I'll admit, this is a DVD feature 99% of people NEVER utilize. And in their defense, DVD commentaries suck 99% of the time. However, if you got a favorite flick you want to enjoy on another level and/or fighting insomnia (SO empathize with ya Darko), click the button for this feature the next time around if ya own one (or if you can just get your hands on one).
Note: List is in no particular order and unless mentioned otherwise, multiple people listed all comment on the same track at the same time.
1) 'Old School' - HYSTERICAL play-by-play with Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Luke Wilson and director Todd Phillips
2) 'Once Upon A Time In The West' - Commentary track by renowed filmakers, historians and the like, make you appreciate this classic even more without having to take a snooty film class
3) 'Evil Dead II' - Both the legendary Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi provide great trivial facts regarding the film, as well as pointing out goofs and glitches along the way
4) 'Vanilla Sky' - Cameron Crowe provides hints and clues and FOUR different interpretations of the film.
5) Any 'Family Guy' episode that provides a commentary track. Regardless of the episode, the cast will make your sides hurt from laughing.
And if there are others out there - pass the info along, folks.
Well, Since I love Memento... I'll throw that one out there. This is from the Limited Edition, I don't know if it's differant from the other editions. But really the DVD is so much more then just commentary. Anatomy of a Scene, plus you can read (although you can find it online) the original short story by Jonathon Nolan which inspired the movie.
The DVD is packed full with easter eggs, and secret games that are next to imposible to crack. But, if you do you find a wealth of knowledge.
Bonus on the commentary... Nolan gives 3 differant versions on the commentary for the last few scenes. I wathched it twice with commentary and it got to the end and he said something that gave the entire movie meaning. And I was like, Holy crap... he just answered one of the biggest questions for this movie ever. Then I watched it again sometime later, and he said it the other way. And I was like... WHAT? But I thought you said.. but... NO!!! Cause then I realized I was back at square one with trying to figure out that movie. But the commentary is well worth it. I would say if you're a huge indie fan, or a up-coming director with similar interest in movies like memento of following, it's well worth the extra time.
Ok..OK.. so I love Donnie Darko too.
That being said (but I'll try to be more brief)
The original version of Donnie Darko (I know I'm a huge fan and I haven't even gotten the directors cut.. what's with me) Has a really good track line if you ask me. It's an ensemble of basically anyone that's in the movie that talks on the track. It's geared more towards "What's going on, and how we did it" as opposed to too much added insight into the movie. Which would have been nice.
DVD Commentaries entertainment level depends largely on who the director is doing the commentary. Some great directors are just BORING to listen to. Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Jackson for example. The commentaries for Godfather and LOTR are snoozefests.
The most consistingly entertaining and enlightening dvd commentaries come from Quentin Tarantino, Brad Bird, and David Cronenberg. Reservoir Dogs has a fantastic commentary with a really interesting segment at the end where Quentin explains why asians understood the ending of the movie better than americans, regarding Mr. Orange's suicidal confession to Mr. White, and how it ties into a Japanese honor code of which american culture lacks the vocabulary to even properly define.
True Romance has two great commentaries, one of them Quentin's and the other Tony Scott and cast.
Hands down, the best commentary from quentin is From Dusk Till DAwn where he's paired withe Robert Rodriguez. The two of them together talking about movies and stuff on this commentary is irresistible, they are both at their most brilliant and funny and enthusiatic on this commentary and it is a must listen.
The other best commentary I've ever heard is The Incredibles with Brad Bird. Brad is one of those directors who really knows what makes a scene or a movie great and unlike so many misguided commentaries where the director skips over a crucial point in the film and decides to talk about color grading or some stupid thing that happened on the set that day, Brad never misses a note; he brings up all the layered points and angles in every part of the movie that comes up and really forces you to appreciate the creativity and genius of this movie even more than before. He's enlightening, entertaining, never boring and he never rambles, he talks about what needs to be talked about at the time and illuminates on what NEEDS to be illuminated to show the viewer WHY this is such a great movie. This is the kind of commentary other director's should study and learn from.
OTher great commentaries:
The Iron Giant
Fight Club
The Fly
Boogie Nights
Hannibal
The goonies
Men in Black
Just curious does the commentary track for reservior dogs feature Tarentino talking about all the movies he "pays homage to" (in other words... rips off)?
I usually only listen to commentary's when I'm interested in finding out why an artistic decision was made [and mostly I end up hearing "Didn't we look great in that shot" "Yes we did we did look great." "Yes we did." "In fact we ARE great." "Yes. Yes we are." etc.]
However, a great commentary to listen to if you like animation is the ANNIVERSARY edition [not the regular] of Disney's "Atlantis". I know I know...Disney. Don't say it, cuz you'd be right...but this storyline seems to be a bit more abstract than the normal puppies and kitties falling in love, etc., and the animators are pretty funny in a dry sort of way too.
Conan the barbarian... this is by far my favorite commentary ever. It is stuffed to the gills with one liners from Arnold, of course it's not insightful in the slightest but jesus it's funny.
