Sponsored Content
« DVD Reviews | Main | Geek Dinner Theater »
January 16, 2007

Best DVD Commentaries

WickedPinto brought this up. The good ones are grand, the bad ones are awful, filled with nonstop praise of minor actors and what a genius the DP is for chosing a 14 inch lens to shoot this "gorgeous" shot.

I love a good DVD commentary. A lot of times I like them better than the movie, even if I liked the movie.

Here are my three favorites:

The Thing. Carpenter and Russell are funny and actually informative here, in between the loud drags as Carpenter chain-smokes.

Army of Darkness. Raimi and Campbell bust each other's balls a lot here. Campbell knocks Raimi's direction; Raimi knocks Campbell's acting. For example, Campbell makes fun of Raimi for resorting to the hack trick of just shaking the camera to create a sense of frenzy; Raimi calmly replies, "I was using the camera to get an effect that I couldn't get out of the performance."

This commentary is especially interesting because they discuss, seriously, what went wrong in the movie. They make the observation (which I'd missed myself, even though I'm a fan) that they "lost the character" of Ash in the whole back-end of the film, when the plot required he suddenly become a hero rather than the cowardly, bullying, braggart jackass he really was. You hardly ever hear these commentaries diss their own movies, and yet here these guys are casually pointing out where they'd gone badly wrong, just talking about it as if they were alone, rather than being recorded for thousands to hear.

Old School. Hilarious. Sure, Will Ferrell is funny. But the real laughs come from Luke Wilson, who explains -- deadpan -- that he considers his eyes to be individual actors. One, the droopier lidded eye, is called "Shorty," the more leading-man eye is "Kevin." Throughout the commentary, the guys riff on how "Kevin" is really delivering a great performance in this scene, or how "Shorty" is just phoning it in here. It's a goofy, weird, pot-induced riff that just doesn't get old, at least not for me.

Another interesting commentary is that for Anchorman, in which Ferrell and McKay do not, as far as I know, comment upon the film a single time, except to note how they are entirely ignoring the movie in the commentary.

They just mostly talk about balls.

In the most disappointing category-- Joss Whedon's commentary for Serenity, which is only for those who have a hard-on about lenses and overcranked film. Only a few bits of interesting information are offered by a guy who obviously is pretty smart and cagey about storytelling (like he considers Mal's shooting of three unarmed men to be, in a way, a rebuttal to the Greedo-Shoots-First "special edition" of Star Wars). Some interest in his noting that several true improvements to the film were suggested by the usually-derided "studio suits." But otherwise -- snoozers.


digg this
posted by Ace at 02:04 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
rhennigantx: "Happy Fricking Friday ..."

rhennigantx: "165 Texting is just a fad. It'll never catch on. ..."

Grumpy and Recalcitrant: "G'luck with Friday, everyone. ..."

Mister Scott (Formerly GWS): "Missed it by a pico second. ..."

Mister Scott (Formerly GWS): "first. ..."

REDACTED: "yo ..."

Lost In Space: "What's odd about the 'sandbag' thing: Wouldn't it ..."

Keezen: "Fall Gate. Fbi and doj rush in to cover up what yo ..."

ShainS -- Oppression Scientist and Your AI Interpreter [/b][/i][/s][/u]: "As the article notes, the timing of Irwin's abrupt ..."

Geezer : "Texting is just a fad. It'll never catch on. ..."

Divide by Zero [/i]: " Their Satanic Majesties Request -- 1967 The Roll ..."

bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door : "162 Futurebiotecs, made in NY, sold through Walmar ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64