I trawled through my DVD collection yesterday to see which discs had commentaries on them, as they’ve always been a draw in buying DVDs, even though I rarely ever listen to them. In fact, I think I have only ever got round to listening to the ones on Phoenix Nights, Spinal Tap and Shaun of the Dead.
Anyway, I’ve just listened to the excellent commentary by Marcus Hearn and Jonathan Rigby on the 2012 BFI restoration of Hammer’s Dracula and really enjoyed it, so I wondered if anyone else ever got round to listening to them and if there are any that you’d recommend?
I’m looking forward to listening to the James Bond ones and Christopher Lee does a couple of Hammer ones that should be entertaining. I’m also led to believe the actors commentary on Hot Fuzz and the Robert Downey Jnr/Val Kilmer one on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang are a hoot.
So, what else? And which ones are rubbish?
Bingo Little says
Schwarzenegger. Total Recall.
Thank me later.
Bingo Little says
http://www.mandatory.com/2012/07/24/schwarzeneggers-hilarious-total-recall-dvd-commentary/
Voila!
MC Escher says
*gets kicked in nuts by Sharon Stone* “ha ha… that hurt…”
I will save this for later. “Up and at them!”
Zanti Misfit says
My favourites:
League Of Gentlemen BBC TV series
Chopper
Divine Madness promo collection
Zanti Misfit says
And of course, the best DVD commentary ever
H.P. Saucecraft says
Sideways. A great movie with an unselfconsciously hilarious commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church, who are obviously very sharp and very funny guys. You’ll laugh as much as they do, and that’s a lot.
First Men In Black.
RChappo says
The one for Shane Meadows’ “Dead Men’s Shoes” is good. Also for music DVDs the commentaries on Wilco’s “I AmTrying To Break Your Heart” and Crowded House’s “Farewell To The World” are entertaining.
Hawkfall says
John Waters’s commentary on the Pecker DVD is wonderful. It’s basically an hour and a half of hime talking about his career and modern cinema with every now and again a comment on something that’s happening in the film.
Sniffity says
“Catch-22” has a commentary by director Mike Nichols and Steven Soderbergh that’s well worth the listen.
Sniffity says
And “Zardoz” has a great commentary by writer/director John Boorman….how many times would you ever hear a director say “You could probably fast forward through this part”
Rob C says
‘Zardoz’ was filmed in my house, albeit a couple of years earlier. A big old place in Wicklow that I lived in for a few years as a child. I didn’t see the film until ten years or so later. It was quite an odd feeling seeing Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling and John Alderton in places I knew so well and that I used to play in.
Kid Dynamite says
I think most people get an odd feeling when they see Sean Connery in Zardoz
http://i1058.photobucket.com/albums/t407/maggieloveshopey/zq1bry9_zpsq8wyxhbu.jpg
Rob C says
Hence my love of scarlet undercrackers.
MC Escher says
There’s a fabulous PhD study waiting to happen, I think: Male Menopause in the Movies. You know, where the lead is still a sexual tyrant whom women find irresistible (they just can’t help themselves really) or a male so alpha that other men instinctively just accept their own submissive position.
I can’t decide whether it’s best when it’s just unbelievably overdone (like young Sean here), or just over the line into Feeling Slightly Embarrassed territory.
H.P. Saucecraft says
You would, Mauritz.
paulwright says
24 hour part people has Tony Wilson giving his version of the fictionalised version of the Factory records story. Very funny and interesting.
fentonsteve says
Seconded. Made I larf.
fatima Xberg says
24 Hour Party People also has a second “commentary” where you see (and hear) Peter Hook and mates sitting in a studio, with the movie running on a portable TV in the background, and chatting about what they see.
Lando Cakes says
Better than the film!
Kid Dynamite says
Any one with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell together – they are obviously great friends who are enjoying each other’s company. Might as well start with The Thing, seeing as it’s a brilliant movie.
Junglejim says
Totally agree KD – I have watched The Thing several times with their commentary & enjoyed it every time.
F*ck, I love that movie!
MC Escher says
For sheer jaw-dropping lack of self awareness, look up any of the Danny Dyer commentaries, which have been uploaded to Youtube for our pleasure, and were quite the meme back in “the day”.
Mousey says
Everyone tells me Treme is great. I love the idea of it, I love New Orleans music, I loved The Wire etc etc.
So I watch the first ep. Baffling. Less than impressed.
So I watch it again, with the DVD commentary. Interesting. Understood. I love it.
Have I watched any more?
No.
This probably says more about me and my inability to watch huge amounts of TV (let alone have the time or inclination to do i) than anything else, but also I did think the commentary was great.
It’s just that – who the fuck has time to watch these things???
Yours truly
Someone who’s quite busy…
Campo says
Here’s a few good ones. The Cameron Crowe and his mom one especially:
http://www.avclub.com/article/commentary-tracks-of-the-blessed-1458
Poppy Succeeds says
Christopher Lee’s terribly condescending on his Hammer ones but his Wicker Man one is great. He’s still a pompous ass, of course, but not at the expense of the material on this occasion.
As far as British horror goes, any commentary featuring David Mcgillivray is always a scream. Norman J Warren is great on Inseminoid, and Michael Armstrong’s Mark of the Devil one is really good, too. Approach Witchfinder General with caution. They give away a couple of things that *slightly* spoiled my appreciation of the film
Gatz says
The Wicker Man commentary is helped by Lee’s polite incredulity at some of the claims made by Edward Woodward, who was clearly delightfully barking. ‘Remember when I was inside the man, but I’d had a bump on the head so they had to paint my lines on bed-sheets and hang them on a cliff so I could read them!?’ ‘Erm, no – I can’t say I recall that.’
DogFacedBoy says
The League Of Gentlemen (Gattis, Pemberton, Shearsmith) do excellent commentary on ‘Theatre Of Blood’ & ‘Blood On Satan’s Claw’.
And Roger Moore actually sounds interested when talking about ‘The Man Who Haunted Himself’
Poppy Succeeds says
We ought to have a thread for disappointing ones. Apocalypto would be mine. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it’s an incredible film and was really looking forward to hearing more about the rationale behind it. Gibson gives virtually nothing away about the decision-making or the process, concentrating more on a stream of crappy anecdotes about messing about with the crew.
Bingo Little says
I’ve not seen the commentary, but Apocalypto is an enormously powerful film. Stayed with me for a long time after first viewing, as all the best flicks do.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Apocalypto Now was pretty impressive too.
Bingo Little says
I love the Mel of napalm in the morning.
Poppy Succeeds says
It’s great, isn’t it? Any film that is structured as a long chase (e.g. Mad Max Fury Road) you have me at hello.
Bingo Little says
There’s just something really visceral about the whole thing. The fact that it’s one long chase is part of that, but it’s also incredibly cold and brutal, and it feels a little bit like it’s peeling back the artifice of civilization and showing you what really lies in the hearts of men (quite literally, in one particular scene). Great ending too.
Rob C says
Apocalypso ? A bloodbath in hawaiian shorts to the sound of steel drums and shrieking ?
Catholicism fucks you up.
Cookieboy says
Don’t listen to them much but I really enjoyed the director rabbiting on for Field of Dreams, it’s full of asides like “See that man in the centre of the screen? What he’s doing makes no sense at all. I just needed something there to fill out the frame”
The worst I ever heard was William Friedkin for The Exorcist, he was simply telling us what was happening, “she goes to the door, she opens the door” and I was thinking “I can see that!” It was like cinema for the blind. I turned it off after about 20 minutes
DogFacedBoy says
Mel Brooks does that as well.
DogFacedBoy says
Doctor Who ones natch – Caves Of Androzani \ Genesis Of the Daleks \ Spearhead From Space and the hidden one on Five Doctors with David Tennant and producers Phil Collinson and Helen Raynor.
Fight Club – Fincher, Norton, Pitt and Bonham Carter having a damn good time
Hot Fuzz – I enjoy all the Pegg\Frost\Wright commentaries but the one with the thesps Kenneth Cranham, Timothy Dalton, Paul Freeman & Edward Woodward on this mostly telling stories is a delight. Dalton’s reaction to Adam Buxton’s demise is particularly funny.
Spinal Tap – all the commentaries – the in character one on the recent releases and the Rob Reiner and co and the band out of character on the Criterion edition.
Mallrats – Kevin Smith, Jay, Jason Lee and Ben “Phantoms” Affleck ripping into the released edit and often into Ben Affleck.
dai says
I am always glad they are there, but rarely listen to them. As someone said it’s like trying to watch a film in the cinema and the guy next to you keeps talking over it.
I just finished ripping 200 DVDs to a hard drive. Number of commentaries also ripped = 0
DogFacedBoy says
no that’s
ip33 says
Speed is quite a hoot, the two writers one not the others. They are most impressed with the new kind of helicopter they managed to get and mostly argue through the rest of the movie.
Beezer says
The commentaries for ‘Spaced’ are very entertaining. Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg , Jessica Stevenson and Nick Frost seem to have had the time of their young lives making it. It came out in 1998. It’s almost 20 years old. This isn’t fair.
John Cleese is in kind and jovial form on the most recent box set edition of ‘Fawlty Towers’.
The director’s commentary on ‘The Long Good Friday’ struck me at the time as deeply interesting.
Paul Wad says
Funnily enough, It was after watching The Long Good Friday a few days ago that I started this thread. I watched the Blu Ray and all the extras and then started listening to the commentary, but it was getting late, so I put it back for another day. I enjoyed what I heard though and it was funny to hear him say he deliberately avoided the cliches of films set in London, so no shots of red London buses or black cabs!
Also interesting to hear, in the documentary, that Pierce Brosnan never actually met Bob Hoskins on set, even though they ‘share’ the final scene.