Best and Worst Director Commentaries

[Yerdaddy]

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.

[TheMojoPin]

PTA's commentaries are great. David Fincher also does very entertaining ones, as does Kevin Smith and co., and so does Wes Anderson. Robert Altman did fantastic commentaries as one of the few older school directors to actually embrace the option, right up until the very end.

I was actually surprised to see you prop up Tarantino...what few he has done are fun to listen to, but I was gonna complain about how few he does. The dude can't shut the fuck up about movies when someone sticks a microphone in his face, yet he can't do any commenataries for his first three films? Fuck you, QT.

[Bob Impact]

The commentaries on the Jackass boxset are hysterical.

[IMSlacker]

I really enjoyed the Sam Raimi & Bruce Campbell commentaries on all three of the Evil Dead films.

[Yerdaddy]

PTA's commentaries are great. David Fincher also does very entertaining ones, as does Kevin Smith and co., and so does Wes Anderson. Robert Altman did fantastic commentaries as one of the few older school directors to actually embrace the option, right up until the very end.

I was actually surprised to see you prop up Tarantino...what few he has done are fun to listen to, but I was gonna complain about how few he does. The dude can't shut the fuck up about movies when someone sticks a microphone in his face, yet he can't do any commenataries for his first three films? Fuck you, QT.

Didn't he do one for Dogs, or was that the one with various members of the cast and crew with Tarantino doing a long introduction? I vaguely remember the DVD I left home having commentary.

I was surprised too to get Altman commentaries on MASH and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It's not bad but he seems to fall asleep alot during the recordings.

Movies I remember hearing have good commentaries but my copies don't have:

Super Troopers
Team America
40 Year Old Virgin
Old School

If they do I'll buy another copy. If anyone can report on these, that'd be out of sight.

Speaking of out of sight, does Soderberg do commentary?

[Yerdaddy]

I really enjoyed the Sam Raimi & Bruce Campbell commentaries on all three of the Evil Dead films.

I bought those in Yemen thinking they were on there but they didn't copy the special features onto the pirated discs. What's the world coming to when you can't trust movie piraters!

[K.C.]

In general...the worst commentaries are the guys who just describe exactly what's happening on the screen like they're doing play by play, because they have nothing to talk about.

Those are just brutal.

The best ones are usually ones that go off on their own type of tangents completely unrelated to the movie because they're something different.

Even though I'm not the biggest Kevin Smith fan, his are usually pretty good because he kind of gets that idea. Also, even though it's not a feature, the Simpsons writers and directors usually do a pretty good job with their commentaries.

I thought Richard Kelly did a good job with the 'Donnie Darko' one, and Cameron Crowe's commentary for "Vanilla Sky' was actually kind of funny too because he decides to call up Tom Cruise right in the middle of it.

[AnnoyedGrunt]

Didn't he do one for Dogs, or was that the one with various members of the cast and crew with Tarantino doing a long introduction? I vaguely remember the DVD I left home having commentary.

I'd have to watch it again, but I think that was a 'fake' commentary where they edited together clips from various interviews rather than actually having everyone sit down and watch the movie together.

[TheMojoPin]

Didn't he do one for Dogs, or was that the one with various members of the cast and crew with Tarantino doing a long introduction? I vaguely remember the DVD I left home having commentary.

Just the long intro.

I was surprised too to get Altman commentaries on MASH and McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It's not bad but he seems to fall asleep alot during the recordings.

Movies I remember hearing have good commentaries but my copies don't have:

Super Troopers
Team America
40 Year Old Virgin
Old School

If they do I'll buy another copy. If anyone can report on these, that'd be out of sight.

Speaking of out of sight, does Soderberg do commentary?

Yeah, he does. It's him and, I think, the cinematographer. Pretty interesting.

[WhistlePig]

Spinal Tap's commentary was hilarious. The actors stayed in character and commented on themselves.

[patsopinion]

I really enjoyed the trey parker matt stone commentary on Cannibal the musical/Alfred Pecker

[pennington]

Francis Ford Coppola does an excellent commentary on the three "Godfather" movies. Tells you about the scene, the actors, how he really wanted to shoot something but they didn't have the time or money or there was studio interference. Tells stories about his grandparents and his lack of finances. Interesting all the way through.

He also did the commentary on "Patton" because he wrote the original screenplay.

[Stankfoot]

Shane Carruth's commentary for Primer was pretty good, explaining how he was able to make the thing for seven grand. He also clued you into what was going on without spelling out everything ...

[sailor]

never, ever sat thru a director's commentary. can't even begin to see the appeal. i'd rather watch a new movie. maybe if i wanted to become a director? i just don't know.

[Landblast]

i recently saw SIDEWAYS with the commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church, funny as shit. ripping on each other and the movie.

[waltermitty]

Fight Club collectors edition is my Favorite:

Commentary #1: Director David Fincher, Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter.
Commentary #2: Director David Fincher
Commentary #3: Author Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhuls
Commentary #4: Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth,production designer Alex McDowell, FX supervisor Kevin Haug,costume designer Michael Kaplan and digital animator Doc Bailey

[BeltOfScotch]

Old School has a good commentary with Ferrel, Vaughn, Wilson and Todd Phillips basically goofing off but also giving some interesting info. Yerdaddy if you like good commentaries I'd definitely check this one out.

There's a Collector's Series edition of Ghostbusters that has a commentary by Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis that is good.

I'd also definitely recommend the Rounders commentary with the director, the two screenwriters and Edward Norton.

Also agree completely about Paul Thomas Anderson for Boogie Nights, the Fight Club commentaries and Giamatti/Church for Sideways.


As for bad ones, Mel Brooks did a terrible commentary for Spaceballs where he basically just watched the movie and laughed at jokes he didn't remember.

[waltermitty]

Is there a print of Pulp Fiction out there with a Tarantino Commentary?





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[thepaulo]

Francis Ford Coppola does an excellent commentary on the three "Godfather" movies. Tells you about the scene, the actors, how he really wanted to shoot something but they didn't have the time or money or there was studio interference. Tells stories about his grandparents and his lack of finances. Interesting all the way through.

He also did the commentary on "Patton" because he wrote the original screenplay.

I've taken to listening to every commentary he has done....Most recently Finnean's Rainbow and Youth Without Youth.

[realmenhatelife]

There is an insane Mickey Rourke commentary for Angel Heart. It's like 15 minutes long, he sounds all fucked up, he has his dog, and he stonewalls them on every question they ask. He also talks down the movie a little, or atleast talks about how the story doesn't interest him at all, he just wanted to work with the director.

[fezident]

I listen to commentary tracks all the time. I love 'em.

Easily the best, most informative, most valuable DVD commentary that I've ever listened to is on the DOUBT dvd. (John Patrick Shanley)
You will actually learn quite a bit about the art of shooting a film.... pacing it... editing it... everything. It's quite brilliant actually.

PANIC ROOM has four commentary tracks which are all quite good in their own ways.

[Chigworthy]

I remember really enjoying the Chappelle/Brennan commentary for Chappelle's Show.

[Dirtbag]

Rob Zombie's commentary on his first three movies were all pretty good.

[booster11373]

I don't know about the best but the most memorable and enjoyable for me have been.

Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York

John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. just a couple of freinds talking and some cool insight on movie making on the cheap

I also enjoyed Aliens and T2

[fezident]

Rob Zombie's commentary on his first three movies were all pretty good.

Good call!
All his commentary tracks (and bonus footage documentaries) are top notch. Really informative and really "inside".