Best Commentary Track on a Blu-ray

[14728]

Just a question I've been wondering about for the past day or so.

[dallywhitty]

The ones for Evil Dead 2 and Resident Evil (there appears to be a theme here) are hilarious.

[Benjamin88]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

The ones for Evil Dead 2 and Resident Evil (there appears to be a theme here) are hilarious.

Haha, yes I agree

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

The ones for Evil Dead 2 and Resident Evil (there appears to be a theme here) are hilarious.

That Resident Evil commentary is one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

[Jakdonark]

Most of my favorites have already been listed (Carpenter, Scotts (both of them!), Fincher, PTA)

One of the funniest though I have to mention is the Commentary for the live action Jungle Book with Stephen Sommers. He mentions how King Louis was urinating on the green screen, and I think it was a lighting guy got sick while setting up lights in the temple because he was wading in the water and all the monkeys had been using that water for their "business". I'm trying to remember if he was laughing about it during the commentary, but either way overall it was funny. I wonder if that's part of the reason the disc is oop? Would have been a nice tie in with the new one. Also on the mummy he mentions that Arnold Vosloo was only wearing a thong under his robe so during the sandstorm scene his robe flew up and they had to alter the framing to hide it. Couldn't they have used cg?

[Losey]

F.F. Coppola's on The Godfather trilogy is consistently fascinating, so is his commentary on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Guillermo del Toro's are all great, too. Robert Altman was low-key but very interesting as well on the ones he did such as Thieves Like Us, Nasheville, 3 Women and The Player. On a side note, my least favorite director when it comes to commentary tracks is Tim Burton. He always sounds incredibly bored.

[GeoffOliver]

I've always loved the commentary for The Wizard of Oz. It's mostly with film historian John Frickie, but it has some interesting archive clips from the film's cast and crew. Even though Frickie was obviously reading most of what he was saying, the information is still pretty extensive. I think it covers far more ground than any documentary about the film. I've listened to it several times over the years. Sam Staggs' All About Eve commentary is really interesting too. I far prefer commentaries like that that focus on the background and production of a film, instead of "chatty" commentaries with the participants joking around. Actually, I like them better in general with only one participant, as long as they're engaged without too many pauses.

[Michael24]

Any commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is great.

[harpolini]

Originally Posted by Michael24

Any commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is great.

Carpenter/Bridges on Starman as well!

[The Debts]

Ridley Scott usually has great commentaries. Bonkers but full of info. There's even a great series of videos that pull funniest bits from them if you want to check them out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...fl_DqnxEpJgbhw

Originally Posted by Losey

F.F. Coppola's on The Godfather trilogy is consistently fascinating, so is his commentary on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Guillermo del Toro's are all great, too. Robert Altman was low-key but very interesting as well on the ones he did such as Thieves Like Us, Nasheville, 3 Women and The Player. On a side note, my least favorite director when it comes to commentary tracks is Tim Burton. He always sounds incredibly bored.

For that matter, Coppola's track on Apocalypse Now is AMAZING. +1 to Del Toro, too.

[Michael24]

Haven't heard it myself but I've been told the commentary on The Sum of All Fears is great, because author Tom Clancy just constantly rips the movie the whole time, even with the director right there next to him.

Originally Posted by harpolini

Carpenter/Bridges on Starman as well!

I think that's the only Carpenter commentary I've yet to hear. Heard it was great, though.

[PowellPressburger]

Robert Kolker - Taxi Driver

Roger Ebert - Dark City, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Nick Redman, Lem Dobbs - Double Indemnity and any other TT commentary also featuring Julie Kirgo

John Canemaker featured on Fantasia.

Alan Jones, Kim Newman - Bird with a Crystal Plumage and any others featuring them.

Tim Lucas - Any commentary mainly on Region B locked Bava titles

Hysteria Continues - Listened to their track for Satans Blade Arrow UK BLU last nite loved it.

Tales of Hoffmann - sadly just on the US Criterion DVD only so far.

Bound - love it when Tilly comes into the track out of breath. It's an awesome track

Walter Murch - The Conversation

Carl Macek - Heavy Metal (rough cut version)

Phillip Kaufmann - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Alain Silver and James Ursini - Kiss Me Deadly

Soderbergh, Gilroy - The Third Man

Eddie Mueller Woman on the Run

Alan K Rode - Too Late for Tears

Criterion offers many great commentaries but....

There are also many boring worthless commentaries are out there. Or many with a lot of dead air, like someone should have said please talk! 3 Days of the Condor by the late Sydney Pollack I want to like but I don't think I could ever finish it way too much dead air.

I especially hate when someone just comments on the action on screen, I love William Friedkin but ugh that Vertigo commentary drives me crazy.

[Ruemorgue10]

The commentary track on Used Cars with Kurt Russell, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale is my favorite. Informative but also funny as hell.

[Michael24]

Originally Posted by Ruemorgue10

The commentary track on Used Cars with Kurt Russell, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale is my favorite. Informative but also funny as hell.

When I rented that awhile back I listened to a bit of the commentary and it was hilarious. Seriously, I think Kurt Russell should just do commentaries in his spare time, even for movies he wasn't in. The guy is a riot and those fits of laughter are hysterical!

[MTBright]

Originally Posted by Ruemorgue10

The commentary track on Used Cars with Kurt Russell, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale is my favorite. Informative but also funny as hell.

I second this, very entertaining

[imsounoriginal]

Tropic Thunder
40 Year Old Virgin
Anything by Fincher, Soderbergh (including Chinatown), or Ridley Scott

[Michael24]

The very first commentary I ever heard was Scream with Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson. And it was on VHS! When it came out I bought a collector's edition box set that had two copies of the movie in widescreen. The case for tape two said "Audio Commentary." My family never owned Laserdiscs, so I had no idea what this 'commentary' thing was and thought maybe it was just an interview. So I popped it into the VCR and sat enthralled for the next two hours. I loved it and thinking it was a new concept was like "This is awesome! I hope they start doing this for more movies." Haha!

Originally Posted by Gerby

Samurai Cop - Joe Bob Briggs.

The first time I stumbled across this clip with his commentary, I was like "I need to get this just for Joe Bob."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXczvXxdspE

Originally Posted by obscurelabel

James Stewart on Winchester 73. This is from all the way back in the laserdisc days and is a great listen if you like Stewart (who doesn't?). He talks about the movie at hand, although not really specific to scenes, and then goes on to discuss his entire career over 90 minutes. Great.

Wow! I had no idea that existed. I've only seen the movie once when I was a kid but I remember liking it. Knowing there's a Jimmy Stewart commentary makes me want to get the DVD now.

Originally Posted by Jakdonark

One of the funniest though I have to mention is the Commentary for the live action Jungle Book with Stephen Sommers. He mentions how King Louis was urinating on the green screen, and I think it was a lighting guy got sick while setting up lights in the temple because he was wading in the water and all the monkeys had been using that water for their "business". I'm trying to remember if he was laughing about it during the commentary, but either way overall it was funny.

Sommers' commentaries are pretty fun. I wish there was one for Deep Rising.

[Member-167298]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

Tim Lucas - Any commentary mainly on Region B locked Bava titles

Watching a movie I enjoy with a commentary is one of my favorite things in the world. As far as informative commentaries are concerned, Lucas is pretty much at the top of my list.

As far as entertaining, I gotta go with the Carpenter / Russell commentaries.

Also, the Abel Ferrara commentary for King of New York is incredibly entertaining. When he pulled out a guitar and started playing over the end credits, I lost it.

[bigdaddyhorse]

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

Also, the Abel Ferrara commentary for King of New York is incredibly entertaining. When he pulled out a guitar and started playing over the end credits, I lost it.

This was a relieving commentary after his legendary one for Driller Killer (dvd only) where he sounds ****ed out of his mind on drugs (gotta be) and is near incoherent. Still amazingly entertaining, esp. knowing he made it back from wherever he was when recording that.

[Gerby]

Goodfellas - (The Cop & Crook) The real Henry Hill & FBI agent Edward McDonald.
The Goonies - Richard Donner & The Goonies.
Samurai Cop - Joe Bob Briggs.