Best Movie Commentaries?

triggercut · June 16, 2011, 9:14pm

I really like a lot of Soderbergh’s commentaries, btw. The one he did for Out Of Sight is so, so good.

dtolman · June 16, 2011, 9:26pm

Duh - how could I forget…
The Kurt Russell/John Carpenter commentaries on The Thing and Escape From New York are a lot of fun - they’ve got great chemistry together, and its just two old friends laughing and sharing recollections of the films.

I’d call it the cocktail party version of a commentary track full of laughter and anecdotes, as opposed to the leaden documentary ones you tend to get that are full of long pauses.

BrianRubin · June 16, 2011, 9:28pm

I’ve only seen the one from Big Trouble in Little China, which was AMAZING, so even though I’ve never seen those other two movies, I kind of want to now.

sinnick · June 16, 2011, 9:37pm

Oh God, for the love of all that is good and pure, don’t subject yourself to Without a Paddle. Especially if you adore Seth Green.

I listened to a lot of DVD commentaries when my kids were first born and I was up late with them. I posted this on another thread, but it’s worth reposting here:

DVD extras

This is Spinal Tap: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer do a mock-review in character as though it were a real documentary, with the angle that Marty DiBergi really screwed them in his portrayal.

Almost Famous: Cameron Crowe is there with a troupe of crewmembers, and his real life mother. Who is hilarious, and says stuff like “You had Frances McDormand in bare feet there. I never go barefoot around the house, I think it’s disgusting”. Also, cue uncomfortable laughs from Crowe during the scene were the kid loses his virginity. It’s also cool to hear a ton of rock history from Crowe, and some of his real-life adventures that the movie was based on.

My Basic Instinct DVD has a commentary by Camille Paglia for a “feminist” analysis of the movie (spoiler: she liked it). You can tell she’s reading off notes, but it was still quite interesting.

Oddly, one of my more disappointing commentaries was Ang Lee and James Schamus for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I was hoping for some great film making insight, but they basically just cracked jokes.

divedivedive · June 16, 2011, 10:06pm

I too love the Kurt Russell and John Carpenter commentaries, just be prepared to be listening in on a conversation with old friends who have some great stories to tell. Only not all that many about the actual movie you are watching, quite often.

Dufresne · June 16, 2011, 11:21pm

The commentary for Mallrats with Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Scott Mosier, and Vincent Pereira* is particularly entertaining, especially when they all gang up on Affleck for being successful.

*I may have had to Wikipedia that commentary to remember everyone in it.

AustinArlitt · June 17, 2011, 12:00am

I’ve only made it about halfway through, but this & the Omega 13 are some of my favorite DVD features ever.

Great cast commentary tracks: Ocean’s Eleven, Lord of the Rings

Great director commentary tracks: Anything Brad Bird has recorded, both of the above, the rest of the Pixar commentary tracks, Memento

Greatest critical commentary tracks: The Phantom Edit & Attack of the Phantom for providing some of the best insight into what makes good films good, and the critics’ commentary for the Matrix trilogy, which provides provides a similar analysis of how things can go wrong & what might be done to fix that.

hahahabonk · June 17, 2011, 1:06am

I’ve got a lot of love for the cast commentary of ‘Not Another Teen Movie’. Definitely a cocktail party commentary. Feels like they gave them a room with beers and just said go for it.

C.

anonymgeist · June 17, 2011, 6:41am

Although he’s not the most energetic speaker, if you’re interested in the technical side of film-making Nolan’s track on Insomnia is highly recommended and unique in that it goes through the film in the order the scenes were shot.

Eric_P · June 17, 2011, 6:45am

Great googly moogly

Hugin · June 17, 2011, 6:51am

Pretty much any of the commentaries for a Kevin Smith movie will be funny and interesting.

The commentary for Bound has a ton of great stuff about the quirky details of making a movie, technically and logistically.

Murph · June 17, 2011, 8:58am

Agreed.

Really? Huh, I think it’s pretty funny, and I love Seth Green in it. Even moreso in the commentary. (Which is worth it just to hear Seth doing a Snoop Dogg impression.)

TranquilityBase · June 17, 2011, 9:20am

The Kurt Russell/Robert Zemeckis/Bob Gale commentary on Used Cars is also awesome for this very same reason.

JackBurton · June 17, 2011, 9:29am

Ditto the comments on the Big Trouble in Little China and Spinal Tap tracks.

Also, I really enjoyed the track to 40 Year Old Virgin.

BrianRubin · June 17, 2011, 9:30am

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute…

Aristophan · June 17, 2011, 12:58pm

It’s been a while, but I enjoyed the commentary on Desperado. Robert Rodriguez describes how he tries to make a 7 million dollar film look like a big budget film. Hint: the same stunt guys get used again and again.

Universal_Leader · June 17, 2011, 1:43pm

Wait, what? You’ve never seen The Thing and Escape From New York?

DKDArtagnan · June 17, 2011, 1:46pm

I like the commentary on Alien by Ridley Scott. He’s pretty informative in terms of movie trivia and he has a somewhat pragmatic approach to making movies that I find interesting.

Sure, he’s got that gigantic ego resting just under the skin - but I can deal with it.

AustinArlitt · June 17, 2011, 2:30pm

And you only rent your most expensive crane/actor/explosions for a day a piece. The stuff he explains for El Mariachi is also helpful.

BrianRubin · June 17, 2011, 2:38pm

No, I’m not a horror movie fan and for some reason I’ve just never seen the Escape from New York. I somehow saw most of Escape from LA though, sadly.