Best/favorite DVD commentaries?
March 12, 2019 10:44 AM Subscribe
I recently watched Twilight with the voice-over commentary by the director and two main stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Pattinson, who I think may been drunk or stoned at the time, kind of rips on the movie the entire time in a very funny way. I loved it, and would love to watch other movies with great commentaries. What would people suggest? They can be funny, especially interesting, just unique in some sort of way. Thanks!
Arnold Schwarzenegger gives an entertaining commentary.
I remember the track on the Robocop criterion disc was great, and that also applies to Verhoven's track on Starship Troopers. The Ebert one on Citizen Kane is a good one. I hear that John Carpenter's commentaries are fun.
posted by Dmenet at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
I remember the track on the Robocop criterion disc was great, and that also applies to Verhoven's track on Starship Troopers. The Ebert one on Citizen Kane is a good one. I hear that John Carpenter's commentaries are fun.
posted by Dmenet at 10:56 AM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
The commentary for the Thing is just Carpenter and Kurt Russell hanging out which is great if you think you’d like that.
Gone Girl includes a bunch of apparently well-deserved digs at Affleck.
posted by griphus at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Gone Girl includes a bunch of apparently well-deserved digs at Affleck.
posted by griphus at 11:00 AM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Darkness Falls, a horror movie with 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, has a great commentary track by the extremely bitter screenwriter, who talks throughout about how much better the movie was in his original conception than what made it to screen, and how it got ruined along the way.
posted by ejs at 11:06 AM on March 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by ejs at 11:06 AM on March 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
The commentary for the musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog contains an entire second musical, sung by the cast and writers.
posted by phoenixy at 11:08 AM on March 12, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by phoenixy at 11:08 AM on March 12, 2019 [9 favorites]
I rented the DVD set Herzog / Kinski (ISBN: 9786307110215 ) at a time in my life when I didn’t have internet and was incredibly bored, and ended up watching all the movies with Herzog’s commentary, which was hilarious because it was basically about how insane Klaus Kinski was in just about the whole film, for each one. Fitzcarraldo was my favorite for this because the making of the movie was even crazier than Kinski.
posted by permiechickie at 11:10 AM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by permiechickie at 11:10 AM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
My personal favorite is the commentary from This is Spinal Tap (1984)
The commentary is with the cast, but they're all in character. It's hysterical, like a whole new film.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2019 [18 favorites]
The commentary is with the cast, but they're all in character. It's hysterical, like a whole new film.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2019 [18 favorites]
Slightly tangential, but I can highly recommend RiffTrax if you're into meta-commentary-as-comedy. Their Twilight riffs are some of the best.
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:15 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:15 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Resident Evil.
The commentary is by the director, the set designer (?), Michelle Rodriguez and Milla Jovovich.
You know you're in for a treat when 5 minutes in the set designer is talking about the set and Michelle goes "Oh my god, are you going to talk the ENTIRE time!?".
The whole thing devolves into Michella and Milla just ripping into the movie (including an amazing segue into how amazing Half-Life is from Michelle).
Totally worth a watch n listen.
posted by Snuffman at 11:18 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
The commentary is by the director, the set designer (?), Michelle Rodriguez and Milla Jovovich.
You know you're in for a treat when 5 minutes in the set designer is talking about the set and Michelle goes "Oh my god, are you going to talk the ENTIRE time!?".
The whole thing devolves into Michella and Milla just ripping into the movie (including an amazing segue into how amazing Half-Life is from Michelle).
Totally worth a watch n listen.
posted by Snuffman at 11:18 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
I don't have anything specific to recommend but this feature I like to read from time to time.
Commentary Commentary: The Film School Rejects team explores the latest and most interesting filmmaker commentary tracks for movies and TV shows.
posted by ringu0 at 11:26 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
Commentary Commentary: The Film School Rejects team explores the latest and most interesting filmmaker commentary tracks for movies and TV shows.
posted by ringu0 at 11:26 AM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
The commentary for Aliens on the Alien Quadrilogy box set is one of my all time favorites. Especially the section that's the actors* just talking shit and telling story about their shenanigans during filming. Cameron tells some good stories about the difficulties filming the movie. It's basically exactly what I wanted for one of my favorite films.
*There's a segment where I think Biehn and Paxton (RIP) talk about the little girl who plays Newt and how she didn't do anymore acting and they're like, "Yeah, she grew up and has a real life now!"/"Good for her!" in a way that's really hysterical.
posted by Aquifer at 11:39 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
*There's a segment where I think Biehn and Paxton (RIP) talk about the little girl who plays Newt and how she didn't do anymore acting and they're like, "Yeah, she grew up and has a real life now!"/"Good for her!" in a way that's really hysterical.
posted by Aquifer at 11:39 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
The director's commentary to any of John Waters' films is well worth seeking out the DVDs.
posted by montbrarian at 12:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by montbrarian at 12:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Came in to say Spinal Tap - so glad someone beat me to the punch!
posted by Mchelly at 12:08 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 12:08 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Thor: Ragnarok commentary by Taika Waititi, featuring a cameo by his two-year-old daughter.
posted by 100kb at 12:24 PM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by 100kb at 12:24 PM on March 12, 2019 [4 favorites]
The commentary track to Mystery Men explains a lot about why the movie turned out the way it did—multiple scripts, focus group feedback, etc. It’s also funny to listen to the director say “[Actor/Actress] was super nice” about just about everyone who appears on screen.
posted by creepygirl at 12:32 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by creepygirl at 12:32 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
"Fight Club" has the usual tracks with director David Fincher and some major castmembers, but of the several tracks on offer, the one I really enjoyed was the one with Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the short story (while goldbricking at work, writing on a clipboard under a Freightliner truck he was supposed to be fixing) and the novel that followed, along with Jim Uhls, who wrote the screenplay. Both of them had to solve the story problems in different ways according to the rules of their respective media, and both of them had a mutual appreciation for the other that made for a terrific conversation. You get a lot of the genesis of the movie's ideas from Palahniuk, along with the solutions to adapting some of the novel's peculiarities from Uhls, such as the narrator character who has no idea how unreliable he is, into the visual medium. Likewise they had to target their rating; a few lines of Palahniuk's book were to spicy to bear for the studio.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:54 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Sunburnt at 12:54 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
UHF has great commentary from Weird Al.
posted by bile and syntax at 1:06 PM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by bile and syntax at 1:06 PM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
Julie Andrews, "Victor Victoria" (20th anniversary edition I think). Andrews always comes off to me as the smartest person in the room in any interview situation and she alternates between performance commentary and homage to Preston and Garner. Edwards is a bit more subdued, which is bittersweet knowing about his long-term health struggles.
For "Blood Simple," the Coen Brothers got an actor to play fake cinema critic Kenneth Loring, who delivered a hilarious riftrack that combines the literal with pure bullshit about rain filmed backwards, an alternate ending, and animatronic dogs. All done in the Criterion cinema critic voice.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:49 PM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
For "Blood Simple," the Coen Brothers got an actor to play fake cinema critic Kenneth Loring, who delivered a hilarious riftrack that combines the literal with pure bullshit about rain filmed backwards, an alternate ending, and animatronic dogs. All done in the Criterion cinema critic voice.
posted by GenderNullPointerException at 1:49 PM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
Here is my prior suggestion, in a similar AskMe thread in 2013.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:51 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by filthy light thief at 1:51 PM on March 12, 2019
The cast commentary on The Simpsons Movie is informative and hilarious.
posted by StoicRomance at 1:53 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by StoicRomance at 1:53 PM on March 12, 2019
The commentary on the DVD's of Futurama is like a master class on comedy writing.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 2:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
The commentary on Bubba Hotep is gold.
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:46 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by OrangeDisk at 2:46 PM on March 12, 2019
PCU has a funny director's commentary. The movie was filmed in Canada, and he spends half the movie pointing out which extras are Canadian. It kind of becomes a running joke. He'll be talking about something, and then he'll just stop and say "Canadians" as a group of people comes onscreen. I guess it's not that funny, but I laughed.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:47 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by kevinbelt at 2:47 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Long ago, I found a DVD of the 1966 Batman movie in the $5 bin at Target, and it’s a pretty fun movie on its own but the commentary by Adam West and Burt Ward is a delight.
posted by mskyle at 3:14 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by mskyle at 3:14 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Monty Python's Life of Brian and Holy Grail have great commentary tracks. IIRC, Holy Grail has two separate tracs,k each with different cast members
posted by Gorgik at 5:20 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by Gorgik at 5:20 PM on March 12, 2019
Ah, Emma Thompson doing the commentary for Sense and Sensibility (1995). Every bit as good as you would expect it to be.
posted by Preserver at 6:32 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Preserver at 6:32 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you enjoy the show Leverage, the commentaries are entertaining and they have commentaryfor every episode! ("WHY are there so many praying mantises?!")
Similarly, Farscape has some great and often informative commentary on selected episodes. They definitely don't take things too seriously: in the commentary for "Jeremiah Crichton, " the creators/writers and two of the actors discuss and joke about why that episode is terrible.
posted by wiskunde at 7:21 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Similarly, Farscape has some great and often informative commentary on selected episodes. They definitely don't take things too seriously: in the commentary for "Jeremiah Crichton, " the creators/writers and two of the actors discuss and joke about why that episode is terrible.
posted by wiskunde at 7:21 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
I love Tarantino’s early commentaries- True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers. He talks about his influences and tells really candid stories.
posted by Dwardles at 7:31 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by Dwardles at 7:31 PM on March 12, 2019
I loved the DVD commentary for Waking Life as much as the movie itself. Richard Linklater and Wiley Wiggins hang out and talk to each other about the ideas that they put into the story. It's enough to make you want to move to Austin, Texas.
I used to rent DVDs from my great local indie video store, and since I had them for 3 days I would watch not only the movie but all the extras, special features, and commentaries. One thing I really don't like about "streaming" is that you don't get anything but the bare main video. Why is so much "progress" in the 21st century giving you less and less? Commentaries rule!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 7:38 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I used to rent DVDs from my great local indie video store, and since I had them for 3 days I would watch not only the movie but all the extras, special features, and commentaries. One thing I really don't like about "streaming" is that you don't get anything but the bare main video. Why is so much "progress" in the 21st century giving you less and less? Commentaries rule!
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 7:38 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Lord of the Rings films have commentaries from both the filmmakers and the cast. The filmmaker one is interesting from a standpoint of learning about all the challenges of bringing the books to the screen; the cast one is mostly amusing stories from the hobbit actors.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:51 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 7:51 PM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
Schwarzenegger and Milius' commentary on 'Conan the Barbarian' (1982) is... entertaining. They both get drunker as they go along and Arnold pretty unconstrained, (paraphrase) "Yeah, I remember her. I banged her so hard! Ha ha ha."
posted by porpoise at 8:04 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by porpoise at 8:04 PM on March 12, 2019
The Rules of Attraction has an entire commentary track by Carrot Top, who is not affiliated with the movie in any way and is definitely watching it for the first time during the recording.
posted by notheotherone at 10:03 PM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by notheotherone at 10:03 PM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
Available only on the VIP Limited Edition of the "Showgirls" DVD, there is an audio track of the monologist David Schmader, recreating a show he toured in which the audience watches the execrable movie and delivers his critique. It's a well-practiced, well-delivered roasting of the movie that is just bad to its core. It's really the only way to enjoy watching this movie.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:51 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Sunburnt at 11:51 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
Seconding Schwarzenegger commentaries. Especially Total Recall. He and Verhoeven are pretty funny together. Schwarzenegger likes to enthusiastically describe whatever is happening on screen if nobody else is talking.
James Mangold, Bruce Campbell and Abel Ferrara are entertaining people and I would recommend any of their commentaries.
I recently watched The Dark Half with commentary and found it pretty entertaining too. I was taken aback by the amount of negative things the cast had to say about one of the stars in particular. I feel like that doesn't happen too often.
Sledge Hammer! and Breaking Bad both have good commentary tracks that are both fun and informative.
To Live and Die in L.A. is another good one.
posted by heatvision at 4:37 AM on March 13, 2019
James Mangold, Bruce Campbell and Abel Ferrara are entertaining people and I would recommend any of their commentaries.
I recently watched The Dark Half with commentary and found it pretty entertaining too. I was taken aback by the amount of negative things the cast had to say about one of the stars in particular. I feel like that doesn't happen too often.
Sledge Hammer! and Breaking Bad both have good commentary tracks that are both fun and informative.
To Live and Die in L.A. is another good one.
posted by heatvision at 4:37 AM on March 13, 2019
PCU has a funny director's commentary. The movie was filmed in Canada, and he spends half the movie pointing out which extras are Canadian. It kind of becomes a running joke. He'll be talking about something, and then he'll just stop and say "Canadians" as a group of people comes onscreen. I guess it's not that funny, but I laughed.
If it helps sell you on this, the director of PCU played Ellis the cokehead 80s business-douche in Die Hard.
Also I've always loved the commentary on Zodiac with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr, and (on the same track but not recorded at the same time as those two, they cut back and forth) the screenwriter, one of the producers, and James Ellroy. Ellroy is both very knowledgeable about the real case and really funny.
posted by doctornecessiter at 11:20 AM on March 13, 2019
If it helps sell you on this, the director of PCU played Ellis the cokehead 80s business-douche in Die Hard.
Also I've always loved the commentary on Zodiac with Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr, and (on the same track but not recorded at the same time as those two, they cut back and forth) the screenwriter, one of the producers, and James Ellroy. Ellroy is both very knowledgeable about the real case and really funny.
posted by doctornecessiter at 11:20 AM on March 13, 2019
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's commentary, with stars Robert Downey Junior and Val Kilmer, plus director Shane Black, is nearly as funny as the film itself.
Seconding the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I believe each 3-hour-plus movie has 4 separate commentary options: the actors, the director/writers/producers, the design artists, and the practical effects team (I believe). Just listening to all of the commentaries on each of the movies could take weeks, and they're all fascinating in their own way (if you're looking for comedy, look no further than the parts of the actor commentary where the four hobbits are talking).
posted by tzikeh at 7:30 PM on March 13, 2019
Seconding the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I believe each 3-hour-plus movie has 4 separate commentary options: the actors, the director/writers/producers, the design artists, and the practical effects team (I believe). Just listening to all of the commentaries on each of the movies could take weeks, and they're all fascinating in their own way (if you're looking for comedy, look no further than the parts of the actor commentary where the four hobbits are talking).
posted by tzikeh at 7:30 PM on March 13, 2019
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the other two LOTR commentaries. They're a lot drier, but if you're into how effects work or whatever, definitely of value.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:30 PM on March 13, 2019
posted by Chrysostom at 8:30 PM on March 13, 2019
I'm a big fan of Harold Ramis (RIP) and love the commentaries he did for his films, Groundhog Day, Stripes (with producer Ivan Reitman) and The Ice Harvest. The cast and crew commentaries on Freaks & Geeks are great and informative and fun. Alan Arkin and Peter Falk do a commentary track for The In-Laws that's almost as funny as the movie.
posted by stennieville at 9:27 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by stennieville at 9:27 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have listened to all of Oliver Stone & David Fincher's commentaries easily 20 times each. They both have very substantive commentaries. A huge plus if you are a fan of their films
posted by kbbbo at 8:26 AM on March 14, 2019
posted by kbbbo at 8:26 AM on March 14, 2019
Not a lot of experience in this but watched the commentary for School of Rock and enjoyed it.
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:27 AM on March 14, 2019
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:27 AM on March 14, 2019
The commentary for the Criterion Collection release of Schizopolis is Steven Soderbergh interviewing himself. Azimuth T. Schwitters would be proud.
posted by the matching mole at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by the matching mole at 11:10 AM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
A while ago, my wife and I finally watched Citizen Kane, then the next day decided to check out the first few minutes of Ebert's commentary just to get a taste of it. We ended up watching the whole film again.
posted by dfan at 1:25 PM on March 14, 2019
posted by dfan at 1:25 PM on March 14, 2019
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posted by Capt. Renault at 10:53 AM on March 12, 2019