Yerdaddy
06-19-2007, 05:55 AM
I love director commentaries. I don't always get them on my pirated DVDs, but here in Asia I get quite a few. But some are better than others. And I find it irritating that some directors, most notably the Coens, don't do commentaries at all.
The worst I've ever heard was Guy Ritchie and his producer doing commentary for Snatch. I got through the first couple of scenes and the most interesting thing I heard them say was something like "Do you remember that guy?" "Yeah." "It was hard to light the elevator." "Yeah." "Madonna fucks me with a strap-on." "Me too." "Yeah." I don't get how a guy who makes such fun and exciting films can be such a boring ass geezer in person.
Tarantino does great commentary, obviously. I love that he did a commentary for True Romance even though he didn't even direct it. And that he dispelled that old myth that he hated Tony Scott's version of the movie and didn't want his name associated with it.
Also on True Romance was one of the worst commentary tracks ever: Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. Jesus they sounded like morons in person. They added nothing to the movie and were squeemish about the violence in it. Should you have to tell the stars of a movie that it's only a movie? Then there were huge gaps with them saying nothing inbetween saying "Ohh. Gary Oldman. He's so great." "Yeah." ... "Ohh. Dennis Hopper. He's so great." "Yeah." ... Worthless!
Clooney gave good commentary for Good Night and Good Luck. They talked alot about the process of writing and making the movie and Clooney would break into tonge-in-cheek insults directed at the crew: "The lighting was done fantastic by Whatshisname... Except in this shot. It's horrible." (It was obviously great.) "Well, he's British you know." "Yeah. He was probably drunk. By the way did you know I was People Magazine's Sexiest Man 1997?"
Best commentary overall, I think, is Paul Thomas Anderson. It's strange because when I first borrowed all of his DVDs from Mikeyboy back in the day I listened to one of the commentaries and right away he came across as a pompous ass. But at the same time he was quite entertaining and gave shitloads of information about his filmmaking and by the end I loved the guy. For Boogie Nights, I think, he was sitting in his house getting drunk and the actors were showing up and drinking with him and they'd be shooting the shit like the mics weren't even there. Now that's entertaining. For Hard 8 I watched it; liked it; watched it with the commentary; then watched it again and loved it. He and the main actor - the old guy, I'm too lazy to look him up, but the library cop from Seinfeld - really got across what a labor of love the movie was and it added so much to the film.
So my pick for best commentator is Paul Thomas Anderson.
The worst I've ever heard was Guy Ritchie and his producer doing commentary for Snatch. I got through the first couple of scenes and the most interesting thing I heard them say was something like "Do you remember that guy?" "Yeah." "It was hard to light the elevator." "Yeah." "Madonna fucks me with a strap-on." "Me too." "Yeah." I don't get how a guy who makes such fun and exciting films can be such a boring ass geezer in person.
Tarantino does great commentary, obviously. I love that he did a commentary for True Romance even though he didn't even direct it. And that he dispelled that old myth that he hated Tony Scott's version of the movie and didn't want his name associated with it.
Also on True Romance was one of the worst commentary tracks ever: Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. Jesus they sounded like morons in person. They added nothing to the movie and were squeemish about the violence in it. Should you have to tell the stars of a movie that it's only a movie? Then there were huge gaps with them saying nothing inbetween saying "Ohh. Gary Oldman. He's so great." "Yeah." ... "Ohh. Dennis Hopper. He's so great." "Yeah." ... Worthless!
Clooney gave good commentary for Good Night and Good Luck. They talked alot about the process of writing and making the movie and Clooney would break into tonge-in-cheek insults directed at the crew: "The lighting was done fantastic by Whatshisname... Except in this shot. It's horrible." (It was obviously great.) "Well, he's British you know." "Yeah. He was probably drunk. By the way did you know I was People Magazine's Sexiest Man 1997?"
Best commentary overall, I think, is Paul Thomas Anderson. It's strange because when I first borrowed all of his DVDs from Mikeyboy back in the day I listened to one of the commentaries and right away he came across as a pompous ass. But at the same time he was quite entertaining and gave shitloads of information about his filmmaking and by the end I loved the guy. For Boogie Nights, I think, he was sitting in his house getting drunk and the actors were showing up and drinking with him and they'd be shooting the shit like the mics weren't even there. Now that's entertaining. For Hard 8 I watched it; liked it; watched it with the commentary; then watched it again and loved it. He and the main actor - the old guy, I'm too lazy to look him up, but the library cop from Seinfeld - really got across what a labor of love the movie was and it added so much to the film.
So my pick for best commentator is Paul Thomas Anderson.