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Best DVD/Blu-ray commentaries?


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I've only recently discovered the joy of DVD/Blu-ray commentaries, and I'm interested in which ones other people have enjoyed, as well wanting to seek out more of the best ones.

 

I have to mention John Hughes' commentary on Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's laid-back, calming and full of small details about characterization, the actors, production and more. As much I love Ferris as an idealized, almost cartoony film, and as great as the parade scene, everything Rooney does and the Ferrari introduction are, I always think of it as being Cameron's film, and the scene with him in the museum is the one that really sticks with me. And it's interesting to hear John Hughes illuminate that bit in his own words:

 

 

Unfortunately, the commentary is only available on the earliest, standard DVD release of Ferris, I'm certain.

 

Next in my pile are Kung Fu Panda, Step Brothers and Tropic Thunder.

 

What are your favourite commentaries and why?

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I've only recently discovered the joy of DVD/Blu-ray commentaries, and I'm interested in which ones other people have enjoyed, as well wanting to seek out more of the best ones.

 

I have to mention John Hughes' commentary on Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's laid-back, calming and full of small details about characterization, the actors, production and more. As much I love Ferris as an idealized, almost cartoony film, and as great as the parade scene, everything Rooney does and the Ferrari introduction are, I always think of it as being Cameron's film, and the scene with him in the museum is the one that really sticks with me. And it's interesting to hear John Hughes illuminate that bit in his own words:

 

 

Unfortunately, the commentary is only available on the earliest, standard DVD release of Ferris, I'm certain.

 

Next in my pile are Kung Fu Panda, Step Brothers and Tropic Thunder.

 

What are your favourite commentaries and why?

 

I once watched Futurama Series 1 - 4, then after that watched them all again with the commentaries on. Great stuff from David X Cohen and then all the cast members. Im not really one for watching things with commentaries. I'm more of a DVD Extra (like documentaries and making of extras) kinda guy than a commentary guy. I'd watch anything with a John Hughes commentary though!

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A recent commentary that is really funny and informative is the Frank Heinenlotter/James Lorenz commentary on the Arrow Video Frankenhooker blu-ray.

 

Otherwise I think my favourite commentaries are Joe Dante/Zack Galligan/Phoebie Cates/Dick Miller/Howie Mandel on the Gremlins Blu ray, and the Hatchet 2 commentary with Adam Green/Tony Todd/Kane Hodder.

 

Edit -Forgot about the Brilliant commentaries on the Evil Dead DVDs. Sam & Ted Raimi along with Bruce Campbell.

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Anything with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is a must. Its the perfect mix of 2 old friends talking about the films and going off on random tangents. I think its the commentary on The Thing when they get progressively drunker as the film goes on.

 

Also check out the original DVD of Dodgeball where Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller get into an argument and end up just playing the commentary to Something about Mary because they refuse to talk to each other. Probably the most pointless commentary of all time

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Anything with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell is a must. Its the perfect mix of 2 old friends talking about the films and going off on random tangents. I think its the commentary on The Thing when they get progressively drunker as the film goes on.

 

I am not that big on audio commentaries but when I do put them on these tend to be type I like.

 

One commentary I would recommend is Bruce Campbell on the Bubba Ho-Tep discs. He does the entire thing in character (an aging Elvis who had faked his own death back in the 70s and was now stuck in an old folks home).

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The commentaries on the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz DVDs (4 on each) are fab. There's one with Edger Wright and Simon Pegg, one with the younger actors, one with the older actors and one with the zombies for Shaun and one with the policemen who acted as advisors for Hot Fuzz. You really get a good mix of everyone's different experiences.

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Best one I've ever heard was on This Is Spinal Tap were they do the whole thing in character

This. It's the next best thing to a sequel.

 

Drive (not the recent one, the one with Mark Dacascos). The two leads and the director get together and rip the absolute piss out the film, despite the fact that they're clearly proud of it.

 

Cannibal: The Musical. The cast get together and watch it whilst drinking heavily. It starts off with information about the history of the film, shooting locations, etc.. and ends up with Matt Stone farting on the microphones.

 

Alien vs Predator. The film sucks, but the commentary track is great. The director highlights all the effort that went into special effect shots that nobody noticed, the woman actress brings a burger with her as she has another engagement to go to, Lance Henrikson gets a phone call from his wife, and at the end they decide to go off and fuck up the commentary recording session for someone elses movies that's being done at the same studio.

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Spinal Tap is the answer, but to avoid metooism, I'll suggest Christopher Nolan on Memento. For the last half hour you get a randomly selection of three different audio tracks with no indication there's more than one. The three have completely contradictory explanations of the ending and plot. It's designed solely so that people on message board will get into arguments, each citing the commentary they heard as evidence and calling everyone else an idiot for not even listening to it properly.

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El Mariachi has a really interesting commentary although the film isn't great it is just Robert Rodriguez explaining how he made a film with only $7000.

 

Also most animation tv shows have good commentaries i particularly enjoy the Simpsons DVD's where Matt Groening just insults the animatiors

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churning up an old thread here...

 

Just watched the Blu Ray Anniversary Edition of Stand By Me, without doubt one of my favorite movies of all time. Anyways, the disk comes with a new picture-in-picture commentary with Rob Reiner, Will Wheaton and Corey Feldman. I've listened to a few commentaries in my time and the picture-in-picture adds nothing really other than being able to see the people talking but it was very cool. I aint sure they told that many stories that haven't become public knowledge but it was still great to kind of watch the movie with them.

 

stand-by-me-blu-ray.jpg

 

If you love the movie i recommend you pick it up.

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Picture in Picture commentary tracks kind of spoil the whole point of commentary tracks, which is for cast and crew to get together and have an all-expenses paid booze up. Which is hard to enjoy if you're on camera the whole way through.

 

The Red Dwarf commentary tracks are ace, probably more funny than the episodes in many cases. Because they did them one series per day, by the end of a series the cast are all hammered.

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