Best/Worst Commentaries

I'm a big fan of the Mallrats commentary. Similar to Shaun, it's just a bunch of guys hanging out and having fun. Affleck is even funny in it. The original Donnie Darko commentary with Kelly and Gyllenhaal is really good too. Gyllenhaal's impersonation of Christopher Walken playing Frank is priceless.

I was very dissapointed in Spike Lee's commentary on Bamboozled. I really like the movie, but his commentary bored me to tears, so I ended up turning it off.

Yeah, the Shaun of the Dead commentary is one of the best. My favorite part is during the cast commentary when they all start doing impressions of Al Pacino. "I've got an idea. I CRY."

The cast commentary for all the Lord of the Ring's films are pretty good. Though the Jackson/Boyens/Walsh commentaries are quite engaging.

Also, Guillermo Del Toro's commentary for Blade 2 is hilarious. Commentaries for anything Pixar are good, too.

Worst commentary ever? Hmmm....that is a tough question. So far if the movie has interested me, then the commentary has interested me. I've heard that Tim Burton commentaries are not that great...but I've never actually listened to one so I wouldn't know.

Mel Brooks' commentary on Spaceballs was horrendous. He hadn't seen the movie in years and it just quit about 2/3 of the way through.

I used to enjoy the funny ones, but despite stuff like MALLRATS, I usually get bored of them really quickly. What I heard of Wes Anderson's on THE LIFE AQUATIC was good, but recording it in a cafe instead of a studio was a pretty poor choice, I felt. Fun concept, shitty execution. Ridley Scott's commentaries are ace, especially the original pre-quadrilogy ALIEN one. That makes me wish even more for a BLADE RUNNER SE.

If you have the movie and have never watched the commentary you owe it to yourself to listen the Carrot Top commentary track on Rules of Attraction. He's watching the movie for the first time and doesn't even seem like he's ever seen it. It's possibly the funniest thing I've ever heard (yeah, I know I'm talking about Carrot Top).

A similair and equally hilarious track is Tom Green's on Freddy Got Fingered if only because he chokes on his coffee swizzle stick about halfway through it.

As far as tracks that are actually good: A. Roger Ebert's on Citizen Kane B. Ed Norton, Brad Pitt, and David Fincher on Fight Club (except for when Helena Bonham Carter butts in) The Seven track is also very good but Morgan Freeman's a bit of a bore C. PT Anderson's solo commentary on Boogie Nights (not the one with Mark Walberg who comes off like a jerk) D. Any track involving John Carpenter and Kurt Russel

There's also a very special place in my heart for Steve Zahn making truck noises during Joy Ride.

I realized that I didn't mention any bad ones. Tim Burton's are terrible. Across the board.

I don't listen to as many of these as I used to when I first got a DVD player but some of the better ones that come to mind:

-Verhoeven and Arnold on TOTAL RECALL: No need to understand them, you'll enjoy listening anyway.

-Val Kilmer on SPARTAN: He has a very dry sense of humor that might turn some off, but I dug it.

-John Carpenter and Kurt Russell on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK: Their friendship completely comes through.

-Anthony Hickox on STORM CATCHER: This is a DTV Lundgren flick, and not one of his best, but Hickox did a great job of describing what goes into making a film like this. He's brutally honest at times and shares a lot of the secrets that guys like him use to try and make his films look a little more expensive than they actually are.

-Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn on SWINGERS/MADE: Both pretty funny and shows off their sense of humor well.

-Quentin Tarrantino on TRUE ROMANCE: It sucks that he doesn't do them for the films he makes because this was a good listen.

In terms of TV DVDs I always enjoy the commentaries on "The Simpsons" discs. It will be interesting how those sound when they eventually get to the seasons that blow.

As for the biggest letdown on a commentary I'd say it's John McTiernan's track for DIE HARD. If I can't find him interesting while discussing my all time favorite film I can't imagine what it would be like to hear him do a track for something like BASIC.

I know I'm sad for saying this, but the commentary track on Dude, Where's My Car? is pretty funny

I'm quite the fan of the drunken commentary by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and friends that appears on the Cannibal: The Musical disc.

Some of the best:

The Way of the Gun, two friends (Director and Composer) making each other laugh, asking questions, and releaving information you want to know about the movie.

King of New York, Abel Ferrara's commentary is priceless, especially the acoustic guitar song he does at the end.

Fight Club, the commentary between Palahniuk and the screenwriter is great, theres a real respect and understanding they have together, and you can tell that Chuck feels the same way I do about the film. That it is better than the book, it expands on it, and the changes are improvements.


Some of the worst:

Snatch, at least at first, they were just naming the actors on screen, it got a little better, but it was one of those were the two don't get along well during it, like the commentary from The Limey, so that can be distracting.

Starship Troopers, I love the film, but when Verhoven just kept yelling "real, fake, real, fake" I turned it off, I'll have to start from after that point again some day.

Time n Tide, I love Tsui Hark, love his films, especially this film, but here his commentary is horrible. He will being telling you a story, something you really want to know the end to, and then he will comment on what's happening currently on the screen and never return to the earlier topic, so frustrating.

P.S. I still have many commentary to listen (all the LotRs movies and all of Alien quad, and more, so...) to in my ever changing collection of 200 or so dvds, and recently I haven't even been checking out extras, so I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I'm about half way through.

Best: Spinal Tap in character from the MGM release. It's almost as good as a sequel.

Worst: Masters of the Universe. Dude takes it way too seriously.

All of Arnold's commentaries are some of the most entertaining and memorable. Also, Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead commentaries are some of the funniest shit i ever heard. Belive it or not...the commentary for CHUD was actually pretty decent too. It was surprising to learn that Daniel Stern & John Heard were never paid anything for that film. return Of The Living Dead was pretty funny and informative.

Bad Ones: I am very dissapointed with Lucas' Star Wars commentaries. All tech talk, minimal discussion of anything else actually interesting.

that's all i can think of for now

The best: Kurt Russell and John Carpenter on "The Thing". Informative, funny and interesting. You can really tell these guys are friends. Also Michael Mann's commentary on "Collateral" is great. Completely bullshit-free and intelligent.

The worst: Sorry to say, but Ernest Lehman's commentary track on the "North by Northwest"-DVD put me to sleep.

Tarantino on True Romance is indeed great.

I like Roger Ebert on Dark City.

I'll have to check out The Way of the Gun.

I haven't heard the whole thing, but I rather enjoyed what that guy had to say. "See that? It's bending time. IT'S BENDING TIME!"

BEST- Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn. Hilarious and informative.

WORST- Resident Evil. I was kinda fond of Mila Jovavich until I heard her speak. Uggghhhhhh.

yeah, that SPINAL TAP commentry is awesome, that DVD is great too. it's like 3 different films, the original, the out-taken footage that's almost as long as the film, and the commentry - in charcater is brilliant.

for a different take, the RICKY GERVAIS standup disks have funny commentry too. "here's me on stage, telling a joke..."

Oh, HELL yes! That commenatry is one of the ones I have turned off because I couldn't listen to it. And I'm a big commentary freak so that's saying something.

Best: My $0.02 are always the same in this type of thread-Scott (both of'em)/Guillermo/Usual Suspects/Fincher.
I'm not sure if I usually mention Ebert on Casablanca, but that is one of my favorites. He knows a shitload of stuff and he so obviously loves the film. And Tim Burton is great but I guess The_Bodhisattva disagrees with me on that one.

Worst: Akiva Goldsman on A Beautiful Mind. A more smug and self-congratulatory commentary would be hard to find. He has written a stupid script about intelligence, and he doesn't have a clue! I have since listened to some other stuff he's done, and he's not that bad. He actually seems like a nice and smart enough guy. Too bad about that first one there...

The worst one I've heard is Spike Lee's for Summer of Sam, he just seems to stop talking for 10 minute chunks at a time and when he does talk it's so fucking droll...

See, every time I sit down to watch a movie with a commentary, I end up changing my mind and just watching the movie! I've been meaning to watch Seven Samurai with commentary, but I just end up turning it off to enjoy the film.

Ones I have viewed and enjoyed would be Ridley Scott's Gladiator track, Stephen Sommers on The Mummy, Terry Gilliam on Twelve Monkeys and the director/writer's commentaries for the first two LOTR films (haven't watched the third one yet).

Commentary I hated: The cast commentary for The Two Towers, due to Sean Astin's and Elijah Wood's interminable sucking up.

Best: Definitely Fight Club (Pitt, Finch, Nort), Usual Suspects (Singer, McQuarrie) , Spinal Tap (St Hubbins, Tufnel, Smalls) , Gladiator (Scott), Ghostbusters (Reitman, Ramis), The Man Who Wasn't There (Coens and Billy Bob - "Ed's got a boner!") The Incredibles (Bird) and Gods and Monsters (Bill Condon).

Worst: Gotta go with Summer of Sam. I love that film and I thought i'd enjoy listening to Spike Lee talking about it. Boy, is that guy high or just really slow? It must take him years to direct a scene...
"What don't you stand..... (2 minutes later) .... here."

Best commentary ever: Bruce Cambell as 'The King' on Bubba Ho-Tep.

The BEST commentary I've heard - One Crazy Summer with writer/director Steve Holland, Bobcat, and Curtis Armstrong ("Ack Ack" from the movie but better known as "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds). Its hilarious.

The cast commentaries on LOTR are great, largely because Dom Monahan and Billy Boyd play off each other so well. I would listen to them do commentaries to films they had nothing to do with together.

LOTR are definitely the best, I wish they could have had a separate commentary track for Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee, those guys have been in the business for over a century when you combine their experiences and had some really great insights. The Hobbits were funny, yes, and I enjoyed most of their BTS anecdotes, but I would have greatly preferred to hear Ian and Christopher more.

Worst: Star Wars, all of them, but especially the OT. For most of them they just cannabalized the documentaries that they had on the fourth disc and slapped the audio into a "commentary".

The director's commentary on Boogie Nights is up there with any that have been mentioned so far. It's beautiful--he's obviously inebriated, and you can even hear him eating chips and asking the interviewer for a cigarette toward the end.

But one of the best of all time that has yet to be mentioned is the wonderful commentary between Church and Giamatti for Sideways. Experience the chemestry between the two actors that made that movie so special. Oh yeah, and laugh your ass off while you're at it.

No, they're screen-specific. They just happen to retread upon stuff from the documentary.

The commentary on Equilibrium is very good, in case it hasn't been mentioned. Tons of good info in there.

Yeah, that was a good one. Wimmer sounds like a really cool guy.

At the end of the day, Equilibrium's was good.

Fight club has always been my favorite.

Surpisingly, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's is really damn good. Funny as hell, too. "Tell me the truth, you wrote this scene to get laid, didn't you?" The Donnie Darko track with Jake and the director (dammit, too lazy to remember or check imdb) is pretty entertaining as well. That's all I ask for in a commentary. That I be entertained. Oh, and the Frequency one. A great listen, plus he throws out his email address at the end and I sent him a email and got a response back. Pretty fucking cool.

Ghostbusters. First DVD I ever owned and first commentary I ever heard. Very funny. Very interesting. What makes it great is that the movie was made with no buzz, it was before the Internet, so the commentary told a lot of shit that has never really been told before. It's especially interesting if you watched it as a kid and took so much of it for granted.

does anyone know what films the guys from MST3K have done commentaries for? I thought i read once where they did one to Reefer Madness?

Best: Evil Dead 2. There are two different commentary tracks, one with Campbell and one with Sam and company. Good stuff.

Worst: Total Recall. I love the movie, but Arnold ruins the commentary. He doesn't say much, but every ten minutes or so pipes up with, "HA HA! THIS IS WHERE I SAY SOMETHING REALLY FUNNY!" Before seeing this, I'd always assumed he was actually a smart guy who just came across as a moron onscreen.


-AiV

Best:

Robert Altman on SECRET HONOR

CLERKS: THE ANIMATED SERIES (much funnier than the show itself)

STRANGERS WITH CANDY (Sedaris, Dinello, and Colbert on various episodes)

MONSTURD

any of the TV CARNAGE commentaries

I haven't heard that one, but Verhoeven is usually very astute.

I also love it when film historians go at it on a commentary track. Examples: Kagemusha (Criterion) and Once upon a time in the West both have fantastic commentaries (the OUATITW track has a lot of people on it, among them John Carpenter).

If you thought that was "bad," pop in the commentary Schwarzie does with Milius on CONAN THE BARBARIAN and listen in delight as your IQ bleeds out of your ears.

"JA! LOOK AT MY SWORD...IT'S FAHN-TAHS-TIC!"

Tons of good ones have already been mentioned, so I'll just add that one of my new favorites is the commentary on Anchorman. It's like a whole additional movie with Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, and lots of guests doing crazy bits. Highlights include Kyle Gass showing up and punching Ferrell, McKay trying to pitch terrible rip offs of Elf and Shrek, and the inexplicable pressence of Lou Rawls throughout a large portion of the commentary. There are actually like 3 movies worth of funny material on the two disc dvd release of that film. I'd also like to mention the commentaries on the Simpsons dvd sets. Pretty much all of those are fun to listen to.

don't forget Alex Cox!

Schickel's on a million commentaries, and none of them are very interesting.

Schikel's Unforgiven commentary is great. As is his Eastwood doc that accompanies it. A little dry in delivery, but he's a critic, not a performer and it's his thoughts I pay to hear, not his mannerisms or intonation. I'm perfectly able to rise above that.

John Boorman's commentaries are a joy. He can segue into technical discussions without coming off of as dry, and he has a seemingly limitless recall of details and anecdotes from the making of his films. The track on the recently released Point Blank with Steven Soderbergh is especially strong ("Lee Marvin threw the first script for this film out the window. Mel Gibson's Payback bears a strong resemblance to that script.")

I've listened to countless tracks and find many of them to be time well spent. A number are quite a chore, though, so it's hard to stand by the concept when discussing DVDs with casual movie fans. I will continue to be a commentary tack apologist, however.

GOOD:
Tim Burton, as has been stated, is exasperating, but I found that the pairing of he and Paul Reubens in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was enjoyable.

The Happy Tree Friends discs always have more than a few tracks worth listening to (though all the guys sound very similar).

Criterion's Beastie Boys Video Anthology contains numerous gems.

The Versus group commentary was fairly humorous.

In their own ways, I pretty consistently enjoy the following ramblers:
David Cronenberg
Guillermo Del Toro
Oliver Stone
Martin Scorsese
Terry Gilliam
Bill Condon
Joe Dante
John Favreau (especially when paired with Vince Vaughn)
John Carpenter (especially when paired with Kurt Russell)
and most of the more obvious funny guys others folks've mentioned here.


BAD:
Despite what most reviews would have lead me to believe, I was not thrilled with the Kung-Fu Hustle track.

The Seinfeld commentaries are worthless, contractual-obligation pap-fests, except MAYBE when Jerry laughs at the show (it's kind of infectious).

Similar disappointment will result in attempting to make it through Sealab tracks. Sorry, I'd rather not listen to you play videogames (though I found some humor in the couple that were simply one writer's recitation of grade-school fiction).

I love these guys but please take my word for it: Avoid Dennis Hopper's commentary for Easy Rider, all Mel Brooks tracks and, though it contains a few interesting tidbits, Friedkin's Exorcist track at all costs! They blank out for HUGE blocks of time and are almost consistently boring. Robert Zemeckis also often leaves me cold for the same reasons. For countless OTHER reasons, I despise all of the Star Wars tracks (mainly since it continues to affirm my stance that Lucas just keeps making awful shit up about that beloved galaxy).


Finally, perhaps a partial answer to Celtic_Frost's query as to the existence of MST3K member tracks: I've been contemplating picking up, just out of morbid curiosity, a disc I keep seeing at Best Buy (and other places and sites for similar prices) which boasts a colorized version (awful, I know) of Night of the Living Dead and features a commentary by Mike Nelson. Could be worth the Hamilton.

One unusual commentary I enjoyed was the one for Black Hawk Down by the guys who were actually in the operatiion. That was interesting.
Scorsese is usually pretty interesting.
The LOTR commentaries are variable. The Directors and writers commentaries are very good on all there discs.
The cast commentaries are great when Dom and BIlly are on,good when most of the other cast members are on, but go Downhill when Sean Astin is on. The guy hogs the commentary and cannot shut up.
The Technical commentaries are pretty dry unless you are really into the kind of thing.
I admit I am a sucker for when they get Historians to comment on a movie.
As to bad ones, the commentary for the remake of Dawn Of the Dead was pitiful. They tried way to hard to be cool as opposed to taking about the film,and when they did they repeated the same information time and time again.

BEST: Most commentaries by film historians and critics on classic movies are good, for two reasons.

First, these guys make a living from their words, so they are likely to be good. Second, they typically present a level-headed account because they have no vested interest in the movie. In this category, anything by Roger Ebert or Peter Cowie (the latter mostly on Criterion, particularly the classic Bergman titles) is usually good. Honorable mention -- Frankenheimer on Ronin.

WORST: Practically any commentary by a collection of members of cast and crew.

No matter how well they may start, before long the "you so wonderful in this scene" sycophancy will start. On top of that, the effects guy working towards his Ph.D. in Stating The Obvious will tell you, "This was a difficult visual FX shot to put together" (gee, until you said that, I honestly thought I was looking at a real dinosaur).


Milla Jovovich absolutely pulled Resident Evil 2 out of the trash by providing a hysterical commentary to it. I mean, the film itself is hardly worth talking about, but she and her co-star chime in with an irreverent commentary that managed to make the film almost watchable. Best part being the cigarette story.

I've said it before, but the Burt Ward / Adam West commentary on the 1966 Batman movie is one of my favorite commentaries. It's not laugh out loud hilarious, but it's great to see these two old guys come together after so long and still have that chemistry. There are some great behind-the-scenes anedotes, and even their fawning over other cast members is fun.

Adam West on Burgess Merideth's Penguin Nose: "and you know, it looks real."

I was a little disappointed in Charlie Kaufman's role as a commentator in Eternal Sunshine. I was expecting to hear very interesting things from him, but Michel Gondry did most of the talking, which makes sense seeing as he was the director. Still, I wanted more from Kaufman...but Gondry did a nice job, and once when he pointed out something that he appreciated, Kaufman just kind of..laughed. It was weird. I got the impression he was uninterested or didn't want to be there. Maybe I just need to watch it again.

That's one of the funniest commentaries ever though, unintentionally.

All Arnold says is:

"Yeah, I remember!" (no you don't, you were coked out of your mind).

and

"Fantastic!"

There's no snickering or condescention. Where do you get that from ? In fact, Boorman and Westlake didn't even meet until earlier this year on a stage at London's NFT for a restored screening of Point Blank. They seemed to hit it off immediately and Westlake was nothing but supportive and appreciative of Boorman's intepretation of what was always, he says, a pretty pedestrian screenplay. He also loved the Mel Gibson story, which is very funny to hear Boorman recount.