Audio Commentary Best and Worst

[Tommy0807]

I love John Waters' commentaries.

[Cat III]

Ladies and Gentleman, the Fabulous Stains has a commentary from the director that is mostly dead air. It's minutes into the film before he says anything.

The Man Who Wasn't There is good. Only Coen brothers movie I know of that they've done a commentary for. Plus Billy Bob Thornton is funny throughout. The Coens also wrote a mock commentary from a fake film historian for Blood Simple. It's hilarious. Honestly, it's funnier than most comedies.

Jack-O has one of the best, done by the director and producer. The director gets really angry at the producer's criticisms and ends up storming out of the studio, only to come back and storm out again before the credits roll. I believe their last words to each other are, "F*** you." That, along with Linnea Quigley natch, makes the movie worth seeing.

Troma's Lloyd Kaufman always does good work. He's informative, funny, and able to talk the entire length of the film. For the 21st anniversary edition of The Toxic Avenger he did a track with a "fan" that's pretty funny.

[Show spoiler]In the end the fan shoots him, of course.

Class of Nuke 'Em High 3 has a commentary from an actual fan that is abysmal. He rarely talks, is difficult to understand when he does, and only ever recounts what's happening right in front of you. Terrible movie, terrible commentary.

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

Originally Posted by Cat III

Ladies and Gentleman, the Fabulous Stains has a commentary from the director that is mostly dead air. It's minutes into the film before he says anything.

The Man Who Wasn't There is good. Only Coen brothers movie I know of that they've done a commentary for. Plus Billy Bob Thornton is funny throughout. The Coens also wrote a mock commentary from a fake film historian for Blood Simple. It's hilarious. Honestly, it's funnier than most comedies.

Jack-O has one of the best, done by the director and producer. The director gets really angry at the producer's criticisms and ends up storming out of the studio, only to come back and storm out again before the credits roll. I believe their last words to each other are, "F*** you." That, along with Linnea Quigley natch, makes the movie worth seeing.

Troma's Lloyd Kaufman always does good work. He's informative, funny, and able to talk the entire length of the film. For the 21st anniversary edition of The Toxic Avenger he did a track with a "fan" that's pretty funny.

[Show spoiler]In the end the fan shoots him, of course.

Class of Nuke 'Em High 3 has a commentary from an actual fan that is abysmal. He rarely talks, is difficult to understand when he does, and only ever recounts what's happening right in front of you. Terrible movie, terrible commentary.

I've seen that movie. Just so bad. But i heard someone bring up the infamous "sh*t pickle" comment that makes the director get mad.

[captveg]

The commentary on Seven Samurai is the best one I've heard.

[crutzulee]

While I can't pick just one "worst" commentary track from being spoiled for choice...I definitely think the one originally recorded by Tarantino and Rodriguez for the FROM DUSK TILL DAWN laserdisc is the most fun I have ever had listening.
For any Tarantino fan lamenting the fact that he never does these, it's a must listen...its just as well that he doesn't regularly record them as none could top this one..
It's just fun to listen to these two great film lovers and friends banter about such a fun film to watch and get an insight into how great it was for them to work on this project before either of them could have had a concept of how big both of them would become.

[Owlstrike]

Conan The Barbarian is by far the greatest commentary ever recorded. Arnold and the director argue over what the film is about, pretend to be eachother, awkward silences and when it's turned up you can clearly hear a lighter clicking and someone hitting a bong... The whole experience seems to be recorded under the influence. Watching that commentary is what I consider one of my favorite comedies.

[SymbioticFunction]

There's a commentary track with Dario Argento where he gets up and leaves the room LONG BEFORE the conclusion of the movie. Because he's so unhappy with the utterly daft moderator/interviewer. It's on one of the US Anchor Bay dvds, either Tenebre or Phenomena (I forget which).

[MechaGodzilla]

Guillermo del Toro's commentary on Pacific Rim is one I especially enjoyed, he spends a large amount of time just gushing over the mecha anime and Japanese monster movies that inspired him in the making of the film. He talks about it with such genuine passion, love and surprising knowledge that it's a joy to listen to, especially as a fellow fan.

[Awesome Sauce]

A couple good ones:
- This Is Spinal Tap (it's essentially the three characters watching their own movie)
- Hot Fuzz (there's one with Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino)

[notops]

Best:
Quentin Tarantino True Romance
David Peoples & Hampton Fancher Blade Runner: The Final Cut
John Carpenter & Kurt Russell The Thing (actually ANY commentary with
Kurt in it)
David Fincher, Brad Pitt & Edward Norton Fight Club
Sacha Baron Cohen & Larry Charles Bruno

Worst:
Paul Verhoeven & Arnold Schwarzenegger Total Recall
Kevin Smith Tusk (the most self-congratulatory commentary ever)
Richard Donner Lethal Weapon 2 Lethal Weapon 3

Funniest:
Adam McKay & Ian Roberts Talladega Nights

[khan1670]

I generally like commentaries a lot but these are some of my faves

Best:
John Carpenter & Kurt Russell - The Thing
Roger Ebert - Dark City
Del Toro - Pans Labyrinth
Fincher - Zodiac and Dragon Tattoo
Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood - 2001

Also like Peter Jackson's commentaries for the most part.
I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of other good ones.



Worst:
Talladega Nights - A parody of commentary tracks that is totally not funny....

[L-Rouge]

Originally Posted by Owlstrike

Conan The Barbarian is by far the greatest commentary ever recorded. Arnold and the director argue over what the film is about, pretend to be eachother, awkward silences and when it's turned up you can clearly hear a lighter clicking and someone hitting a bong... The whole experience seems to be recorded under the influence. Watching that commentary is what I consider one of my favorite comedies.

I've listened to that one, was interesting for sure. Arnold must have hated the sequel. but hitting a bong? I'm totally keen to hear that, was it Arnold?, from memory he was a little incoherent.

[AaronJ]

Originally Posted by EvilResident

My favorite, hands down, is Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez in the first Resident Evil. Hilarious. It's the only commentary I've listened to several times.

The worst is anything where they just describe what's happening on screen for the entire movie (like The Exorcist).

The RE commentary is absolutely hilarious. I like the movie a good deal, but I'd almost have to say that the commentary is even more entertaining.

Fincher's commentaries are usually excellent because he seems to genuinely want to inform you. You learn a good deal listening to them.

There are a lot of excellent scholarly commentaries, especially on Criterion discs.

And I absolutely agree that the Scream commentary is great. You can really sense how passionate both Craven and Williamson were.

[Yeti4928]

Best: Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2: James Newman, Lee Harry and Joe Earle.

Worst: Edward Scissorhands: Tim Burton.

[Kill Bren]

the laserdisc commentary for Evil Dead 2 (with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, Scott Spiegel and Greg Nicotero) is so good, that it was re-used for dvd and blu-ray releases.

[Monterey Jack]

Originally Posted by Yeti4928

Worst: Edward Scissorhands

Any solo commentary with Tim Burton is a snooze.

"This is a cool shot. I'm not exactly sure why..." [long pause, laughs]

[$plash]

not the best but i watched Ben Affleck's commentary on The Town extended cut/alternate ending the other night. you can see why hes a good director, extremely informative entertaining commentary track. recommended for those that like the movie.

[SilentDawn]

The Blu-ray of Boogie Nights has two commentary tracks, and one is amazing and one is pretty dull.

The good one is just PTA going through the film, and It's one of the most absorbing commentaries that I've heard.

The bad one is PTA with a variety of guests, and it eventually becomes a track of aimless noise and conversations without context.

[Jacob Anderson]

Originally Posted by Michael Bay Fan

And the certain things they could do since he was only 17 at the time. So if they wanted him to leave they just draw a pic of a d*ck and he'd have to leave the room.

It's not even that big of a deal, something like 8 percent of kids do it

[SolidRaider]

Best:

Batman - by Tim Burton
Batman Returns - by Tim Burton
American Pie 1 & 2 - Cast

Worst:

Star Wars - boring.