OK so what's the best audio commmentary you have listened to? It doesn't have to be the best film,far from it, just commentary.

For me it has to Dog Soldiers. Hilarious and informative. Brilliant. ( and I quite like the film actually. Sorry but i DO! ) It's a British film so dont know how many US and UK poeple are on here, so some may not know/heard of it.

A good audio commentary should inform the viewer about production details, not be a chance for two actors to make each other laugh, so by that criteria, I nominate 'Pleasantville', in which the director points out lots of little details maybe otherwise missed, and illuminates character motivations, and script choices etc.

Good idea for a thread!

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Originally posted by Ishmaels coffin:
A good audio commentary should inform the viewer about production details, not be a chance for two actors to make each other laugh, so by that criteria, I nominate 'Pleasantville', in which the director points out lots of little details maybe otherwise missed, and illuminates character motivations, and script choices etc.

Good idea for a thread!

Nonsense. There's no reason the audio commentary can't do both. If the excellent commentary to Army of Darkness for example were Sam Raimi providing additional details of the production, that would not only be less entertaining, but be counter to the spirit of the film.

Agreed that it is a good topic though.

I think a commetary can absolutely do both. But also in reference to Ishmael, something like the American pie audios, espech, The Wedding despite many different audio options none qutie hit the mark.

Hopefully Blu-Ray and HD DVD will make it better. Crank Region 1 and MI3 on their respective formats offer video commentary which makes things a lot easier. So a large no. of actors will be of great benfit with this technology.

So another great commentary would be MI3 on HD DVD

Flake, if you find listening to actors/directors chatting dribble, as if they were at a media party, then thats great for you.

Army of Darkness is not some slap dash effort made by 15 year olds, to then sit back and poke fun at. It's a studio film with a large budget that would benefit by having key personnel discuss interesting info about the making of the film. To listen to people merely reacting to what is on the screen - dear god, how dull.

I'm inclined to agree with Ishmael. To listen to the cast is absolute horror in itself. They tend to just talk to each other & make jokes instead of actually talking about what went on during the production. This can be pretty annoying. Alot of times, they're just quietly watching the movie with you. What's the point of that?

Some of the most informative commentaries I've listened to were:
"Dolores Claiborne"-because of this one commentary, I know why many scenes in other movies are shot the way they are.

All of the "Back to the Future" movies

Guillermo del Toro & Peter Jackson commentaries are very funny & still informative

The WORST commentary I've ever heard was "Die Hard"'s. John McTiernan has the slowest & most awful voice I've ever heard. Just listening to him bored me to tears & I had to stop it after about 30 minutes. As far as LEAST informative, the cast commentary on "Jerry Maguire". Terrible.

The BEST commentaries I've ever heard were from 'The Simpsons' & 'Futurama'. 'The Simpsons' are always great, but the 'Futurama' ones were alot of fun. My favorite one is when Billy West & John DiMaggio are in character as Fry & Bender the entire commentary. I was crackin' up!

I keep on going back to American Pie, but the cast commmentaries are truely awful. They just got together in the room and talked about shite. They didn't even know what was coming up in the film. Rubbish.

On the flipside Barry Sonnefeld's commetary on R.V. whilst very informative was still dull as ditch water! But then I couldn't stand the sound of his voice.

Commentaries are difficult to get right. I've listened to loads and just when a part of the film I really wanted to know more about, they never talk about it.

My choice still stands. Dog Soldiers still has the best so far. Just the right mix. |Got a huge collection though so not heard all of them so maybe there is better. Apparently Love Actually has a stonking good one, but just cant draw myself to listen to it. Maybe I'll ask the girlfriend to.

Michael Mann: Collateral. So into film-making he actually gave away the exact model no. of the Sony HiDef camera he used to capture all those gorgeous night shots of LA. WARNING: The general seriousness of his delivery can become fairly heavy-going after a while, but at least it makes for a refreshing change from the usual cast-commentary love-ins.

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Originally posted by Marzie:
but at least it makes for a refreshing change from the usual cast-commentary love-ins.

Bon Mots, Marz! I have had Collateral since it came out, but just recently watched it with the commentary and you're spot on.

The A.V. Club has a good feature called Commentary Tracks of The Damned. You can read about some of them here.

Well, Guillermo del Toro doesn't disappoint on the commentary to "Pan's Labyrinth". He has answered so many of my questions & even gave reasons why he didn't answer others, he likes to leave a few loose ends to make his viewers think . He mentions that this movie doesn't have eye candy, but eye protien! I love that ! I also love his mention of the greatest moment of his life, making Stephen King uncomfortable while they watched a particular scene together! If you loved the movie, you'll definetly love the commentary!!!!

Frank Darabont gives a fantastic commentary on "The Shawshank Redemption"! He's very informative & funny. He talks about his trouble with the animal rights folks when he tried to feed the baby crow a live maggot. He thought they were there for the crow, but they were there for the "rights" of the maggot as well! He started the story with, "You wanna hear a funny anecdote?", but ends up becoming angry by the end. They annoyed him soooo much ! He also points out that the prisoners are watching a movie in the prison chapel which has a giant painting of Jesus Christ on the back wall. The light from the projector is coming from the heart of Jesus. So "the light of Jesus is pouring over their heads", as the director puts it. There are also tidbits on where each scene took place (the movie was shot in several locations made to look like one), why they changed the name of the movie, Morgan Freeman's son, & more! You guys gotta check it out!

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Originally posted by snige:
Commentaries are difficult to get right. I've listened to loads and just when a part of the film I really wanted to know more about, they never talk about it.

I know what you mean! I was watching the text commentary on "The 5th Element" & it tells you to watch for the thick gunk to come down the general's & Zorg's foreheads, but it never tells you what it is! WHAT IS IT?! At first I thought it was their own blood, but when they pull back on Zorg, his head isn't broken open or anything!

I like the serenity (just got the new special collectors edition. got it yet monkey boy? ) and firefly commentaries because most of the time its Joss Whedon and Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk and some of the other castmembers. They just talk about stories and you can tell they had (have) nice chemistry and were good friends and they had a great time with firefly. Whedon is also good because he has so much more knowledge about everything than what happens in the plot.

I also really liked Mel Gibson's commentary on Braveheart. Lots of stories.

but you know, I don't think i ever learn too much more from the commentary than actually watching the movie.

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but you know, I don't think i ever learn too much more from the commentary than actually watching the movie.

I not so sure, I suppose it can depend on what you want to find out about.

But it so much depends on how much respect is given to a commmentary. As I said before, video c'taries that we are slowly getting with HD DVD and BR may boost the enthusiasm given to them. It could the other way of course and no-one bother doing at all.

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I'm inclined to agree with Ishmael.

Count me in.

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that would not only be less entertaining, but be counter to the spirit of the film.

Then audio commentary is also counter to the spirit of the film.

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I think a commetary can absolutely do both.

I'm not convinced that Ishmael is opposed to joy; I think it's more about substance. A marriage of both is never out of the question.

I don't normally have the time nor interest in listening to audio commentary. However, mostly by boredom or perhaps it was inspiration I ended up listening to the audio commentary of Audry Wells, director, screenwriter, and producer of Under The Tuscan Sun. Her commentary was a brilliant story in itself of the production and the various film techniques used to make this entertaining drama. For anyone who loves a story, a concise and easily listened commentary that contains fun and informative background information as well as some good film-making advice, Audrey's commentary is highly recommended.