Top 10 DVD Commentaries
Oct 11 '01
The Bottom Line If Memento had a director's commentary, it would be on here. Read my Top Ten movie list, it's good.
A while back I wrote what I thought were the 10 best movies at that time. Apparantly, many of you agreed with me. I am writing again to fill people in on the beauty of DVD. One of my favorite aspects of DVDs is the Director Commentaries. Sometimes there are commentaries by other people involved in the film, i.e. the composer commentary on The Matrix DVD, or just a film expert, on the Seven Samaurai DVD. I don't care much about behind-the-scenes featurettes, or production stills, etc. When a director watches his/her own movie and can tell us what they were thinking, or where they were motivated, or just how they did that, it gives the audience a better sense of how the movie was made and why its turned out the way it did. The following is a list of my favorite commentaries from DVDs I own. Some are interesting, others are very insightful, and a few are just hilarious.
Analyse This
To start, this movie is very hilarious. Some of my favorite movie scenes are in it. That might be my next top ten, Best Movie Scenes. I like this DVD because it has two commentaries and a gag reel. Gag reels are the second best feature on DVD but they are rare. I like the commentary by Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro because they tell how they felt about each other before they met. They worked well together on-screen as well as off. They talk about each other even thought they are in the same room. They make the movie a little funnier by explaining the meaning of some of the jokes.
Ronin
Another DiNiro show, this time he doesn't have to compete for best actor in the picture. Director John Frankenheimer isn't funny at all but he does give us some very interesting facts about the making of the film. One of the most stunning facts I learned (for those of you who don't have DVD players) is that 95% of the driving scenes were filmed with the actors in the cars while a stunt man drove the car. And also during the scene when the one car was hit buy the rocket launcher, there was actually a stunt man in the vehicle that gets flip and blown up. This amazed me and I realized I never would have known this, were it not for the commentary.
The Whole Nine Yards
Another comedy, another comedy with an action star and a comedian. One of the best parts of director John Lynns commentary is when they set the car on fire near the end of the movie. He tells us that when they were filming, Bruce Willis felt that the surroundings were very familiar to him. He later realized that the same abandoned warehouse was used for a scene in The Jackal.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Mike Myers, Jay Roach, and Michael McCullers supply a very amusing as well as insightful commentary on this movie. They point out many of their own mistakes within the film witch is very funny. Its like pop-up video for a feature film.
The Matrix
I'm tired of talking about this movie. It's still the top selling DVD of all time so you or one of your friends probably has it. Next...
Apollo 13
I'm not sure why this movie isn't on my top ten list. I guess I overlooked it last time. I love this commentary because they point out all the cameos like Mrs. Lovell at the launch, and Jim Lovell on the ship at the end. There are two commentaries. One of them is by Jim and Marilyn Lovell which explains how realistic this film is.
The Sixth Sense
This DVD doesn't have a commentary but there is a lot of interesting stuff on it. My favorite is the rules and clues section where they show how they kept "the secret" a secret throughout the film. It explains a lot of the things that I thought were wrong with the movie and makes it make more sense (no pun intended (if that is a pun))(too many parenthesis)(sorry, d'oh).
Braveheart
If there's one thing I've learned from this commentary, its the word definistration, and it's definition. You may be wondering what the definition of definistration is, (I had to do that) its in the dictionary. He tells about the hiring of the local malitia for the large battles and how one day they would dress up like Scots and the next day they would oppose themselves as the English. I like when Mel claims the record for the most bare asses on the screen at one time.
Armageddon
The best part of this DVD (Criterion Collection) is the gag reel. Some of the funniest outtakes I've ever seen. There are several people on the commentaries who all add their own two bits about this great movie. One of my favorite facts is about the final explosion. They tried many ingredients to get that distinctive blue color but the most interesting was horse maneur. This gives new meaning to the term "explosive diareah" (can't spell)
Usual Suspects
This is now my favorite movie, tied in first with The Matrix. The commentary is very hilarious and makes watching the movie for the tenth time even funnier. If you haven't seen a good movie in a while and haven't seen this one, rent it today. Unfortunately, as I recently discovered, they aren't making this DVD any more. I just bought the last copy from my local Best Buy.
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Epinions.com ID:
theoldmandave
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Member: Dave Cox
Location: Havertown, PA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I love DVDs and Xbox and friends call me The Old Man.
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