Best commentary track

[soad]

What are best and coolest and most informative dvd commentary tracks ever?

[KyleG]

the extended lord of the ring's commentaries are top notch

[the ooze]

conan the barbarian...the governator rules and he clears his throat several times! pure genius

[RandalGraves]

I always love the Kevin Smith commentarys

[chinton]

Terry Gilliam commentaries are consistently brilliant.

[therealjohng]

Used Cars and El Mariachi are the best two I've ever heard.

[Monotreme]

The cast commentary on Boogie Nights is fan-TASTIC. Also, the commentary with Cameron Crowe and his mother on Almost Famous. In all, I usually find that commentaries with more than one person, and in particular cast commentaries, are usually the best kind of commentaries.

[reelfutures]

I know it is technically not a commentary track, as it is narration for the film. But I just love all of Herzog's commentary on the footage he collected and the process of putting together the history of Timmothy Treadwell in Grizzley Man .

Oh such a good movie! :)

[gyro_44]

Bruce Campbell's solo commentary on The Evil Dead makes me laugh every time.

[the ooze]

i kinda hate to mention this here at this site as everyone should already know this i mean it is on everyones top ten list....but the commentaries on fight club
especially when all 3 dudes are killin it!

[chasingbanky]

Nothing wrong with pushing a thread in the right direction... Fight club has amazing commentary.... I also love Robert Rodriguez's commentary... Desperado mostly. Also life aquatic commentary is good but had to hear.... I haven't watched a movie with commentary in forever.

[callmesnake]

John Carpenter and Kurt Russel-Escape from NY
John Carpenter and Kurt Russel-the Thing
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright- Shawn of the Dead
Elvis-Bubba-Ho-Tep
Bey Logan- (on to many Hong Kong Legends releases to mention)
Sir Christopher Frayling-(on various Leone flicks)

[zeppelin]

I say this in every one of these threads (of which there have been many), but I rarely listen to commentaries all the way through. What I'll usually do is jump to key scenes and listen to what they have to say about those particular moments, but in general, I find that most commentaries I've attempted to listen to are just self-indulgent and boring. It's often a way for filmmakers to show everyone how big their egos are. On the flip side, there are people who try so hard not to sound boring or pretentious, that they end up sounding just as bad on the other extreme. They try to tell all these stupid little stories that barely relate to the movie, trying way too hard to be funny or interesting. Ultimately, that's just as self-congratulatory as the people convinced that their movie is this big important work of art that needs to be analyzed to the bone.

The worst ones are the ones by "film scholars." Actually, I'll make that more specific: the ones by scholars specifically of the movie's director. Criterion likes to put these on a lot of their DVD's. As if listening to directors essentially masturbating to their own work wasn't bad enough, now we've got these people not even trying to sound interesting. There is absolutely no difference between these commentaries and essays written for film classes. Oh wait, yea there is: these are as long as the movies themselves, and are recitied by monotonous nobodies.

I have to strongly disagree with whoever mentioned Boogie Nights. PT Anderson comes off as being so full of himself that it's disgusting. Not just on his solo commentary, but on the one where he chats with the cast too. I mean, he's basically asking them "Don't you think I'm great?" the whole time. Just the fact that he felt the need to do TWO full commentaries for his movie speaks volumes of his ego.

That being said, the commentary on the collector's edition DVD of This is Spinal Tap is nearly as funny as the movie itself, which is saying a lot considering it's one of my top 10 movies of all-time. They do the whole thing in character. It's hysterical. Like the movie is a parody of the pomposity of rock stars, the commentary is actually a parody of commentary tracks, in a way.

Also, I started watching Roger Ebert's commentary for Citizen Kane, and found myself actually being interested in it enough to listen to the whole thing. He's informative without sounding like he's giving a lecture. Good guy. I don't know why I'd want to listen to it again (it'd be like reading over old essays I wrote when I was in high school), but it was worth listening to once, which is much more than I can say for most commentaries I've attempted.

And Monty Python does interesting ones too. Not analytical of their movies or self-important, and not just completely irrelevant (well, unless you count the "soundtrack for the lonely" or whatever on the Holy Grail DVD.)

[yorrick brown]

armageddon.

The Last Shot :matthew broderick is really funny plus the director brings up godzilla.

any kevin smith ones.

sum of all fears:the director defends the movie while tom clancy points out the errors.

[chasingbanky]

I'm going to have to disagree with you Zep. I think its more pretentious to not do a track than it is to do two tracks. I mean people (myself surely included) want to hear what actual filmmakers have to say on actual filmmaking. I can think of no better setting than their own film itself to discuss the subject. When QT movies come out and there isn't a track on there with him it really pisses me off that he thinks he can sell his DVD without putting any extra time into speaking to the fans in a manner of ways. I enjoy these tracks personally.

[Lazy Boy]

I love, love love the track for The Thing. You can tell Russell is having a great time looking back at all the crazy shit (for that day) Carpenter created in terms of the creature's transformation.

[Vong]

Originally posted by KyleG
the extended lord of the ring's commentaries are top notch

Definately my all time favorite, especially the Two Towers commentary of the actors. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monahan are fucking hilarious!

[EVILxxx]

Originally posted by Lazy Boy
I love, love love the track for The Thing. You can tell Russell is having a great time looking back at all the crazy shit (for that day) Carpenter created in terms of the creature's transformation.

Russel is great in all of his commentaries especially the older movies.
Bruce Campbell is also great.

[yorrick brown]

shaun of the dead and old school are good.

[ilovemovies]

Almost Famou: The Untitled Bootleg Cut with Cameron Crowe and a bunch of other people, including his mother. One of my favorites.

And if we were to include television, then the Alias season 1 or 2 finale (can't remember which one) that includes the entire ensemble cast.

Also, the commentary track to Frequency with brothers Tobey and Noah Emmerich. I had a blast with that one too.

[gyro_44]

Originally posted by Lazy Boy
I love, love love the track for The Thing. You can tell Russell is having a great time looking back at all the crazy shit (for that day) Carpenter created in terms of the creature's transformation.
Good call. I love the way Russell laughs his ass off at the goriest scenes.

[Kevin Smith fan]

The Anchorman track is decent, but my favorites are easily Spinal Tap and Mallrats.

[Tony_Montana]

Ali G and Ricky C on Ali G in da House. It's funnier than the fucking movie.

[bigred760]

I really liked Mel Brooks' commentary on Spaceballs; funny, informative, and just all around good stuff.

But the LOTR extended edition ones are the best.

[powersauce]

Martha Coolidge's Valley Girl commentary is interesting just for her explaining how she helped Modern English's "I Melt With You" become a big hit by it being on the soundtrack after the song originally flopped in the 1st place.

[LedZeppelin1114]

I think the Ben Affleck/Kevin Smith Jersey Girl commentary is infinitely better than the film is in my opinion.

[Cermond]

John Carpenter's and Kurt Russel's commentary on The Thing is absolutely hilarious. It seems they fad fun.:D

[yorrick brown]

windtalkers crap movie good commentary.
nic cage is odd but in a goodway:p

[Pride]

I realy like the commentrary on Arrested Development not only because the actors themselves are funny, but because the creator talks about the little things which make the show so enjoyable.

[Kevin Lockard]

I said this awhile back that the commentary track between John McTiernan and Production Designer Jack Degovia for Die Hard is one of the best tracks I've ever heard. Both men are extremely intelligent by the sound of it. I thought McTiernan especially made a great point wiht that "drama in geography" issue he brought up around the part where the two guys (Marco and Franko, I believe) are setting up that C-4 on the rooftop as Argyle is talking on the phone in the back of his limo.

[DrJellyfingers]

Originally posted by LedZeppelin1114
I think the Ben Affleck/Kevin Smith Jersey Girl commentary is infinitely better than the film is in my opinion.

yeah, I just listened to that. good commentary.

[Derek237]

Evil Dead II. It's funny, it's informative, and all the participants have really great chemistry and it makes the 'commentary experience' all the more enjoyable. It's great how they've made the commentary more like a whole other level of entertainment rather than just some boring fact track or something.

[Tuukka]

I'm drawn to commentaries where I get insight on how and why the film was made like it was. So commentaries where director talks just himself tend to be the best. I also like director/editor combos and director/cinematographer combos, since the emphasis always tends to be on the why's and how's of the filmmaking process. Producers tend to be completely useless, since they rarely seem to have anything insightful to say.

Ridley Scott for example tends to make excellent commentaries, as does Rodrizuez. I recently watched Solaris commentary with Sodenbergh and Cameron, and it was great, as two very different filmmakers reflected their thoughts on the film. Cameron originally wanted to make an epic action movie out of it, but he really loves Sodenbergh's version, which he produced.

Personally I dislike commentaries where the filmmakers simply explain the plot. I've already seen the film, I don't need a breakdown of the plot. X-files The Movie was awful in this sense. Too many writer commentaries are guilty of this - I would be more interested of how and why the script was written like it was, instead of hearing the writer talk about his theories and interpretations of the story.

I'm not too hip on group commentaries, since they usually consist of people just making fun of each other, or complimenting each other.

And unfortunately some filmmakers, like Polanski, have a pretty bad speech manner or accent, which makes it hard to listen to them for two hours straight.

[Elementmorgan]

ANY of the commentaries on ANY of the seasons on ANY of the episodes of "The Simpsons".

Any of Kevin Smith's , especially Clerks.