DVD Commentary Review (DVD Forum)

Member Name: RobMeister

Product:	DVD Forum
Date:	09/02/02 (263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They can be insightful and interesting

Disadvantages: You have to spend a lot of time with them

I’m a big DVD fan and one of my favourite types of extras are the Commentaries. Commentaries are not really the sort of extra you can listen too willy nilly, you have to set time aside and commit to them if you want to get anything out of them. A few times I’ve listened to a commentary and they’ve bored the pants off me. Which gave me an idea on one of the DVD forums I visit to start a thread that could help people identify the good commentaries from the bad. I have taken my input from that thread and created one OP for all you DooYooers out there so that hopefully you can get some idea if a commentary you have on DVD might be worth listening too.

You’ll notice that the first few are very brief but then they go into more detail for the other films. That’s partly because I was only summarising what I could remember from past commentaries I’d listened to (my memory is not that brilliant) but from now on I write down what I’ve learnt from newer commentaries and that is why some of the others are more in depth.

I hope you get some use out of them and I’ll update when I have significantly more to add. Thankfully there are a lot of good as opposed to bad.

Commentaries worth a listen:

Armageddon: - Informative and Humorous, Affleck is very self depreciating and Bay and Bruckheimer insightful .

Scream: Interesting facts about the cuts that were made

From Dusk 'Till Dawn: Quentin's first and Rodriguez his usual best. Feels like your listening to them in a bar. Great stuff.

Star Wars: TPM: I thought Lucas was a bit boring but McKallum and the editor were entertaining

Bad Boys: I think this was Bay's first and he is both funny and open about the choices he made and the fact this was his first 'proper' movie and the troubles he had.

El Mariachi/Desperado: Both films feature some of the best commentaries around. The fact that R
odriguez prepares before hand with notes is commendable. You want to know anything about film listen to a Rodriguez commentary.

Toy Story 1 + 2: Entertaining to a certain degree. Great banter between the guys talking, but not one of my favourites.

Swordfish: A funny one this one in that you think it's going to be director Dominic Sena pointing out every plot detail but it does actually become better towards the end as he describes certain effects and the troubles accomplishing them.

Gladiator: I think Ridley Scott provides an informative and entertaining commentary on this. He can be quite dry but I think that is just Ridley's nature.

Blair Witch Project: Been a while since i heard this but I remember some great lines about them in the woods and having to wear protection to stop them poking their eyes out. Good all round commentary.

Out of Sight: Soderburgh gives an all round description of the movie, been a while since I’ve seen it but I remember it was a good one

Fight Club: I've only heard the first 3 so far, the Fincher one is worth a listen if your a FC fan, the second with Fincher, Pitt and Norton is ( I think) a commentary everyone should listen to if they have the film. Classic. Pitt and Fincher work well together and they all come up with anecdotes and jokes. Very entertaining. The third one is more serious but nonetheless worthy of a listen. I'll update when I’ve heard the fourth.

Se7en Only heard the first one on this, Freeman, Pitt and Fincher. I thought Freeman's input was a little dry but it bounced well off of Fincher and Pitt's reminiscing. A fun commentary.

T2: This commentary is packed with people talking about all aspects of the film. But I have trouble remembering any of it. I think a Cameron only track would have been far better.

Shrek: Not the best commentary by any stretch of the imagination but at least the three cont
ributors bounced off each other well. They did sound as though they were forced into doing it and as such they make snide remarks about who would listen to the commentary track. Still, worth a listen.

Hollow Man: I finally got round to listening to my first Paul Verhoeven track. This is actually above par with an informative an insightful look at the production, effects and story of the 'invisible man' fable. There are three people gassing away so there is very rarely any pauses and they all sound like they got on really well. Worth listening to.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: This was another film I’ve been putting off the commentary. But having heard it I don't know why I did. Both Ang Lee and the other guy (soz, he's name escapes me) converse well and they seem quite honest about their views on the film. Another commentary worth listening to.

Moulin Rouge:

Firstly if you loved this movie as much as I did then I think you'll really appreciate what these guys and gal have to say. Both commentaries are interesting with very little pause.


Commentary 1: This one concentrates mainly on the process of making the movie, how sets were accomplished, obstacles they overcame, general design and CGI work, what the actors brought to there roles etc. Baz also indicates the importance of keeping the comic/tragedy storyline so closely knitted. A good all round overview of the production of Moulin Rouge

Commentary 2: This one is my favourite of the two. Baz and Craig Pearce are very animated in their discussions, they cover practically everything relating to the story of Moulin Rouge, for example the device of using popular songs to portray Christian as the greatest poet in the world and how it's important to compress story through montage. They also explain the different opening they were going to use which is very interesting. You get the feeling these guys really do know each other
very well which goes some way in keeping this commentary from becoming boring. They also keep hinting that you should go out and check out their work in the early script drafts. (Which I haven't done, I think text based extras are the only thing I don't look at as it can be really hard on the ol' eyes). Crikey, you wouldn't think is was 22 would you!!?

I've seen a lot of comments regarding MR from people who really dislike the comic elements to the film. In both commentaries Baz illustrates these parts are vital in keeping the tragic elements to the story so profound. It's interesting what he has to say about it.

The second commentary also addressed an issue I had with the character Le Chocolat. I could understand his role as another saviour to Satine (always there to save her when Christian wasn't) but it always bugged me why he did it. Something I never picked up on when watching the film is the importance of the secondary characters. Lautrec, Le Chocolat etc, were always wanting what the main characters had.

Rush Hour 2: This one is very much the same format as the original film except that the writer is now also involved. So you can expect the usual ' we tried to get to the action sequences ASAP' sort of banter. It's worthy of a listen if only to hear Brett Ratner discuss how out of his head Jackie Chan was on the boat fighting sequence.

If only they could get Chan & Tucker to do a commentary. Still it's always informative and not boring.

The Fast And The Furious - Rob Cohen is very interesting in this Comm. He ranges from the editing process, to story, character, actor, composition, lighting troubles and hints at his forthcoming Vin Diesel flick XXX. He also let's in that a couple of unanswered questions from this film will be answered in the sequel. So it looks like that could def be a possibility. Again, if you liked this movie (I know a lot of you didn't) y
ou will get a lot of info and enjoyment from this track. Always informative, he comes across as a big kid really.

Se7en : Story Commentary; This is a very fascinating commentary that goes some way into detailing how this genre differed from most cop thrillers and in particular how the ending came about and at one point wasn't even considered by studio bosses as making the final film. To be honest I found the 'host' Richard Dyer; author of the BFI modern classics to be irritating and a little dull although he does provided a lot of background on thrillers and why he thinks this film differed from the usual fare and is regarded as a 'modern classic'. For me Fincher and writer Andrew Kevin Walker were the most interesting, obviously these guys know the film like the back of their hands and they describe all the elements they had getting away with what was written and how they went about pushing the conventions of traditional cop thrillers. Walker dominates most of the track and it's been a long time that I’ve listened to a commentary with such interest as what was being said came off almost like a documentary.

Highly informative, easy to listen too and very entertaining.

Almost Famous Bootleg: Finally got round to listening to this one and if you love the film it's a must listen too. A lot of reviews I’ve seen of commentaries compare them to having your favourite film/star sitting with you telling you the ins and outs, no more so is this true than with AF. Dominated by Crowe this commentary comes across as a trip down memory lane with a nice touch of including Camerons Mother who takes it all in her stride and comes off as a very nice and intellectual woman. She backs up all the stories that Crowe reminisces over which goes some way into believing this film is semi-autobiographical. At times both touching, Crowe finishes with a touching tribute, and is also frequently funny throughout, notably Crowe g
etting a bit irate over an extra in the graduation scene. There's little of the 'oh he/she is just fabulous' but not really enough to make you go 'give it a rest for crying out loud'. Crowe also makes numerous mentions of Vanilla Sky throughout the commentary which is insightful and rather clever, as I want to see it even more now.

Great commentary just sit back and let it wash. Very entertaining and well worth a listen.


Commentaries that are not really worth the time or effort:

Mystery Men This is a real snoozer. Kinka Usher practically praises everyone involved in the film which can be soooooo boring.

Go It's been a long time since I heard this one but I do remember being very bored. I think their was some choice moments especially when they're in Las Vegas but I would say listen to this if you don't have any of the ones listed above.

Me, Myself and Irene My all time worst. This commentary gave me the idea to start up a thread like this. The Farrelly’s are so dull it's unbelievable. They name check EVERYONE in the film. It's like sitting with them whilst they're going through a photo album. Very dire.

Hope they were of some use.

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