Films/DVD Asylum

question: your favorite DVD commentaries?

66.53.41.95

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email Next ] [ Films/DVD Asylum ]

tunenut

(A)

Over the last few months I've been buying DVDs. Just got around to exploring some of the commentaries. Two notable cases so far, both on Criterion special editions. Wild Strawberries and Night and the City. In both cases, the commentary track was extremely dense with information and it brought a complete new appreciation of many of the aspects of the film. From Ingmar Bergman's relation with his parents to similarities of some scenes with others in his other movies. So what are the other good commentaries out there?

Follow Ups:

The Cell - Mark B. James 16:30:26 03/03/05 (0)
Yeah, the one with J-Lo in it. The Director's commentary is pretty interesting. Apparently his objective was to make the movie so gory that it would be viewed as funny and over the top. The audience missed the funny part and just found it really gory. This is actually a good movie if you take some of the sci fi stuff with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
==========
(Mark B. James - a.k.a. "Brewthunda")
This is Spinal Tap - Crazyhorse 17:12:58 02/28/05 (1)
with commentary by Spinal Tap on how the documentary puts them in a bad light :) Almost funnier than the movie itself...
Another good one is Mel Brooks' commentary of Young Frankenstein.
- Re: This is Spinal Tap - HOK 19:03:59 02/28/05 (0)
  This was the first DVD comentary I heard, and all others since have palled in comparsion. Very funny!
  John
The 'Dead - jbmcb 16:14:59 02/28/05 (0)
Evil Dead, that is :) Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell talking about making movies on zero budget. The genesis of the "The Classic," a '73 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that's been in every single Sam Raimi movie, *including* the spidermans, loads of caro suryp, etc..
The Ghostbuster's commentary is also pretty funny, but the choppy, MST3k style subtitle hack gets old pretty quick.
/*Music is subjective. Sound is not.*/
Joe Dirt. nt - jaiva 16:06:14 02/28/05 (0)
d
Takashi Miike... - Chris Garrett 11:32:36 02/28/05 (1)
he's the over-the-top Japanese director of such classics as Ichi The Killer, Visitor Q, Full Metal Yakuza, Audition and Fudoh.
I watched FMY the other day and while it was a decent B film, the interview with Miike was simply worth the price of admission. He went through the whole process of making a movie during Japan's economic heyday in the '80s, when money was flying out of people's noses to more recent times.
He explained the way 'Original Videos' were formulated, produced, marketed and profits recooped. An Original Video in Japan is a movie that goes straight to the stores for rent or sale. It usually costs about 30m-40m Yen ($350k-$450k) to make and it's usually made in 2-3 weeks filming round the clock, so they can crank them out.
You basically go to the distributor for funding and not some film production company and if these distributors can 'sell' 10k-20k copies, a seemingly small amount, they're as happy as a pig in shit. He went on to say that when the money started drying up, many of these directors went to Video Game making or TV. He also mentioned that the Yakuza style film became somewhat 'cookie-cutter' and hence, people who didn't at least take chances going off the wall, stagnated and withered on the vine. He's all for a script as a minor guide, but he likes to adlib a lot of stuff right on the set. Ultimately, the Original Video people took the hit and things went into decline. It was a very educational interview for anybody interested in one aspect of foreign film making.
It was subtitled, but it was a great and educational 30 minute interview. There are other American commentaries that I have loved, the Peter Jackson ones from LOTRs were interesting and there have been others that I'm blanking on.
This was more an interview rather than an over the film step by step commentary, although he did answer specific questions regarding FMY in specific terms.
Take care, Chris
- thanks - tunenut 12:31:20 02/28/05 (0)
  Never heard of any of these- will check them out. I live near a DVD store with huge foreign and anime sections.
"We Were Soldiers" - Road Warrior 05:18:57 02/28/05 (1)
Had General Moore (Colonel back then). Excellent insights into the battle and the comradeship of soldiers. Very moving. Favorite Mel Gibson movie and 2nd favorite war movie.
- What a concept... checking out the commentaries section... - oscar 06:00:53 02/28/05 (0)
  Guess I ought to start doing this (and I'll start with "We Were Soldiers"
  
  Thx

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

You can not post to an archived thread.