Topic: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

After listening to all the DIF commentaries (and the one Geekza with Trey Stokes), it's pretty obvious the gang knows what makes a good commentary track. Insight, Humor, scene-specific remarks, and analysis. I wondered which artists everyone liked to listen to. That is: Directors, writers, personalities, critics, et al that make for entertaining and informative listens.
I mention ratethatcommentary.com because it has led me to many great tracks in the past. I've discovered some great tracks by critics, such as Roger Ebert and leonard Maltin, as well as controversial directors like Oliver Stone.

So, are there voices you will listen to, regardless of the material?

I've found that even films like 'Jason goes to hell' and 'License to Drive' can be a riot when recalled by the creators in a fun, self-deprecating fashion.

my fave 5 include (Directors): 1) joe dante, 2) Frank Darabont, 3) Stone, 4) Michael mann, 5) Ron Howard
( Critics and ): 1) Ebert, 2) Leonard maltin
(Writers): 1) William Goldman 2) Chuck Pahalniuk 3)James Ellroy
(Personalities) 1) Weird Al Yankovic, 2) Kevin Smith (I know,he's a "director"), and any of the show runners from the Simpsons.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

Joss Whedon and Paul Thomas Anderson are my favorite commentar...ians..? because they really do a good job of walking you through their thought process and can reference their influences with a lot of candor and do it in a concise manner.

Eddie Doty

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

I actually don't listen to commentaries that often. Except ours.

Which makes me unqualified and narcissistic. Pa-pow!

My favorite commentary is Fight Club's with Fincher, Norton and Pitt.

Teague Chrystie

I have a tendency to fix your typos.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

^This reminds me of a line from "Garth Merenghi's DARKPLACE," where Garth says, "I"ve actually written more books than I've read."

Eddie Doty

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I listen to pretty much every commentary track on every disk I own. I always enjoy the Simpsons commentaries, atho the Futurama ones are even more fun, and I've particularly enjoyed Edgar Wright and Milla Jovovich. Of the scholar types, I quite like Eddie Muller's commentaries for classic film noir. I like Roger Ebert, but it really burned me that he got the "General Degaulle/Weygand" issue wrong on Casablanca.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

I used to always listen to commentaries, but now it's pretty rare. Most movies that come out these days, I'm not really interested in hearing how they were made, and the few movies I want to hear commentaries for often don't have them. Also, I have so many movies I want to watch, it's tough to find the time to watch most twice with commentary.

Thanks for making me aware of ratethatcommentary.com, that will help me find some cool ones.

I enjoyed the original commentary to GHOSTBUSTERS, and I actually really like the commentaries for the first two MUMMY movies. I haven't liked anything Sommers has made since then, but the commentaries are a lot of fun, with Sommers pointing out the holes in his own movies. And of course the LOTR commentaries are marvelous, but you gotta set aside like a week for them all.

One commentary I found totally crap was the commentary for IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. It's Carpenter and the DP with the driest, dullest commentary, pretty much solely about lighting. And not even interesting conversations about lighting. There'll be five minutes of silence and then Carpenter will go "I like that rim light, it really separates him from the background." And the DP goes "Yep." Then five more minutes go by.

I also have mixed feelings about the SIN CITY commentary, in which Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez seem to be having a contest to see who can fellate the other more loudly and passionately.

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The absolute best commentators are Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright.  Their commentaries for Shaun and Fuzz have me in absolute stitches every time I listen to them (which pre-DIF was... often, and we'll leave it at that). 

Kev Smith and crew are always fun to listen to, the Clerks II cast commentary is very funny.

Carpenter and Russell do a pretty good one for Big Trouble in Little China, IIRC.

When.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

Mel Brooks isn't too bad on some movies, also the Lord of the Rings movies are ridiculous for anyone that's a big enough fan to listen to it for 3+ hours.

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Yeah, Dorkman. I agree on the "Mouth of Madness" track. I watched the film recently based on the suggestion I heard during a DIF commentary. I'm not sure if you referenced it or if it was Teague. But, someone suggested it for lovers of H.P. Lovecraft and "unseen" evil.
Good film but the track was weak. Especially given Carpenter's track record. His sit-downs with Kurt Russell are gold! Listen to "The Thing" or "Escape from New York." And, as mentioned above, Big trouble in Little China.
Only time Mel Brooks "schtupped" me was the special anniversary edition of "Blazing Saddles." I swear he stops talking after the first 15 minutes. Or the mike was not on....

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As mentioned, the "Lord of the Rings" extended edition commentaries cannot be overestimated. I've never listened to the other three eleven-hour tracks all the way through, but the writer/director one is great. It's not laugh-aloud funny, but it's amusing, and it's just flat-out interesting. The best part is during the last forty minutes or so of the third part, they actually get into a bit of a good-natured argument about ending fatigue. And the running gag about why the heroes didn't just air-drop the ring from eagle-back into the volcano is cool, because it reinforces that these suckers really thought about this stuff.

Has anybody listened to Ridley Scott's commentary on the Blade Runner Final Cut disc? I have it here, but I haven't listened to it yet.

I remember being achingly disappointed that there was no commentary on The Dark Knight. That could've been a really good one.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

The commentaries on the Venture Bros DVDs are amazing. They tend to have almost nothing to do with the episodes, but you get a sense of what it's like when the two driving creative personalities behind the show are locked together for months at a time producing one of the best things on television. They only did a couple for the first season, but the response was so overwhelmingly positive that they've done a commentary for every episode on every season since. I get the episodes on iTunes, but buy the discs afterwards particularly for their tracks.

The Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut DVD has one that flips between the executive producer, vfx supervisor, and the 1st AD. Never heard a first AD on a commentary before, but that should happen more often. Had a bunch of great stories from production, and didn't have to worry about offending anybody since he wasn't up near the line. Also didn't mind talking shit about his own work, like in scenes where all the extras are walking at the same speed or something.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

Also, the commentary for Talledega Nights is considerably funnier than the movie.

When.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

Root canal is considerably funnier than that movie.

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

I've heard the track on either the second or third Resident Evil movie is just Milla Jovovich and friends getting drunk and apologizing.

Last edited by paulou (2010-08-12 02:34:39)

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

That's pretty much how it is on all the Milla Jovovich movies I've seen/listened to the commentary, regardless of whether the movie did what it set out to do (Resident Evil) or not (Resident Evil 2). I seem to recall the one on Ultraviolet being boring, tho. Maybe she's not on that one. Even if she was, there's no opportunity in that movie for her to shout, "Wait! Look! There's my boobies!"

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

Zarban's House of Commentaries

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Re: ratethatcommentary.com and favorite talkers

'Bound' has a great commentary, and it's what convinced me that Jennifer Tilly was funny, and probably pretty smart, too.