe it's just me but he reminded me of your smart friend in high-school who had no problem letting you cheat off him.

I can't help but love Schwarzenegger after his Conan: The Barbarian commentary. He seems to have such fond memories of his early career. He is so excited to talk about everything. It's classic.

There's a funny moment in the commentary during the barbarian camp invasion scene that goes something like this:

Milius: "...and I used wolf pelts and steel here as signifiers of both the fragility and durability of man - "

Arnold: "Look at Thulsa Doom eyes! He's controlling her with his eyes!"

Milius: "...uh, yes, his eyes. Anyway, you'll see Conan later re-emerge from the cave wearing the pelts of - "

Arnold: "HIS EYES! HE'S TOTALLY CONTROLLING HER!"

Just watched Juno with the Reitman/Cody commentary. I already liked the film before (mostly for the Bateman/Garner stuff), but by listening to the great rapport between the two, I came to really like them as well as coming to appreciate the film more.

No, I wasn't one of those Cody haters.

Chris Claremont has some sit-down interviews on one of those DVDs for the old X-Men cartoon series. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. But then again, given his writing, I'm not sure what I was expecting.

Chris Claremont is a furry I am 80% sure.

Did he speak in a series of charming and diverse accents?

The actual pre-commentary screen in The Matrix was the tipping point for me to actually dislike the Wachowski brothers. I'm paraphrasing it:

We always dislike how commentaries for films always have the actors and the directors talking about their experiences during filming. That's so boring and uneventful. So instead of that, we're giving you two commentaries. One of which will be a commentary with Philosopher Guy and Black Studies Guy. The other one will be Critic Who Disliked Our Movie 1 and Critic Who Disliked Our Movie 2. We're sure you'll enjoy these commentaries.

I don't think I've gotten more than 15 minutes through any of the Matrix commentaries for that exact reason.

EDIT:

On a postitive note, Kurt Russell and JC in The Thing's commentary is excellent. I love the bit when you can tell that Kurt cannot wait for the moment where Palmer says "you gotta be kidding me, and he laughs like mad when it plays.

I was listening to a commentary on The Shield season 7 dvd, and there's a bit where David Rees Snell is asked about the evolution of his character, and he's totally upfront about being too passive in waiting for big moments or storylines coming to him early on, and comments that "in the first few seasons, I think my moustache brought more to the team than I did."

I liked the guy well enough anyway, but that showed a sense of humor and self-awareness that really surprised me.

I just listened to the Talladega Nights commentary, and it's beyond brilliant. Nothing whatsoever to do with the film, but it's a pretty sharp satire on commentaries in general, especially pretentious ones. And they never drop character.

Adam McKay: I'm not saying this is the greatest movie, because there's a lot of films out there, whatever, but if you don't have Talladega Nights in, say, your Top Five, you have to be just a lunatic. I go Citizen Kane, something by Kurosawa, Fellini's 8 1/2, and then Talladega Nights.

John Amiel's articulate, attentive track for Entrapment is far better than his movie deserves.

Brad Pitt is one of the few actors who really seem to appreciate the collaborative aspects of filmmaking. Even his limited bit on True Romance is insightful.

Seriously? Because the Wachowskis are absolutely right. The cast/crew commentary is a really boring affair on that set. The Philosopher Commentary's awesome, and while the critics come off like spoiled brats, it's at least a far more interesting and ballsy idea that the brothers explaining it all.

I thought the philosopher/critic commentary tracks for The Matrix movies were fantastic. They were everything from insightful, funny, pretentious, to annoying. It was great.

You're talking to a guy who just started a thread saying if he could make one change to the history of cinema, it would be to remove some of the ambiguity from The Thing. Differing viewpoints are not his cup of tea.

The Tim Burton track for 'Big Fish' is the best one, mainly because it takes place as one long interview, and Burton is much more engaging that way. He's certainly a lot less boring anyway.

I've always loved that Conan track.

John Milius: Hi, I'm Arnold Schwarznegger
Arnie: And I'm John Milius...and if you believe that we got lots of little Richard Simmons running around tooAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

It's just the way that Arnie gets so excited by the concept of his own joke, he has to rush to finish it before he breaks down laughing.

The Region 2 Flash Gordon DVD has a commentary track with Brian Blessed! Man, I'd love to hear that.

I wonder if he is shouting on the commentary? Just like he tends to do in all of his movies?

"GORDON'S *ALIVE*!!!"


My favorite unintentionally-funny commentary is Arnold on the Terminator 3 track:

"This scene with the enlargement of the breasts was fantastic. You can deflate and inflate the breasts on command -- it's a whole new concept. Because there's some guys that like little breasts, and there's some guys that like big breasts...wouldn't it be nice if you can play both sides, you know, sometimes even simultaneously??"

Along the same lines, I'm fond of McKay and Ferrell's track for Anchorman, which is a fabulous sprawling mess full of guest appearances from random people who had nothing to do with the film, like Andy Richter and Lou Rawls.