Favorite Audio Commentary Tracks

[Brian Ringler]

I was watching some dvds and thinking what some of the best commentary tracks are.  Some commentaries can make a mediocre movie a masterpiece.  Tracks on a few dvds that I really like are:

The Stoned Age (I've watch this movie with the commentary track more than I do without it, I know many people hate this movie but the commentary is a little-known gem on this disc)

Clerks: The Animated Series (I like all Kevin Smith group commentaries but this one seems to be a little more fun than the others)

Made/Swingers (I love the addition of them being able to draw on the screen like Madden during football games)

There is one commentary that I really look foward to once I get the dvd is the commentary for The Alf Files dvd (canada only release of 3 hour-long Alf specials).  The dvd has commentary by Alf, which, maybe I'm setting myself up for disappointment, has to be great.

Those are the ones off the top of my head, I'll add more good ones when I think of them.  What are everyone else's favorite commentary tracks?

[Trollificus]

You can watch Spinal Tap with commentary (IN CHARACTER) by Nigel Tuffnel and David St. Hubbins. Makes it a whole new movie, though some of it sounds pretty improv, still funny.

Kind of like the MST3K crew watching an episode of MST3K and ripping on it.

[Neville]

The commentary track for "Faust: love of the damned" was quite hilarious. Director Brian Yuzna would says things like "This female role is quite good, now that I think of it, she ends up having sex with most the male actors" or explaining that a dominatrix who offered her shop as a setting wanted to see him wearing a latex suit.

[Vermin Boy]

Damn, beat me to the Spinal Tap commentary. It's got Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), to. And yeah, I'm pretty sure it was improv, but then, so was the movie.

I love the commentaries on Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are obviously great friends, and their interaction is always hilarious (Bruce never fails to point out the moments when Sam caused him harm).

The commentary track on From Dusk Till Dawn is a good one, with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. For the life of me, I can't understand why Tarantino decided not to do commentary on the rest of his movies, as it seems to be what he was put on this earth to do. Rodriguez is more laid back than Tarantino (but then, so is the Micro Machines guy), but his enthusiasm is just as apparent, and he somehow manages to get equal airtime. Plus, since, between the two of them, they did pretty much every major job on the movie, it's pretty informative. Oh, yeah, and you could make a drinking game for every time Tarantino utters the phrase "Kick-ass drive-in exploitation film."

The strangest track I've ever heard is the oddly deadpan commentary for the Best of Mr. Bill, featuring an in-character Mr. Bill and Mr. Hands.

[Pete B6K]

The one on 'Cannibal! The Musical' is best I've heard. Trey Parker, Matt Stone and a few of the cast get drunk and talk about the film. The story of its making is fairly interesting and the truth about 'Liane'.

Pete

[mr. henry]

i second the vote for "cannibal! the musical"---you can't beat the drunken commentary...

-mr. henry

[chris]

Anything with Bruce Campbell.  He's hilarious, and remembers every small detail from any film.
Cannibal Ferox:  Director Umberto Lenzi remembers the film fondly and star John Morgan hates it.  Their combined tracks constantly contradict each other.  Great stuff.
Brazil: Terry Gilliam gives us a history of the films woes and a ton of info on how it was done.
A Night to Dismember: Doris Wishman is hillarious, she barely lets the DOP get a word in.
Boogie Nights: It feels like you're there with them.

And yes, Cannibal The Musical's track is amazing.

[Chadzilla]

I've only listened to a fistful of commentaries - they aren't something I am overly fond of, but the most entertaining of the bunch is the Carpenter/Russell commentary on Escape from New York.

[ErikJ]

, but the most entertaining of
> the bunch is the Carpenter/Russell commentary on Escape from
> New York.


I liked their commentary on Big Trouble in Little China

[Funk, E.]

The commentary on A Knights Tale was pretty amusing, but then again they were drinking pints while commenting too so it just proves that drunken commentary is better  8-D

[J.R.]

Harold Ramis/Ivan Reitman for Ghostbusters- Done silhouette-style, a la MST3K, and it's just fun.

Bruce Campbell, Evil Dead- I think Bruce on his own is even funnier, because he feels free to bash Sam, Rob Tappert, the movie, people who like the movie, etc. Regarding the "Sam hit him with a motorcycle" rumor- "I won't tell you whether that lie is true or not,".

Carpenter/Russell for The Thing- Informative, and Carpenter makes a few vague references to things an all-male crew would do in the middle of the wilderness that he can't talk about here...

Weird Al/Jay Levey for UHF- Very funny, with Al noting the exact addresses of every location and Michael Richards stating the world would be better if everyone drove little Shriner cars and carried handguns.

Peter Jackson/Fran Walsh/Phillippa Boyens, Fellowship Of The Ring- The accents alone make it worth watching.  

[HamishT]

gotta be Texas Chainsaw Massacre, all though i'd heard all the tales and stories before, it was still pretty cool.

2nd up would have to be LOTR: FOTR

[Flangepart]

Second UHF, and Big T. in Little C. Hey, who knew Carpenter could sing bass?

[Greywizard, The Unknown Movies]

The audio commentary for FIRST BLOOD is actually provided by the author of the book the movie is based on.  He talks almost non-stop, giving out a ton of information on not just the movie itself, but how the book was conceived and a lot of other things. Even when he's not talking about the movie, his commentary is extremely entertaining.

[Vermin Boy]

BLOOD SIMPLE. Ostensibly by film historian Kenneth Loring, it's all an elaborate put-on scripted by the Coens themselves. The bulk of it discusses a lengthy subplot supposedly cut by the studio, in which M. Emmett Walsh's redneck private eye is revealed to be the son of Bulgarian dictator Todor Zipfkopf (sp?). It then goes into a long, personal rant against an executive at Merchant Ivory. The whole thing is absolutely hilarious, and the guy reading it (Fred Willard's straightman from Best In Show) has terrific comic timing. I actually might have enjoyed the commentary more than the movie itself, which is good, but strangely flat for a Coen Bros. film.