Best and Worst DVD commentaries ever [Archive]

madsci

03-17-2007, 04:25 PM

Out of all the thousands of commentaries out there, which are amongst the very best, and which should be avoided at all costs?

My choices:-

Best:-

(1) Bryan Singer on X1 and X2 - starts off a little nervous, but becomes both entertaining AND informative (you should hear his plans for X3 - oh well.....)

(2) Nick Meyer on Star Trek: Wrath of Khan - Here's the most successful writer / director of the film franchise starting a commentary by admitting his first response to directing the film was "Star Trek - that show with the guy with the ears?". Yet, listening to this commentary, you get an idea that this guy respected the series MORE than Rodenberry, Braga (and probably Abram's too).

(3) Shatner and Nimoy on Star Trek IV - Its Kirk and Spock on the funniest Trek movie - enough said!

(4) Joss Whedon on Angel / Buffy / Firefly - I don't need to comment on this anymore.....

(5) Bruce Campbell on Evil Dead (and as Elvis in Bubba Hotep) - again, no explanation necessary...

(6) Richard Donner and Tom Mancieweiz on Superman The Movie - Donner forgets half the stuff they did, half the stories they tell are already known, but when both act like 5 year olds when the Salkinds names come up, you've struck gold!!!!

(7) All Star Trek text commentaries - informative and easy to fast forward!

Worst:-

(1) The cast of Star Trek 3 - Nimoy or Bennett (the producer) alone were OK, but a cut and paste job of 5-6 people makes me give up.

(2) Tim Burton - the cure for insomnia.

(3) Ridley Scott - If Tim Burton doesn't work.

(4) Lucas and co. on the Star Wars DVDs - Cut and paste jobs - check. Droning voices - Check. 10 minutes of talk on effects and advances in CGI - check. 5 seconds of comments on plot/character in the WHOLE commentary at a moment you miss - Check.

(5) Bond, James Bond. See above.

Athena Bast

03-17-2007, 05:48 PM

BEST - The Mummy. On the "Ultimate" version you get 3 commentaries. One's the director which is okay. The second is Brendan Fraser which is cool because sometimes he forgets to talk and then all of a sudden there's this HUGE laugh and you're ducking for cover like where the hell did that come from? The last and best commentary is Kevin "Beni" O'Connor, Oded "Ardeth Bay" Fehr and Arnold "The Mummy" Vosloo. Kevin and Oded do most of the talking until Rachel Weisz comes on the screen and Vosloo just keeps going on and on about her eyes.

2) Lord of the Rings - While some of the commentaries are patched over you really can't tell. The technical one is a little grating only because Richard Taylor's voice gets on my nerves. The actors' commentary track is hilarious mostly due to Dominic Mognihan and Billy Boyd.

lalalei2001

03-17-2007, 05:52 PM

I thought Donner's commentary on Superman was boring, no offense. I just thought it was boring.

Gary Joyce

03-17-2007, 05:55 PM

Best - Adam West and Burt Ward on the batman movie they do completely in character as Batman and Robin

Predator

03-17-2007, 07:34 PM

One that deserves a Best nomination is Brian and Stewie's commentary on Road to Rhode Island from the Famil Guy: Friggin' Sweet Collection DVD. Getting to hear them swear at each other is just great.

For worst, I'd nominate Stuart Baird's commentary from Star Trek: Nemesis. Boring. As. Hell.

BoosterBronze

03-17-2007, 07:41 PM

king mob

03-17-2007, 07:47 PM

In The Mouth of Madness is the worst commentary of all time.

I love that movie, but the commentary is John Carpenter and the lighting director. Carpenter never talks about the movie, mainly asking lighting questions, and the lighting dude apparently doesn't wish to be there, because he answers them all in as few words as possible.

Really? Carpenter normally does really good commentaries and his ones for The Thing and Prince Of Darkness are great.

My favourite two are Big Arnie on Conan (ahhh, I am picking up the swoooorrrddd) and Dog Soldiers where everyone is utterly battered at the start and gets gradually more battered as the film goes on.

Buzz Dixon

03-17-2007, 08:02 PM

THIS IS SPINAL TAP is commented on by the cast in character so it's like getting a whole 'nother movie.

mgs

03-17-2007, 08:26 PM

(6) Richard Donner and Tom Mancieweiz on Superman The Movie - Donner forgets half the stuff they did, half the stories they tell are already known, but when both act like 5 year olds when the Salkinds names come up, you've struck gold!!!!

I'll agree with ya here. I found their commentary very cool. :)

For Thumbs Up, I'll add:

Conan: Yeah, he's an odd politician now, but he has a good repertoir with the director on this.

Spider-Man 1&2: I found what everything everyone had to say on these discs very cool.

Monsters Inc.: Everyone was great to listen to.

The Descent (uk edition): Wonderful movie, except one main character was not present to comment.

Aliens (sp ed.): Wonderful to hear from everyone after all these years.

Invader Zim: the whole cast comments and loved this show.

The Princess Bride: Great by original author included, very fun and insightful, like the movie.

Sin City: Great, and lengthy.

Clerks: Very insightful. But annoying Jason needed to wake up.

For Thumbs Down:

Finding Nemo: I think this was not bad, but it puts me to sleep. I very much enjoyed this movie tho.

The Simpsons (7th Season): Commentary was good, but got boring. THe best commentary was on the Radioactive Man episode! One of the best on any disc!

Family Guy (s1): Was fun first time around, but was choppy and weird after a while.

Groundhog Day: LOVE this movie, commentary by a low talking director. That's it. zzz.....

The Matrix: Version I have sucks. Boring and pointless. & I loved this movie.

Scrubs (all seasons): Though I love the show, they are very limited on which shows they comment on and it could definitely be better.more entertaining.

CaptainAwesome

03-17-2007, 08:57 PM

Worst has to be X3. I actually felt an homocidal urge rise in my gut when I heard brett ratner, zak penn, and tweedle-dee-dumbass (dont know his name) giggling like Bevis and Butthead (and tweedle-dee-dumbass) about how Wolverine has the mutant ability to remove his jacket between shots. They sounded like they were stoned out of their minds! When I saw the movie in theaters I said "wow, that sucks" but when I saw it on dvd (not mine, my friends) I thought "muuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrdddddeeeerrrrrr" and then I blacked out. Point is, though, that was the worst commentary Ive ever heard.

Loren

03-17-2007, 08:59 PM

The worst commentary that immediately comes to mind is Susan Stroman's for The Producers. Her voice is flat and unenthusiastic, her comments weren't very interesting or scene-specific (if at all), and frankly it sounded like she was just sitting by herself at a microphone reading page after page of pre-scripted comments.

I shut it off after about 15 minutes. I couldn't stand to listen to her any longer.

DWEarhart

03-17-2007, 09:10 PM

I laughed HARD when Val Kilmer did his commentary for David Mamet's Spartan.

"Hi, I'm Val Kilmer," followed by 26 or so minutes of complete silence. Eventually he spoke about the film, but the move was so unexpected and caught me at the right time I guess, but it was amusing.

mgs

03-17-2007, 09:16 PM

"Hi, I'm Val Kilmer," followed by 26 or so minutes of complete silence. Eventually he spoke about the film, but the move was so unexpected and caught me at the right time I guess, but it was amusing.

that's what the Matrix is like!! Except definitely NOT amusing.

grrrr... It's like, 'Hi, we're some people you don't really know about and we'll talk very sporadically, not really talk to carrie, and when we do, it will be so technical that unless you're in the know or were working with us on the movie, and it will not have to do with what's onscreen at the moment....or we'll now relate several 3rd party stories about what the Wachovski brothers 'may' have said, at one point, maybe. uggghh!!!...

Frodo-X

03-17-2007, 11:34 PM

2) Lord of the Rings - While some of the commentaries are patched over you really can't tell. The technical one is a little grating only because Richard Taylor's voice gets on my nerves. The actors' commentary track is hilarious mostly due to Dominic Mognihan and Billy Boyd.

Agreed on all counts. I couldn't even listen to the whole technical one, in part because of his voice, and in part because a lot of what they were saying was already covered in the Documentaries.

Kevin Smith's movies all seem to have good ones. The man does good commentary tracks.

zeroEDGE

03-17-2007, 11:54 PM

Best - Adam West and Burt Ward on the batman movie they do completely in character as Batman and Robin

haha for reals? Man I've gotta go out and get that just to watch the commentary now.

Gary Joyce

03-18-2007, 09:08 AM

haha for reals? Man I've gotta go out and get that just to watch the commentary now.

Yep really when you load it up Burt asks whats this batman and West replys seems to be some sort of navigational screen and the Burt exclaims Holy interactive Menus.

After that i watched the commentary before i watched the film.The great bit is obviously the Bat-Shark repellant scene.

Infra-Man

03-18-2007, 10:22 AM

THIS IS SPINAL TAP is commented on by the cast in character so it's like getting a whole 'nother movie.

That's the one. The MGM DVD of This is Spinal Tap is easily my favorite commentary. Bruce Campbell did something similar with his Bubba Ho-Tep Elvis-commentary.

Also thought Brad Bird's commentary on The Incredibles was awesome just because he's got a lot of enthusiasm for what he does. I'll give a shout out to the commentary on Knightriders since it sounds like good friends just getting together and reminiscing. Oh yeah, and any time Richard Taylor is speaking on a Lord of the Rings commentary is the best thing ever.

Worst commentary,as mgs noted, would probably be The Matrix. So friggin boring. Tim Burton's commentaries aren't so hot either.

And even though the movie is trash, I think the commentary on Troma's release of New Gladiators is pretty brilliant.

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 11:14 AM

I enjoyed the commentary on Firefly.

Rome Season 1 has good commentary, overall. Unfortunately, there's one episode where the actor that plays Titus Pullo is by himself, and he's a quiet sort.

The commentary for Citizen Kane is pretty neat. Peter Bagdanovich does one commentary track, and it was fun listening to him talk about this movie he clearly loved. Also, he knew Welles, and could throw in some anecdotes.

I love both commentary tracks for Super Troopers.

And the dvd commentary for Arrested Development was awesome.

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 11:16 AM

Worst commentary,as mgs noted, would probably be The Matrix. So friggin boring. Tim Burton's commentaries aren't so hot either.

On a bit of a tangent, my favorite Rifftrax is probably the Matrix.

Infra-Man

03-18-2007, 11:45 AM

On a bit of a tangent, my favorite Rifftrax is probably the Matrix.

I've been meaning to check out Rifftrax for awhile now since I'm a big MST3k fan. Any other Rifftrax that are really good?

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 11:53 AM

I've been meaning to check out Rifftrax for awhile now since I'm a big MST3k fan. Any other Rifftrax that are really good?

I've bought & "watched" Star Trek V, the Matrix, Fellowship of the Ring, and Battlefield: Earth.

B: E was probably my least favorite.

Fellowship of the Ring was fun. And they really made their Lost jokes count.

Star Trek V was kinda neat, too.

Off the top of my head: Matrix > Fellowship > Star Trek V > B: E.

They've also done Top Gun and Roadhouse, and I'm really wanting to see those.

Infra-Man

03-18-2007, 12:07 PM

I've bought & "watched" Star Trek V, the Matrix, Fellowship of the Ring, and Battlefield: Earth.

B: E was probably my least favorite.

Fellowship of the Ring was fun. And they really made their Lost jokes count.

Star Trek V was kinda neat, too.

Off the top of my head: Matrix > Fellowship > Star Trek V > B: E.

They've also done Top Gun and Roadhouse, and I'm really wanting to see those.

Keen beans. Will be sure to check out The Matrix.

Roadhouse is a definite must for me, but it looks like they've done one for Over the Top as well, which should be awesome.

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 12:17 PM

Keen beans. Will be sure to check out The Matrix.

Roadhouse is a definite must for me, but it looks like they've done one for Over the Top as well, which should be awesome.

You mean the story of the trucker and arm wrestling champion who wants custody of his son?!?

I think they should cover the Seagal movie "On Deadly Ground".....and "Fire Down Below."

Those two are Seagal's Star Trek V.

Infra-Man

03-18-2007, 12:33 PM

You mean the story of the trucker and arm wrestling champion who wants custody of his son?!?

I think they should cover the Seagal movie "On Deadly Ground".....and "Fire Down Below."

Those two are Seagal's Star Trek V.

Oh yes, I do mean the story of the trucker and arm wrestling champion who wants custody of his son. It is also known as "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

You know, most Seagal movies would work pretty well, especially his recent glut of straight-to-video flicks. On Deadly Ground would be great. I think they should hit up Batman and Robin, especially given Mike's review of that movie in his book.

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 01:30 PM

Oh yes, I do mean the story of the trucker and arm wrestling champion who wants custody of his son. It is also known as "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

You know, most Seagal movies would work pretty well, especially his recent glut of straight-to-video flicks. On Deadly Ground would be great. I think they should hit up Batman and Robin, especially given Mike's review of that movie in his book.

On Deadly Ground was one that Seagal directed....and iirc it followed Under Siege. This was arguably Seagal at the peak of his movie career.

Seagal is a little weird as action heroes go. He actually kisses and has sex with women. He's fat. He's vaguely left wing.

I honestly think that Seagal can best be understood by crossing John Wayne with Billy Jack.

mgs

03-18-2007, 01:33 PM

and iirc it followed Under Siege. This was arguably Seagal at the peak of his movie career.

</p>
sorry, a bit ot, but the ONLY reason why I watch that movie, still, is to watch that part where the girl with the big boobs comes out of the cake. BEST moment in Segal film history! ;)

Infra-Man

03-18-2007, 01:37 PM

I honestly think that Seagal can best be understood by crossing John Wayne with Billy Jack.

On that note, all of the Billy Jack movies are probably Rifftrax worthy. I really want to see Billy Jack Goes to Washington.

ragnarok_2012

03-18-2007, 01:43 PM

</p>
sorry, a bit ot, but the ONLY reason why I watch that movie, still, is to watch that part where the girl with the big boobs comes out of the cake. BEST moment in Segal film history! ;)

Seagal is unusually heterosexual for an action movie star.

And I really liked the end fight where he kills Tommy Lee Jones like 3 times.

mgs

03-18-2007, 01:46 PM

Seagal is unusually heterosexual for an action movie star.

And I really liked the end fight where he kills Tommy Lee Jones like 3 times.

haha! lol. :)

Generic Eric

03-18-2007, 10:29 PM

My Favorite comentary is on Robot Chicken. Seth Green and crew are witty, informative, and go over how alot of the sketches were animated. Most of the other commentaries I've listend to were very average. I remember The Futrama Commentary being boring and uninformative. South Park is bad because mini commentaries are weak.

StoneGold

03-19-2007, 01:19 AM

Gaastra

03-19-2007, 07:52 AM

I liked--

GREMLINS 1 AND 2--I loved them talking about the scary script and about how gizmo was going to turn to spike!

GHOSTBUSTERS--with mst3k commentary! (only in the first release.)

TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE--the fan commentary was better then the offical one.

HE-MAN AND SHE-RA: SECRET OF THE SWORD--Not the best commentary in the world but they talk about alot of stuff from the making of the show to how a blind he-man fan meet them at a convention.

SPACE JAM--with bugs and daffy!

zeroEDGE

03-19-2007, 08:29 AM

I like the commentaries on Family Guy and the Simpsons.

Ones that I don't like... well I guess it would be one of the Singer commentaries of X-Men, I forget which or maybe it was both that made me fall asleep.

Tim OSullivan

03-19-2007, 10:06 AM

Not much on commentaries, but I'm a nut for "Anchorman" and was so looking forward to the commentary w/ Will Ferrell and Director Adam McKay.

They spent 30 min talking about how they could say the "f" word, then the rest of the commentary bringing in other cast members for unfunny bits, and for some unfathomable reason, Lou Rawls.

They rarely, if ever, commented on the movie.

Terrible!

Mac Danny

03-19-2007, 12:02 PM

The commentary on Firefly for the Episode War Stories is great. it's just Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk talking about the episode and having a great time doing it.

The commentary for Jacobs Ladder is not particularly exciting, but informative if the movie confuses you.

Death to Smoochie has some weird commentary. I think this was Danny Devito having one too many. he talks at great length about Katherine Keener's legs.

Adaptoid

03-19-2007, 03:02 PM

The best DVD commentary track I've heard are the ones on the "Spider-Man -- The New Animated Series" box set. This is the computer generated Spider Man TV series that appeared on MTV for one season.

Every single episode (13) has commentary and the animators, voice actors and writers used in the commented episode are the people doing the talking and their comments are entertaining and thoughtful. Could not ask for more.

Personally, I loved this show and wish there were more episodes made. I know a lot of people hated it, but I think they hated it because they just didn't get it or were distracted by the computer animation.

Everything else about the DVD is stellar. The show was mastered in HD and the transfer has got to be one of the cleanest ever. There is a good reason this DVD is a demonstration disc in most of the Sony Stores. It really looks great. When a Blu-Ray disc comes out for this, I may have to bite the bullet and buy the LG multi-format player that plays HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Erik Lehnsherr

03-19-2007, 03:50 PM

Keira Knightley's commentary on Dead Man Chest sounds unique but that's mostly because of that damn British voice of hers. Dave Chappelle's commentary on his Season 2 DVD popular episodes had me rolling.

Brian "Vash" Ashby

03-20-2007, 11:39 AM

Goonies. And this is why.

http://www.dailyhaggis.com/img/goonies2.jpg

Now if only Mikey hadn't disappeared mid-way through a story about his father Gomez Addams so he could play a Hobbit, it would have been perfect.

I actually read about the commentary the other day. Apparently it started late or something and Sean Astin had to leave to go mc a thing for Joey Pants. He left, came back in and apologized and left a Hobbit Action figure to take his place, but it was all cut out.

Just some quick hits

Idle hands had a good commentary. Seth Green always brings the good, so any commentary he does is good

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang- Nice Val Kilmer/Downey Jr Commentary. Always fun

Smallville commentaries where Michal Rosenbaum does it. He's clearly the funniest male cast member of the show. Tom Welling seems to be, from the commentary, quite the dullard. John Glover/Allison Mack commentaries are also good. Im pissed there are so few commentaries though, i like shows to have commentaries on the majority of the episodes.

Brian "Vash" Ashby

03-20-2007, 11:42 AM

Double postages wastes 39 cents

SPAfreak

03-21-2007, 03:55 AM

And the dvd commentary for Arrested Development was awesome.

Fantastic. Everyone was there except for Jeffrey Tambor. Then they called him on the phone.

They're also some of the dirtier commentaries that I've heard for a TV show.

SPAfreak

03-21-2007, 03:58 AM

the goddamn batman

03-21-2007, 03:06 PM

Sealab seasons 2 & 3 have the worst commentaries. Ever.

For an entire episode you can hear them playing video games and that's it. For two episodes, one of the animators reads a story he wrote in, whta, middle school? Terrible. A complete waste of time.

Shame as the season 1 commentaries are fun.

ragnarok_2012

03-21-2007, 04:51 PM

Fantastic. Everyone was there except for Jeffrey Tambor. Then they called him on the phone.

They're also some of the dirtier commentaries that I've heard for a TV show.

Yeah, that was quite fun.

Even on the dvd commentary that cast has incredible charisma.

I was having fun listening to them have fun.

Slappy san

03-22-2007, 12:51 PM

The commentary for Ronin by Frankenheimer is awesome in different way for me. It really made me appreciated the directing. I would have never noticed the way he cut scenes. It was awesome.

Shellhead

03-22-2007, 01:12 PM

I haven't encountered any really bad commentary tracks yet, but I do have a relatively high tolerance for boring technical discussions, because I'm easily fascinated by other people's jobs. Maybe because my own job is considered so dull.

My favorites commentary tracks tend to be entertaining more than informative.

Firefly was great, like all the Whedon commentaries, but with a cast that had such great chemistry together, on and off the set.

Resident Evil was fun, because you have Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez talking throughout the movie. Periodically Milla corrects Michelle on the pronounciation of "Jovovich" and finally gets exasperated and calls her a bitch. In a good-natured way. Best of all, near the end there is a scene where Milla accidentally shows bush. I was expecting Rodriguez to say something crude, but instead, Milla blurts out "Twat Shot!"

Blade III wasn't a great commentary track, but it was kind of fun hearing the actors delicately dance around the fact that Wesley Snipes was an antisocial ass who spend most of the shoot smoking pot in his trailer. Needless to say, Snipes wasn't present for the commentary track.

ubergeekette

03-23-2007, 12:23 AM

I love Family Guy but hate a good portion of the commentary. They get informative for awhile then McFarlane phone rings, then they watch the episode and stay silent for about ten minutes.

madsci

03-31-2007, 03:50 PM

One of the weirdest commentaries was with Nick Meyer and the screenwriter (I forget his name) on Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.

In the scene where Spock mind-melds with the traitorous vulcan Valeris, the commentators talk about how erotic the scene is, when what you're seeing is akin to rape. Just too bizarre for words...

saintsaucey

03-31-2007, 10:01 PM

[QUOTE=Shellhead;4568349]Firefly was great, like all the Whedon commentaries, but with a cast that had such great chemistry together, on and off the set.

Resident Evil was fun, because you have Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez talking throughout the movie. Periodically Milla corrects Michelle on the pronounciation of "Jovovich" and finally gets exasperated and calls her a bitch. In a good-natured way. Best of all, near the end there is a scene where Milla accidentally shows bush. I was expecting Rodriguez to say something crude, but instead, Milla blurts out "Twat Shot!"

[QUOTE]

damn someone beat me to the resident evil commentary. i also liked how shem mentions saving her other boob for resident evil two :D

I am recently rewatching the firefly episodes, and had to search for the comentaries. why did they put them in with subtitles. say it with me friends. special features

mgs

08-12-2007, 06:33 PM

300 Zack and co were okay. On Miss Congeniality, Sandra and her friend (the main writer) were very funny! :) Even talking right up to the end of the credits. Very funny, those two.

Stretch Dude

08-12-2007, 07:41 PM

I love the commentary on UHF for three reasons:

1. Weird Al rattling off various trivia about the filming locations in insane detail.
2. Random appearances by Michael Richards ("Hey...what're you guys doing in my house?") and Emo Phillips ("I wonder whatever happened to old Emo..." "I'm right behind you.").
3. When Stanley barricades himself against the goons, Al visibly stands up and screams, "THEY'RE COMING IN THE WINDOW! THEY'RE COMING IN THE WINDOW!"

2) Lord of the Rings - While some of the commentaries are patched over you really can't tell. The technical one is a little grating only because Richard Taylor's voice gets on my nerves. The actors' commentary track is hilarious mostly due to Dominic Mognihan and Billy Boyd.

Quoted for truth.