What Audio Commentary Have You Listened to Recently?

[Ryan K]

What DVD/Laserdisc audio commentaries from movies or TV shows have you listened to recently?

Personally in the last couple weeks I've listened to:

Batman The Animated Series Volume 2

I listened to all 4 audio commentaries on the episodes Robin's Reconing Part 1, Heart of Steel Part 2, Almost Got 'Im, and Harley and Ivy. Paul Dini, Bruce Timm and the usual guys did the commentaries and they were quite good. They really gave me a further appreciation for some things I glance right over when watching the episodes. I get so wrapped up in some episodes I forget that every little flip of a character's hair is a touch added by someone.

Hostel

I listened to the Eli Roth/Quentin Tarantino commentary a few weeks back. I would never be able to sit in a room with QT. He'd drive me crazy. Its one of those commentaries where the commentators like the movie a little too much. Its not high art. Still there's a bunch of funny anecdotes.

Clerks X

I listened to the audio/video commentary on the second disc. I'd already listened to the original commentary on my original Clerks DVD. A Kevin Smith audio commentary is always worth listening to in my book as they're usually hilarious. My only complaint is that a lot of the anecdotes are repeated on the documentary on the disc or elsewhere. But then how many times can you talk about this movie.

Superboy: The Complete First Season

I listened two both audio commentaries on this set on the episodes Revenge of the Alien Part 2 and Mr Mxyzptlk. Both were done by John Haymes Newton (Superboy) and Ilya Salkind. Newton is completely annoying and thinks he's hilarious. And Salkind sounds just about as annoyed with him as I was. Salkind sounds about 85 and rambles a lot (he also seems to think the show invented the idea of an evil character possessing a good character). Its interesting how they completely avoid the elephant in the room, that Newton got fired after this season. I would have liked to hear some commentary from some of the show's comic book writers.

[Sanagi]

Hmm, it's been a while, but the last commentary I listened to was for Stop Making Sense. It was great to hear David Byrne explain some of the weird ideas behind his songs and performances.

[Ontir]

Loggerheads & Bill T. Jone: the Promsied Land.

[Ryan K]

Brick

Great commentary track by the director Rian Johnson. Cast and crew pop in for a couple minutes at a time to also share. Its not a scene specific commentary, but instead Johnson talks a lot about his history, the journey of getting the film made, and about its influences (Hammett). If you loved the movie as much as I did, its very informative. Its not one of those commentaries with great funny anecdotes though.

Batman: The Animated Series Vol. 3 & 4 / Superman The Animated Series Vol. 2 & 3

12 or so commentaries with Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and therest of the DCAU staff. Most of these are very good and its nice to see they decided to do commentary on some of the more hated episodes like Critters. The video commentaries are cool, except they're moderated by a really annoying guy. Only complaint: not enough commentaries. I'd have liked to have seen commentary on Mad Love and a couple other Harley episodes and on some of the Superman TAS episodes with GL and Aquaman.

[KenK]

Predator

I had gotten the special edition (for both films) last year, but only listened to the commentary for the first film this past weekend. Let's talk about how uninteresting it is to hear John McTiernen speak! Aside from never being sure what he wants to say, I just can't stand the sound of his voice! Only Tim Burton's commentary on Batman tops it as one of the worst of I've ever heard!


Back to the Future I and II

Apparently, they couldn't get Robert Zemeckis for any of the commentaries (or any cast members for that matter), but hearing about the process of getting the films made through screenwriter/producer Bob Gale and producer Neil Canton, turned out to be incredibly engaging. A lot of comments about filming, the recasting of Marty (a few scenes had actually been shot with Eric Stolz before he was replaced by Michael J. Fox), how certain effects were done, etc. As you're watching certain scenes, and hearing them explain how they were done, you get a much better feel for all the work that had to go into making the film than in just watching the behind-the-scenes features.

[BoosterBronze]

Deadwood Season Two.
Swearengen and Trixie are a limey and a mick?!?! WTF!!!

[The Punished]

RoadHouse Audio Commentary by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier

This is a funny funny commentary that should have been done along time ago. They tell how they got involved and talk about the movie the normal viewing public view it. They state that this is a modern day western. I highly recommend it.

[Expletive Deleted]

The JUSTICE LEAGUE SEASON TWO commentaries. The "Starcrossed" installment is particularly good.

The VERONICA MARS SEASON ONE set doesn't have any commentaries, but the producer put up an audio file on his website that works as a commentary for the pilot episode. Start 'em both at the same time, and go to town. Good commentary, too. Informative.

[Cephus]

Last ones I remember were Big Trouble in Little China with Kurt Russell and John Carpenter (hysterical, they just keep going off on tangents) and War of the Worlds (1953 George Pal version) with Ann Robinson and Gene Barry. Oh, and Scary Movie 4 with David Zucker, which was really funny.

[The Batman]

the commentaries on the Batman, Superman and Justice League sets are all pretty interesting, especially the one on "Critters" which i appreciate a whole lot more now that the thought process behind it has been explained.

Tim Burton's commentaries are hit and miss. he's an interesting guy for sure, but he's not exactly the clearest of speakers, and that often makes for a less than enjoyable audio commentary. his one on Batman was interesting enough and i really enjoyed his commentary for Batman Returns but it was the Schumaker commentaries for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin that are the ones really worth watching IMO.

i really enjoy the film critic/film historian commentaries on older films whose creative contributors are no longer with us. the best IMO are the Roger Ebert commentaries for Citizen Kane and Casablanca while the commentary based on Dalton Trumbo's notes included with Criterion's Spartacus comes in at a close second.

the STAR WARS geek in me loves all the commentaries on the STAR WARS films of course.


the most recent films i've watched with the commentary on have been Kirosawa's Throne of Blood, THX 1138, and STAR WARS: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

[Sparvid]

Predator

I had gotten the special edition (for both films) last year, but only listened to the commentary for the first film this past weekend. Let's talk about how uninteresting it is to hear John McTiernen speak! Aside from never being sure what he wants to say, I just can't stand the sound of his voice! Only Tim Burton's commentary on Batman tops it as one of the worst of I've ever heard!

I haven't heard his Batman commentaries, but can they really be more boring than the one on Edward Scissorhands?! (On the other hand, I don't remember disliking the track on Sleepy Hollow...)

One of my all-time favorites is Verhoeven & Cast on Starship Troopers - I never get tired on it! :D

[Adrian Tullberg]

I liked the commentary on Love, Actually. They had Richard Curtis (director and writer), Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy and Thomas Sangster (the kid next to Liam Neeson.

Every time they had the nude scenes pop up, they'd shout things like 'For God's sake, cover his eyes!' or similar.

[KenK]

I haven't heard his Batman commentaries, but can they really be more boring than the one on Edward Scissorhands?! (On the other hand, I don't remember disliking the track on Sleepy Hollow...)

It's just two-hours of incomplete sentences!!! I can't remember him ending a single sentence, he just starts taking, then the words trail off into silence until he's ready to speak again!!

One of my all-time favorites is Verhoeven & Cast on Starship Troopers - I never get tired on it! :D

I'll be sure to check it out tonight.

[Loren]

One good and one bad.

The Weird Al Show

I've rented and watched the first disc so far, and while the show is disappointingly lame for the most part, the commentaries are hilarious. Al & company are fully aware of the lameness of their own show, and they pull no punches in sticking it to CBS for the censorship and network notes that forced them into the corner of creating, as Al puts it, "a show for nobody." The series may have been intended for kids, but the commentaries are definitely aimed at adult buyers.

Frankly, after watching one episode, I stuck to watching the commentaries first, and then rewinding to watch the non-educational stuff like Channel Surfing and the archive video clips, which tend to be legitimately funny.

The Producers

I watched about half an hour of Susan Stroman's commentary about a month ago. I gave up at that point because her commentary is, without doubt, the worst commentary track I've ever listened to. For all I know she had some neat information in there, but she is excrutiating to listen to. It really, really sounds like she scripted out everything she wanted to say, and then proceeded to simply read her notes for the commentary track. It's boring and uninvolving, and her voice is so flat that she sounds bored herself.

[cactusmaac]

Worst commentary I've heard was Richard Schickel's on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when he spent the entire length whining about the utter wastefulness of the Civil War.

[Dark Galaxy]

Worst commentary I've heard was Richard Schickel's on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when he spent the entire length whining about the utter wastefulness of the Civil War.


Castaway- Worst Commentary Ever.

Only one person was recorded at a time, and then it just cut to a specific person during a relevant scene. No entertainment value, and no new interesting knowledge gleaned from the experience. Sounded something like this:

"We put in those waves with CG." "We put that sound in with Foley." "The island was bigger, so we made it look smaller with CG." "There's the volleyball."

[Murrocko]

Batman: The Animated Seires Vol. 4 - I especially liked that the selected Critters as one to do commentary on

Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker - After listening to this one I really wish they had the time to add and finish everything they intended to.

Clerks: The Animated Series - Just funny stuff

[Magneto_X]

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Commentary by Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr and Milla Jolovich.

It seems Milla is extremely energenic and does all of her own stunts, including the martial arts scenes. She's actually kept training. Her martial arts abilities impressed all the cast (including Sienna and Oded!).

Sienna, OTOH, is a stone cold professional. While Milla is good at her work she remains very light hearted on set but Sienna is the opposite. She studied the games and took all the gun training seriously. And it paid off wonderfully!

Plus the accent Sienna uses in the movie is fake. Her real accent is Queen's English (ala Kate Beckinsale).

She's also very girlish, unlike Milla who is a tomboy. lol

[JeffreyWKramer]

The worst commentary I've ever heard was that for THE EXORCIST, by the director, William Friedkin. I'd expected a pretty good commentary, and instead what I got was, essentially, a dry description of each shot/scene, adding nothing to what I could already see on the screen. Bleh.

Currently I'm working my way through the director/writer commentaries on the LotR films.

[Knightmare10880]

The Evil Dead 2 commentary is still one of my all time favorites.

Anything with Mila Jolovich has been pretty good so far, she has a pretty good sense of humour about herself and her acting skills.

The commentary for the original Dawn of the Dead is very good, the moderator on it did a good job of asking questions of George A. Romero and plus Tom Savini made it seem like he was looking through an old photo album.

[Ryan K]

Justice League Season 1

More commentaries by Bruce Timm and the crew. The highlight is probably The Savege Time Part 2 where the guys talk about Sgt. Rock and the Blackhawks. But all the commentarties are generally informative and entertaining.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Val Kilmer, Shane Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. A pretty funny commentary. At the beginning Kilmer says he'll give $500 to the person who can count how many name drops he will make throughout the commentary. For example, a dog comes on screen, Kilmer will say "Katherine Hepburn loved dogs". Plenty of ridiculousness like that and the guys all seem to really like each other.

Arrested Development Season 3

Commentary by Mitch Hurwitz and everybody in the cast except Jeffrey Tambor (but the call him on his cell during the commentary). Its all hilarious. My only complaint is with so many people on the 3 tracks, it can get a bit confusing. Plus Cross (hilarious as always) and Arnett drown out some people like Alia Shawkat and Muchael Cera who I'd liked to have heard more from.

[Callie]

Hustle & Flow - Commentary by Craig Brewer

It's nice to listen to an indie director talk about what lengths he had to go to in order to get a movie made. How little money he had, how much he had to rely on others, how he brought the movie to his city and the city to his movie, and how much he loves his hometown. You also got a sense of how much the movie's plot paralleled his own life. It was the director's genuine sense of joy and excitement at having created such a critically acclaimed film that made me like the movie even more.

[Ryan K]

Jackass: The Movie

I listened to the cast commentary with Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, etc. Some of its pretty funny listening to them rag on one another for chickening out on this stunt or that one. Worth a couple chuckles and nothing else.

The Office: The Complete First Season

This is the American version. I listened to all 5 commentaries by the cast and writers. Enjoyable listening to all the guys bs, but the best parts for me where when they'd talk about Gervais and Mercahant. Gervais and Merchant suggested this, or Gervais and Merchant liked that. I thought that was all pretty interesting.

[Sean Walsh]

South Park: Season 8

Can't say I'm a big fan of Matt & Trey's 4-5 minute commentaries - since sometimes it's like they want to go on for longer but stop with "I think we've said enough" - but at least they do something and it's pretty informative about the creative process for each ep.

[Ryan K]

The Office The Complete Second Season

I listened to all 10 commentaries on the Season 2 set. They were all pretty entertaining, but nothing spectacularly funny.

Futurama Volume 4

I listened to the commentary on Where No Fan Has Gone Before. Lots of interesting stuff about putting the episode together and insights into some of the ST jokes I missed.

[Ontir]

Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5 commentary for the extended cut of Pegasus.

[G. Wayne]

Equilibirium

There's actually two commentaries, one with just Kurt Wimmer, and then one with Wimmer and the producer. Listened to latter first so far. Good stuff for the most part, pretty funny at times especially when Wimmer finishes any comment about the guns they used (and there were many) with something like

"...that was a beauty to see in film...but we don't advocate guns, right? "

and the producer would respond on cue with something like

"We don't? Oh... right... we don't."

Very informative about how the movie was made, and how they had to squeak by on the movie's budget. I was curious to see what he would say about Gun Kata, as the story goes that he wanted it to be more fluid, but the fight choreographer was trained in karate, and made the movements very rigid. Wimmer brings it up indirectly in said commentary, so I figure his commentary on Ultravoilet should be interesting, since that's where he got to do Gun Kata his way.

Ultravioilet

Nope, no Wimmer commentary. Just one with Mila Jovovich. And it seems like she forgets she's doing a commentary as she only says something every 5 or 10 minutes, then rants about how cool it would be it would be for girls to have purses with flat space technology (a tech-based purse of holding, if you will). Yeah, I could only take that for about 20 minutes.

[Ryan K]

The Office: Special Part Two

It always amusing for me to listen to Gervais and Merchant.

Imprint

The commentary on this Takashi Miike Masters of Horror film was done by two critics. Two critics who have apparently never heard of an audio commentary. They continually shush one another from not giving away future developments in the movie. Like they think anybody's watching their commentary before the movie. I've never seen anybody do this. And in this case it prevents them from discussing themes from the movie until the 11th hour. Just stupid.

[Buried Alien]

All six STAR WARS movies, in story order (I - VI).

Some interesting information there, but I feel that he commentators focused too much on the technical, filmmaking aspects of the movies rather than the characters and stories (particularly the Prequels). One thing that was kind of annoying is that almost every scene had a comment start with, "This was one of the most difficult scenes to make." Guys, if that many scenes were "one of the most difficult to make," I think we can safely say that MOST of the scenes were difficult to make. :)

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[milhouse123321]

Jackass: Boxed Set
Funny but a little hard to understand with so many big personalities in one room all telling different stroies

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Agreed with the above poster that all Kevin Smith commentaries are really interesting and funny

[saintsaucey]

Im at this very moment listening to Dawsons Creek Series Finalle comentary and before that I listened to the Sleepover commentary.

Im so lame.

Best Commentary ever would have to be either resident evil or jerry mcguire

[The Joker]

PTA's commentary on Boogie Nights.

Interesting to say the least. The commentary with PTA and cast members is a bit more humorous I felt. Especially the story about how Mark Wahlberg, and John C. Reily almost got into a fight/argument.

[oddieson]

writers comentary on the first season is incredible.

[oddieson]

good lord!, I watch all milo comentaries!, I dont watch the movies, she is the queen of bad comentary. She's funnier than one of those strippers on a howard stern quiz show.

[Ryan K]

Scrubs Season 4

There were two audio commentaries on this set. The first by Zach Braff just showed how much he really likes himself and his work (he directed this particular episode). The second by Sarah Chalke was one of the most boring commentaries ever. Its like they forced her to do it on the spot. She had nothing to say other than "this part was fun".

Smallville Season 5

2 audio commentaries on this set. The first is for the vampire sorority episode and it startes out fairly well. The producers come right out and say they're doing commentary on this because they felt it was their worst episode and felt fans needed an explanation. Somehow during the course of the episode they come to the revelation that its not that bad and they're geniuses for saving the episode. Wow. The second commentary has James Marsters but its basically just a lot of "you're gtea", "no you're great". Sigh.

[Ontir]

the Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Green
&
Rome Season 1, Disk 1

[Ontir]

writers comentary on the first season is incredible.


First season of what?

[Sanagi]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. First the Cleese, Palin & Idle commentary(which was funnier), then the Jones & Gilliam commentary(which was more informative). They pointed out some things I'd never noticed, like a funny moment where Eric Idle bites a scythe to stop himself from cracking up(it's in the witch burning scene).

It had been long enough since I'd seen the movie that I had forgotten some of the less-quoted but still hilarious lines("No, I'm Zoot's identical twin sister, Dingo").

[Totoro Man]

Parker and Stone on how they just barely pulled off scripting Woodland Critter Christmas.

Man alive! It's almost as funny for me as the actual episode itself. I'm glad someone ELSE thought Event Horizon was a shitty movie.

[Atomic Horror]

I've been listening to the various commentaries for "The Simpson's" eighth season. Highlights include special guest commentators like Kelsey Grammer and John Waters, and several commentaries where the children of one of the writers sit in on the proceedings.

[Zero Hunter]

I have been listening to the ones on the My Name Is Earl season 1 box set. Jason Lee seems like he likes to have a good time doing these. The ones were they have guest stars in there with them like Giovoni Ribis (boy I know I mangled the spelling on that one) and Jon Farve are especilly funny.

[Ryan K]

The Spy Who Loved Me

I listened to the new Roger Moore commentary. Not really that interesting, it mostly consists of Moore calling every person on set a "delightful person" one by one or repeating anecdotes found elsewhere on the disc. Moore sounds very old too. Kind of like listening tour very tired grandfather for 2 hours. I may check out another one though.

[John Doe Jnr]

The commentary from Anchorman is great with Will Ferrel and Adam Mckay. So great and funny and they have Lou Rauls with them! Its great!

[Sean Walsh]

I was quite delighted to see that EVERY episode on Family Guy Vol.4 has a commentary track; normally, about half of them do. I've watched the entire thing already, now I think I'm gonna watch it with the commentaries on.

[Superboy Prime]

Recently listened to the Commentary featured on the dvd of Feast

&

The commentary featured on the dvd of The Punisher.

The Punisher commentary was very informative, and miles ahead of the joke fest that was on Feast.

[John Doe Jnr]

I'm about to go start to listen to one of the 3 commentaries for Clerks 2. I'll come back later to tell you guys if it is any good.