re-watching all my DVD's for their audio commentary...

[inertianinja]

...has gotten me totally hooked on audio commentary. one DVD after the next has been blowing my mind with all the cool stuff that goes on.

for example, watching I Heart Huckabees has Schwartzman, the director and Mark Whalberg giving commentary. Mark Whalberg is actually really funny...who knew?

it's also giving me the chance to renew my appreciation for some of my favorite moments in movies.

for example, in Rushmore (which has TONS of perfect lines), i just passed the point where Bill Murray goes "never in my wildest dreams did I imagine i'd have sons like these." and then you see his sons just loving the brutality of high school wrestling.

Rad.

[7h0m45]

yea i really like commentaries when they are good. The last one i listened to was J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise on MI3 and i thought it was pretty good.

and the Richard Kelly and Kevin Smith commentary on Donnie Darko is pretty good as well.

[az0madman]

I've attempted to watch commentary on movie many times, but I end up turning it off and switching back to the movie audio because I get sucked in again. Now, I have watched all my Simpsons (up to season 7) and Futurama commentary. Not sure why, but it's just as entertaining and sometimes even more so than the episode.

[dolson]

The best commentaries I've listened to are the ones on both Donnie Darko DVDs, as well as UHF.

There was one that I listened to that was really boring, can't recall what. Might have been Gladiator? Maybe the content wasn't boring, but the guy talking was more monotone than me... Might not have been Gladiator.

[artofwar420]

I just recently did this with the Fight Club dvd and it was kind of interesting. Though I only did it for the beginning and last parts of it, there's just something that makes it hard to watch the movie and listen to the actors/director/whoever-else.

[aerodash84]

Now, I have watched all my Simpsons (up to season 7) and Futurama commentary. Not sure why, but it's just as entertaining and sometimes even more so than the episode.

I agree that the Futurama commentaries are really good. I really enjoy the ones with the voice actors. John DiMagio and Billy West were hilarious on some of them with their voices and such. Really great comedy I didn't expect.

The Lord of the Rings ones are pretty interesting. I've mainly listened to the cast ones, but enjoyed them. A lot of Kevin Smith commentaries can be pretty interesting.

Worst one I've probably listened to was the first Resident Evil movie w/ the cast. It was just a lot of rambling and people eating. Pretty disorganized and it was still kind of a new concept.

[tectec]

Guillermo Del Toro's commentary on Pan's Labyrinth is one of my all time favorites. I could listen to him go on for hours upon hours about why certain colors and imagery were used to evoke certain feelings.

The Reno 911 commentaries are also damn funny. Especially when they use one commentary track per season to replace the actual audio and dialogue for the show. It's silly but I love it.

Some of the earlier South Park seasons had horrible commentaries that would only go a few minutes into the episode. You would have thought Matt and Trey could have put just a little more effort into it.

[stubadub]

I am a HUGE fan of commentaries. Most of those mentioned so far I have checked out and enjoyed. I have enjoyed Kevin Smith and Simpsons/Futurama commentaries so much that I have returned to the same commentaries again. I enjoy Fincher's commentaries on Fight Club, Seven and Zodiac. The venture brothers commentaries are golden.

One of the most interesting is the Roger Ebert one for Citizen Kane. It was fascinating to have someone put everything into a historical context, and pointing out subtle effects shots that appeared for the first time. I'd started that one out of curiosity, but found it endlessly fascinating.

When DVD first came out I exhausted all commentaries as well as every special feature on every disc I bought, but now I'm not nearly as complete. If the commentaries don't grab me within 10 or 15 minutes I'll bail.

[jabber]

"This is Spinal Tap" has one of the most entertaining commentaries I've ever heard, done in character by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. It is like watching a whole new movie!

[heyseuss]

Last night watched the commentary for Baby Mama which was pretty funny. Thankfully Lorne Michaels only spoke about 3 times. Poehler and Fey were funny.

Mr.Show with Bob and David are great commentaries.

Orgazmo - they do it in Trey Parkers house and they (trey) finish a bottle of scotch and do several bong hits. It's rather wacky by the end.

Along with the commentary love for voice actors, I'll add Family Guy.

[cryonix]

The best commentary ever.
Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas on Brother Bear. 100x better than the actual movie. Its even better because they critique the movie.

That was the first time we ever watched a movie then the commentary out of curiosity and watched it all the way through back to back.

Usually If I watch a movie its a few weeks after the original viewing before I watch the commentary tracks.

[darthender]

It depends who's talking.

I love writers commentaries. Or at least, people who have input on the script. Because, especially with movies where I'm interested in the world, I love hearing things explained that maybe I didn't catch, or maybe they couldn't get it into the movie. For example, Peter Jackson's(and the two with him) commentary is just awesome. Just listening to him talking about why they did this, and how they were thinking of adding this, or why they cut that. By the time I'd finished listening to that commentary, I was convinced that the stuff they left out from the books all actually improved the story from the books.

I also loved the writers commentaries in the first two Pirates movies(and was really pissed when the third one didn't have a commentary). They have a surprisingly fleshed out world and there's alot of stuff going on thats easy to miss.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is lighting or sound people. Those commentaries make me want to kill myself.

Somewhere in the middle is actors commentaries. And then its very dependent on the actor.

But nothing pisses me off more than getting a new big movie on DVD and not getting any commentaries. For example, I just got Iron Man and was pretty pissed there were no commentaries on it.


On an aside, I think its very telling how out of touch Lucas is with his own creation that I listened to his commentaries for episodes 1-3 and for the whole thing, he kept referring to lightsabers as "laser swords".

What the hell man.

[damnedeyez]

Usually If I watch a movie its a few weeks after the original viewing before I watch the commentary tracks.

I try to watch it shortly after the movie (or the next day) or I wind up getting into the movie and turning the commentary off again.

I also started turning on the english subtitles so I could follow the movie during the commentary. Although, sometimes that leads to a lot of rewinding because I was reading instead of listening.

[heyseuss]

I try to watch it shortly after the movie (or the next day) or I wind up getting into the movie and turning the commentary off again.

I also started turning on the english subtitles so I could follow the movie during the commentary. Although, sometimes that leads to a lot of rewinding because I was reading instead of listening.

Baby Mama actually had subtitles for the commentary. Love that. I wouldn't have noticed that Amy Poehler called Tina Fey, "betty" several times during the commentary, without reading it.

I watch the commentary straight after the movie, and if the commentary reveals alot of interesting points about the movie to me, I'll watch the movie again.

Saw the Leslie Vernon director guy again recently Eyez, and told him I watched the movie 3 times and he freaked out. But he was genuinely interested in my opinion. He expressed to me that ppl misunderstood the film, and regard it as horror when he set out to make a comedy. He said it's a high concept comedy set in a horror movie. He just handed in his script for his next flick.

EDIT - Good technical commentary - The special release The Ususal Suspects. The John Ottman commentary, he was the editor AND did the music. Also, the Bryan Singer/Chris MacQuarrie commentary is good.

[nshady]

The DVDs of Lost often have about four or five commentaries per season, one every few episodes with the writers or stars or stuff. I think commentaries on TV shows are really good, because they point out the struggles of planning and writing a series.

[mrbook]

Last night watched the commentary for Baby Mama which was pretty funny. Thankfully Lorne Michaels only spoke about 3 times. Poehler and Fey were funny.

Mr.Show with Bob and David are great commentaries.

Orgazmo - they do it in Trey Parkers house and they (trey) finish a bottle of scotch and do several bong hits. It's rather wacky by the end.

Along with the commentary love for voice actors, I'll add Family Guy.

Thanks for mentioning Orgazmo. That is definitely up there on my list of funniest commentaries. They are so wasted by the end of the movie, they can barely form cohesive sentences. I also love it when Trey talks about the girlfriend that left him, and he says something along the lines of "Too bad you left me, since now I have a million dollars. WHOOPS!"

If you want to listen to unintentionally hilarious commentary, try anything by Uwe Boll. I listened to a good portion of "House Of The Dead." It's almost mind-numbing how delusional and up-his-own-ass that guy is.

[mrbook]

On an aside, I think its very telling how out of touch Lucas is with his own creation that I listened to his commentaries for episodes 1-3 and for the whole thing, he kept referring to lightsabers as "laser swords".

What the hell man.

I believe "laser sword" was the original name that Lucas used in the early drafts of SW. Maybe, he was trying to prove how IN touch he was with his original vision.

Yeah right.

[heyseuss]

Thanks for mentioning Orgazmo. That is definitely up there on my list of funniest commentaries. They are so wasted by the end of the movie, they can barely form cohesive sentences. I also love it when Trey talks about the girlfriend that left him, and he says something along the lines of "Too bad you left me, since now I have a million dollars. WHOOPS!"

Yeh, he's quite open in that commentary. I need to re-watch that commentary and do a drinking/weed hitting game with them, I've never heard a commentary like it.


[QUOTE]If you want to listen to unintentionally hilarious commentary, try anything by Uwe Boll. I listened to a good portion of "House Of The Dead." It's almost mind-numbing how delusional and up-his-own-ass that guy is

Don't think I'll ever do that, not with all the worthwhile funnies out there to view from people who deserve it. I don't want to watch Boll flicks with or without commentary.

Just watched complete season 2 of How I Met Your Mother - I love bloopers !