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Listen to lots of official DVD commentaries

posted 7 years ago by MikeCable (1853)
9 replies | jump to latest

This person has put up a lot of commentaries from directors and crew on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgCcHygvKQVfS5So921_FZA/videos

I listen to them when I walk the dog. Am halfway through Ninja III: The Domination, a fascinating insight into the making of a Cannon cult eighties classic.

The titles are purposely (and sometimes quite amusingly) skewed to avoid upsetting YouTube, so use the video's thumbnail image to work out film what it is.

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 7 years ago

When I was younger, I really enjoyed things like this. But as I got older and they were widely available on DVD I stopped listening to them.

[–] rooprect (202) 7 years ago

Director commentaries are sorta hit or miss... sometimes you'll get a talkative, entertaining director who gives you tons of behind the scenes info, other times you'll just get someone grunting occasionally or just filling up space.

Example of AWESOME commentary: Spinal Tap. They stay in character and it's basically like having a 2nd movie.

Example of lousy commentary: Paul Rubens in Peewee's Big Adventure. He doesn't say much, and the whole time he sounds like he's really bored. Anyone expecting the hilarious & fun Peewee, nothing to see here :(

Example of informative commentary: Anything by Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris Texas, etc), he talks about all the little details of filming, it's almost like taking a film class. Really nice sounding guy too. Another one is Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Delicatessen, City of Lost Children) he's really enthusiastic and tells you lots of fun stuff about filming--really funny in his early movies because his English wasn't so good.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

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[–] MikeCable (1853) 7 years ago

Any commentary by John Carpenter would be good, as The Thing is really good, as is Starman and Escape from New York. I assume others by him are. Airplane!, Ghost Busters (original) and Aliens are also big favourites of mine.

Some of the worst I've ever heard are Die Hard and Star Wars IV (such a disappointment). Anything with Arnie can be a bit trying also. I wish the studio had been able to get Kubrick and Clarke or Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood together for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Currently listing to Short Circuit, think it's great.

[–] BourbonKing (5777) 7 years ago

I was watching Blade (1998) with the DVD commentaries and those were atrocious, particularly the guy who played Cross. He just kept rambling off-topic during key scenes in the movie and had next to zero insights.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

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[–] BourbonKing (5777) 7 years ago

One of my favorite DVD commentaries with Thomas Hayden Church and Paul Giamatti for "Sideways". They interact and comment so effortlessly it's just as funny as a good Mystery Science Theater segment but this time they're adding to the scene with background information.

[–] MikeCable (1853) 6 years ago

I thought the John Badham commentary for Blue Thunder is good.

[–] MikeCable (1853) 6 years ago

For sci-fi fans, the commentary for the newer Battlestar Galactica miniseries is really interesting (and long!), the people explain a lot about their ideas behind everything.

On the other hand, I found the commentaries for the newer Ghostbusters to be really disappointing.