Good DVD audio commentaries

[J-Mac]

I've been watching some feature length commentaries recently, and I've noticed big discrepancies in how interesting and entertaining they can be. A lot of commentaries consist of actors saying things like, "Oh, and Bob, who did our sound, yeah, he was great. Oh, and Susan, who did the make-up, she did a great job. And our director was good. And in this shot, you can see my friend Tony, that nobody watching this DVD cares about AT ALL, eating a pizza. *three minutes of silence before actor remembers how good the stupid f--king gaffer was*"

Some commentaries, though, I have found to be really cool. For example, I got a lot out of listening to Roger Ebert's commentary on Citizen Kane. The most illuminating I have found so far was commentary by a professor of Japanese film on the Criterion Collection of "Seven Samurai." He was a little overly gushy with regards to Kurosawa, but he explained a lot about the troupe of actors and shot composition and the cultural significance of the film that I would have no way of knowing on my own.

There are two commentary tracks on Swingers, one with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau and the other with the director and editor, and while they weren't outstanding, they did give some interesting insight into the reality of making a low-but-not-really-low budget film.

I'm in the middle of listening to Scorsese's commentary on Raging Bull, which I'm enjoying so far but it is a little more sparse with details than I was expecting/hoping so far.

Anyone who's heard particularly interesting commentary tracks, please post here. I'd like to check out some more good ones.

[JMa]

Henry Hill's commentary on Goodfellas is supposed really good, haven't heard it though.

[bdk3clash]

The commentary track on the DVD "Comedian" (a documentary about Jerry Seinfeld developing new material and stand-up comedy in general) features Seinfeld and Colin Quinn and is absolutely hilarious.

[diebitter]

John Carpenter + Kurt Russell on 'The Thing'

There's a film historian that does commentaries on all the Universal monster movies (like Frankenstein, Dracula) and Creature from the Black Lagoon - they're really good. I think his name is Brewer. But maybe that's more for filmies only.

The 'in character' commentary on Spinal Tap is awesome.

[CrazyEyez]

I liked all of the following:

Made - Vaughn/Favs - funny
Ocean's 11 - Clooney/Pitt/others - funny
MI3 - Cruise/JJ Abrams - stunt talk, cruise gushing over how great everyone is.
Star Wars ep 1 - Lucas - super techy. amazing stuff.
Minority Report - Spielberg - techy
Three Kings - forgot director's name - don't remember details, but remember liking it. Maybe just because I loved the movie.

I agree that the ebert commentary on Kane is good. Made an otherwise boring movie interesting.

[youtalkfunny]

Yeah, Scorcese movies usually have boring commentary tracks.

Do not, REPEAT DO NOT, subject yourself to the commentary track of "Casino". It's 1% Pesci, 2% DeNiro (neither guy says anything worth remembering), 7% Scorcese, and 90% Sharon Stone, just yammering on and on and on about acting as if it were a more emotional experience than seeing your family gunned down by Nazis. It's torture to listen to.

As you mentioned, Ebert's commentary on "Citizen Kane" is the reason the commentary track was invented. If you can only watch one commentary track, make it that one.

Fans of Deadwood will enjoy the commentary tracks found on the Season One DVDs, especially David Milch's commentary during the pilot. I haven't heard Season Two yet, it's coming up soon on my NetFlix queue.

Mel Brooks' commentary on "Blazing Saddles" was so interesting, I made a well-received thread thread about it.

One that I found interesting, but I could understand if others didn't: Greg Kinnear and Willem Dafoe, "AutoFocus". You can sense the fun they had making the movie.

[KOTLP]

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The 'in character' commentary on Spinal Tap is awesome.

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Thanks for reminding me. I listened to some of it once and it was hilarious, will have to check the rest out next time I watch it.

A few I've listened to all or portions of recently that were really good:

Terry Giliam - Brazil (from the new Criterion release)
Joss Whedon - Serenity
Ebert - Dark City

hmm, not sure why these all happen to be sci-fi, heh

[Runkmud]

BubbaHotep - Bruce Cambell does the entire commentary as Elvis, it's brilliant.

[CheckRaise]

[ QUOTE ]
Henry Hill's commentary on Goodfellas is supposed really good, haven't heard it though.

[/ QUOTE ]
I really enjoyed this one.

[CallMeIshmael]

The Simpsons feature commentaries on all of their DVDs, and if you're at all a fan of the show they're really really entertaining. (The same is true of Futurama, though, overall, I like them a little less)

Also, Mr Show features what is basically an entire new episode on the commentary track since it is essentially just new material completely unrelated to the show