There’s a clip I saw from the Boogie Nights commentary track where Paul Thomas Anderson suddenly announces that he has to go take a piss, leaves for a minute or so, then comes back and picks it up again.
We recorded a commentary with John Carpenter for one of our films with him, and mid-commentary, he walked out to smoke for a few minutes. Comes back and it's like he didn't miss a beat. Boss move. His commentary with Kurt Russell for THE THING is just the two of them laughing for two hours.
Mark Wahlberg actually talks about his penis being broken once. I kid you not. lol I believe Luis Guzman is on it as well, at least for a while. The Boogie Nights commentary is insane. lol (in a good way!)
And agree 100% on the take of why film commentaries are awesome. I love learning the behind the scenes stuff from the people involved in the actual making of it.
Now we have to rely on random YouTubers who weren’t there. Kinda sad. 😢
I've honestly never gotten around to watching a single movie with commentary because I wouldn't want it to wreck my viewing of the movie, and I wouldn't be rewatching a movie unless a lot of time had passed where I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
But this is all interesting to me
I'm not wicked interested in film or making one and I don't care for celebrity gossip or drama, but I loved me a good juicy DVD commentary track! I'd buy a DVD, watch it, and then watch it again immediately after with a commentary track on. I can't explain to you why they hit for me, though haha
I'm not even opposed to the idea, I just never got around to it. as someone who's watched pro wrestling shoot interviews or listened to podcasts I can sorta understand it, i just never found the extra time to devote to it
i don’t. they never captioned the damned things so they were out of reach. it’s the one thing i remain salty about to this day. all the goodies, specials, interviews…uncaptioned. pfft
The box set for the Lord of the Ring is a great soup to nuts about film making from the commentary tracks to the making of extra discs. The Fight Club commentary track also great and convinced me Edward Norton is smart and Brad Pitt is really not the sharpest knife in drawer.
It wasn't just commentary tracks but special features in general: commentaries, deleted scenes & general bts coverage. You still get them today if you look for it (mainly with specific labels like Shout! Factory), but it's definitely not as prominent as it still should be.
I have bought the blue ray set and then the 4K set but I still have these. I remember I got each one as it came out. It was such an event. Then they released all three in the box set and for people who bought them individually, if you sent them like, 10 bucks they mailed you the box.
I also had great insights into acting because when you watch them with the commentary, you aren't in the movie or in the story, so you can just watch the actors act.
It raised my respect for Tom Hanks to new levels. His acting in Forrest Gump is so sublime that it was almost shocking.
Commentary, featurettes, and special features still exist on most physical media. You just need to still buy physical like in the old days before streaming.
Absolutely! I loved hearing about all the music and foley and props, to the point where I wanted to try and be a foley artist at one point, but I couldn't figure out how to go about that. But yeah just all of it on repeat...I shudder to think how many weeks I've watched all of that content.
The LOTR extended edition DVDs came out during a very difficult time in my life. I was a city mouse living in a rural area, no job, no friends, no money, in the dial-up era. The special features and commentaries *were* my friends. They kept me somewhat sane. I can still recite them.
Is the commentary track of "Cheers" really as legendary as depicted in the movie "Ted"? I always wondered! Some day I'll have to watch Cheers if only to get some more OG Mullet Frasier!
Hi Jason, longtime fan, first time caller, please use your considerable reach to tell everyone that the Tropic Thunder DVD commentary belongs in Louvre and any amount of money you have to pay to acquire the DVD is worth it
Now you’ve got me interested. The movie itself is a rare comedy. The scene with Robert Downey Jr where he won’t break character because of his method acting dedication and he’s playing a white Australian guy that’s playing a black guy that’s pretending to be Cambodian (I think) is comedy gold.
I don’t know why it’s not mentioned on the same level as the Armageddon or Spinal Tap commentary. Stiller and Jack Black play it straight but RDJ stays in character and that alone makes it amazing but the much more subtle “RDJ is mad at Jack” thread is incredible
Roger Ebert did AMAZING commentary for Dark City and Citizen Kane. Ebert was furious and sad when the Blu ray of Kane didn’t have his commentary track as he had lost the ability to speak by then…and said he couldn’t rerecord it.
I owed both Spaced and Hot fuzz on both NA DVDs as well as UK and had a unlocked DVD player because of the beautiful amount of commentaries on those DVDs.
Literally I miss them more than any other "feature"
Neat thing about criterion is they’ll include commentary as a potential audio option. That said they don’t make commentaries any mire but we could with streaking and it’s a shame.
One of the reasons I've started buying back some of my favourite DVDs I sold ages ago. I enjoy going through imdb trivia for stuff I enjoy and commentary tracks can sometimes feel like someone reading the trivia page out. Sometimes it's just nice to hear the cast/crew hang out together as friends.
I loved the commentary in Atlantis the lost Empire because I discovered that they designed an entire language and an entire working ecosystem to explain how the people survived in an underwater cave for so long. Lava for warmth, trees for oxygen, wildlife for food. I miss that era of DVDs.
I don’t understand this post at all — literally all releases today still have audio commentary tracks, and in most cases there’s actually MORE commentaries now than ever before.
It’s funny because I’ll go out of my way to buy physical releases with all the extras — audio commentaries are still very much the norm, not the exception. And those are just table stakes. Interviews, making of docs, deleted scenes, alternate cuts — we’ve never been this spoiled for choice.
As a former video store clerk and devout film geek, the bonus features offered on a disc mattered. I would watch a film I really enjoyed numerous times with the various commentaries as well as the behind the scene bonuses. I never failed to find a fascinating gem I could give to a customer.
I still but physical media (especially from boutique labels) because they still come with commentary tracks. Some even with two or more different commentary track.
I was just thinking about this in re Sinners. That movie is crying out for a commentary track. Hell, I’d see it in a theater with the commentary track.
Before he sobered up, didn't they have to wake up Jason Mewes each time his character popped up on the screen for every commentary track they recorded?
One of the best things about the Criterion streaming channel is that they stream the extras that they have for the films as well, and sometimes record new ones.
The commentary track for the 1960s Batman movie was fantastic and did change my perspective. Adam West kept laughing and calling it “theater of the absurd.” He was all in to the hamminess of the whole thing.
Quentin was a fan of Wright's show SPACED... that's why hes on the commentary track.. he also did one for Spaced's DVD.
The commentary track for the Goonies that cuts back and forth from video to audio has the cast basically telling Sean Astin to STFU... and then he leaves without saying goodbye.
I almost couldn't believe it the first time I decided to check it out on my DVD. It made me investigate every DVD I had for commentary since then, I felt tricked.
There are some season of South Park on DVD that have great commentary. There's one where the South Park theme comes on over whatever they were saying so comedy central didn't have to pay a fine. Look it up, the thing about Tom Hanks is....and then the south park music played.
I don't understand why streaming services like Disney+ don't offer this? If they offered multiple versions with commentary and/or extra scenes showing how Banner made Hulk "smart" in "Endgame" etc... they'd have more subscribers.
I had D+ for a short time, around the end of Loki S1, and they were the ONLY streaming service with extras. That included MCU Phase 1 commentary, extra scenes, and even some Spanish dubs.
Credit where due, D+ had those extras when I had it. If they don't anymore, that's a huge step backwards.
As a big fan of the MCU through 2019, I was super excited for D+ when it came out. We rewatched the whole cycle during covid. But I've dropped it due to just not digging the new stuff (beside Loki which was great). But you're right, I do remember the extra scenes on some. They should do more of it.
My favorite commentary track is for the movie “Sideways”. Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church spend the entire time roasting the shit out of their characters (who deserved it, frankly). It’s hilarious.
I learned a lot from those. I introduced my son to the one on Christmas Vacation. He didn’t understand what was happening. I said it was like a podcast. He was blown away.
After listening to Greta Gerwig chatter through the entire Barbie commentary, she was like "I'm sorry, I could go on for another 2 hours" like PLEASE RECORD THAT & SEND IT TO ME GRETA!!! Same for Mike Flanagan & Doctor Sleep. I could listen to him talk about it for days.
I hate these like I hate the average video with subtitles that aren't even sentences anymore; but, aside from being a grouchy old man, I have the exact same boxes depicted and am forced to admit that knowing that Caradhras actually comprises insulating styrofoam snow cannot be unheard or unseen.
I always thought it would be a cool thing for the audio of a film to be a commentary track - a radio play in effect - and be the main focus. The visuals would be entirely separate and in effect be a silent movie.
The 2 elements could interact in interesting ways.
The Matrix Trilogy box set had commentary tracks from film critics who gave bad reviews to the movies, as well as tracks from a pair of philosophers (and none from the Wachowskis themselves).
It's one of my favourite examples. The booklet that accompanies it tells that the Wachowskis had to really fight WB management to include the critic tracks.
When you watch the video, he says that they're not really made anymore; current movies that don't get physical releases also don't get commentaries, and the ones that do don't always get them.
And streaming victims gave up extras, like commentary, for permanently renting choice paralysis 😐
It could depend on the region. Physical releases are still a must here in Japan, and I can't remember one I bought recently that didn't have them or other special features.
Fairly, I often get older movies, and they may be the ones that were on the laserdisc or DVD versions in my collection.
But when it comes to logistics... I literally know nothing, including where to go to learn more. Por ejemplo, speaking of Japan, I hunted down the Japanese DVD of John Dies at the End (for the dub), and it didn't include the commentary that's on the USA and Germany releases.
Before DVDs took off I think you could get VHS tapes where they would tell you to adjust the audio to all L or R channel to hear the commentary vs the movie.
A good comparison is the DVD commentary of Scrubs and the podcast Zach Braff and Donald Faison are doing now. In the podcast it's all about how everyone was lovely and what a good fall and stuff. In the commentary you would learn how the nurse guy's actor was super weird.
I think you’re missing the most important one. For the commentary of This is Spinal Tap, the commentary is done IN CHARACTER. Which effectively created a whole other Spinal Tap film.
Rian Johnson did a commentary track for the theatrical run of "Looper". I went to see it a second time in my local cinema listening to Rian's commentary on my MP3 player. It was fun.
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbells commentary on The Evil Dead is just hilarious, two old friends totally in tune with each other and just sharing anecdotes, brilliant.
Bruce Campbell is such a naturally funny guy. I can't remember if it's the first or second Evil Dead, but I remember him doing a running bit in the commentary for one of them where the movie would get quiet after something loud and bombastic, and he'd go "well, everything's alright now."
I love me some commentaries but there were some good ones. I had 2 copies of underworld for a while because the different editions had totally different commentary tracks!
Seconding criterion. The Blu-rays are expensive, but they’re protecting a lot of important works of art. (I almost said “content”, and then I stopped myself.)
They are expensive so the best way to get them cheaper is once or twice a year they are 50% off on their website and Barnes and Noble does the same thing!
I was given a Ray Harryhausen boxset a while back, and while I wasn’t very enthused with the movies featured, watching the same movies with the commentary track was a much more interesting experience. They had Ray and 3 other specials effects guys explaining and riffing on the action, was great
I’ve said it already but I really think dvds should be sold to fans: special edition, pretty cover, freebies, lots of content like commentaries/ gag reels. Theres rarely any dvd being sold at all but when there is its the simplest thing ever. Why buy a plain copy when I already have it on streaming?
Not movies, but the DVD commentary tracks for community are often really funny and random. There is one where Gillian Jacob and Donald Glover burst in to a recording session to interupt it, screaming about how they are having sex and Gillian "needs cement in her mouth."
I think the worst impact of losing commentary tracks is that little extra bit of erosion of film audiences appreciating the artwork and craftsmanship of movie making
for me, the commentary track managed to pull you out of the film's world and remind you "this is a work made by people"
it reminded me, after Id enjoyed the film itself, to enjoy it as a WORK, as a thing people made rather than this- this fiction that just spontaneously appears, plays out its fantasy and then leaves
There are also "Breakdown" / "Explained" / "Deep Dive" videos that do detailed analysis of films, episodes or even specific scenes or the endings of them, pointing trivia, easter eggs or explaining unsolved mysteries.
There are also video essays that are literal commentaries on movies, tv shows, even video games, be it about the architecture to the nature of good vs evil and good AND evil.
We haven’t lost them though. Nearly every physical release these days comes with commentary tracks, sometimes multiple. This chain of replies is bizarre lol people lamenting the loss of something that is still very easy to find. These tracks didn’t go anywhere, people just stopped buying movies
I really liked the commentary track for "Holes". It was just a bunch of the kids cracking jokes, instead of the crew talking about weather conditions, or details about the filming. I thought it was really funny.
There was also some great commentary in "Lord of War".
There's a brief scene in the movie where some local militants are brandishing AK-47s, and in the commentary they mention that real AKs were literally less expensive to buy than prop guns!
Like the Spinal Tap one, Tropic Thunder had Robert Downey Jnr stay in character the whole way, just like he says in the film, and brilliantly switches to his Australian accent when he breaks character in the film.
I also noticed the director/writer tracks offer a lot of great insight while most of the actor tracks make me think of boxes full of rocks and sacks full of hammers.
I have fond memories of the Blade 2 commentary tracks and hours upon hours of FX test footage. Futurama had good ones too. The worst I watched was Austin Powers because Mike Myers assumed he could do it by himself with no prep. He had no one to bounce of.
Another fantastic one is the Special Edition Showgirls. A guy who had done it as a live bit got picked up by the studio, who had recognized that making fun of the movie was the way to go. Really, really funny.
There's a point in that Sum Of All Fears commentary where it sounds like Clancy is about to take a swing at the director. It stops for a few seconds and resumes, I guess after a cook-off period.
The Disturbing Behavior track is the director seething about how the suits cut up and ruined his movie.
When i was a kid i watched the veggitales movie Jonah with the commentary on. It was the voice actors for bob the tomato and larry the cucumber in character talking through the movie. I remember it being funny
One of my favorites—both the movie itself and the commentary track—is 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢. John Carpenter and Kurt Russel barely talked about the movie. But for a while, they did laugh about how the producers didn't understand the script they bought, didn't understand Burton's not the hero.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 you mean tell me you don't have a DVD player you can still buy those DVDs at Walmart still yet even down to the players Blu-ray is hard to find but DVDs you can still get a hold of
His video was saying that DVD commentaries are no longer really made, the same way they were back when physical media was king. For the top movies of '24, how many had a commentary track? Deadpool did. The rest I don't know:
Yeah Deadpool definitely did have a good commentary track for its DVD even I know I never did like Deadpool but however they just want to make money off of whatever they want to make money off of and I always ask myself how many billions of dollars do you need to live on always questions me
And currently, you don't find a lot of existing commentaries on streaming. The relevant example I use is the John Dies at the End movie. Streaming, you pretty much find NOTHING of the physical media extras.
D+ has the physical extras for their movies. I think Prime is STARTING to include them.
That sounds interesting I still got a DVD player and I even got a VHS player still yet I don't throw none of my stuff away I still got a lot of stuff to maintain I still use that stuff every once in awhile but that's it sometimes I'll do some streaming but other times physical media it's a break
I'm aware that they are a menu option; but I tried a couple and very strongly disliked them, hence the whole concept. It felt like having the most obnoxious person in the cinema sitting next to you. Perhaps I just enjoy immersing myself in the film.
Happy to read critiques, analyses etc. though.
Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan had some of the FUNNIEST and sweetest things to say, and hardly anyone knows, like, Dominic was SO excited the first time he saw Billy, and it was just this super wholesome story. Wont ruin it, watch those commentaries!
I love the commentary on LOTR. Some of the actors were taking it very seriously and then Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and (surprise to me) Bernard Hill just spent the whole time making fun of everything. It was hilarious and charming
The first time I saw Napoleon Dynamite, I put on the commentary track immediately after finishing it and watched it again. I thought there was something going on that I wasn't understanding.
Superbad commentary track is goated. It’s 2 separate studios recording the commentary, half the cast in LA, half in NYC. Judd Apatow leaves in a huff and Jonah Hill calls him a bitch in front of his daughter Maude. We learn that Bill Hader is working on a secret movie in Hawaii (Tropic Thunder).
Give the props to the laser-discs crowd prior to the dvd era when The Criterion Collection harnessed the capability of the media to use multiple audio tracks.
I could not agree more!! It was just recently that I started looking at some of the "extras" provided with online movies. They're just pointless. And so boring!! Every movie isn't a gem, and every process to make them isn't perfect. Be real. You sound like politicians
My favorite commentaries are to older movies where the filmmakers had had some time away from the making and can not only be honest but the time between give them much more interesting perspective than if it’s recorded shortly after locking the picture.
One of my all-time favorite DVD commentaries was the one QT & RR did for From Dusk Till Dawn - QT constantly talks over RR but you can tell they really did have fun making that movie and putting all the stuff and people they thought were cool into it.
God, for real. Some of them were absolutely legendary
They got JIM AND MARILYN LOVELL to do a commentary track for Apollo 13 for fuck's sake. Marilyn spent half the thing talking about how nice Tom Hanks was and how eerie it was that he nailed so many of Jim's mannerisms.
The USED CARS commentary is my favorite with Kurt Russell, Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale showing great fondness for the movie and cracking each other up while rewatching it.
The T2 commentary with James Cameron & Bill Wisher is great, too.
The Game of Thrones commentary tracks with the kids was amazing. It's Sophie, Maisie and Issac just goofing around together. And their beatbox of the main theme was on point for S2.
The commentary for John Dies at the End is one of my favourite ways to watch the movie. The fact that optical drives are much more uncommon now, means that so many people miss out on it.
All it takes is a platform to offer it. Like D+, credit where due.
One of the ones I want to hear when I get the DVD is that one for Showgirls called “The Greatest movie ever made”. I’ve heard snippets, it’s by a comedian called David Schmader not tied to the movie outside of the fact that his screenings of the movie were popular.
My personal favourite was Black Hawk Down. It had the actual service men who were involved in the operation talking about the film, the operation and the people involved.
I loved the ones for the comedy movies. I think I watched the commentary for Evolution (David Duchovny), chasing Amy, American Pie, Josie & the Pussycats and Pearl Harbor the most… I watched so many.
I love LOTR commentary tracks. The poking fun of Elijah and Orlando. Ian pointing out stuff in the book. The talking about forced perspective and doubles.
Man listening to the 35th anniversary track to RHPS was a bit depressing. They would tell a funny story or something and then be like "they are dead now" and I am pretty sure that happened a minimum of 3 times.
One of my favorite things about Spaced and Shaun of the Dead were the DVD commentaries, which were either the cast just shooting the shit, or involved Edgar Wright with someone COMPLETELY UNINVOLVED but with a background in filmmaking of some kind.
Also, I seem to remember Kevin Smith mentioning in the Donnie Darko director's commentary something about directors having more control over the DVD release as a whole. He used the theatrical poster of Jersey Girl as an example, I think, cause JLo featured on the poster despite her tiny role.
The Ghostbusters DVD was done MST3K style, with black silhouettes of the cast talking about the movie. UHF had a great commentary. Jabberwocky might be an all-time favorite.
I listen to the Ghostbusters one at least once a year. Funny and really informative. The fact they Ramis & Reitman are gone makes it extra special now.
Those rightly lauded Lord of the Rings Special Editions are almost a quarter of a century old.
Would be interesting to know how many people now working in film - or studying or aspiring to - first had their creative spark ignited by poring over those special features when they were younger.
I have thought about buying all the important movies on DVD just for this. it's sad that that resource has disappeared. Futurama had really good ones, where they talked about hidden references and explained the real science underlying plot points.
Meh. I listened to most of the Jackie Brown (great movie) commentary track, and it was just everyone in the cast and crew calling everyone else a genius. Yawn.
The Limey is another amazing one, with Soderbergh and writer Lem Dobbs fighting throughout, and Soderbergh fracturing the timeline of the commentary track just like the movie.
Cannibal! The Musical by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. In the commentary, they get trashed doing shots of whiskey, tell the story of their college years, and how they made movie for almost nothing.
Comments
Not for me.
I got the Garth Marenghi one a couple of years back for one of those and it's and amazing
Tom Weaver commentary from 1941's The Wolf Man.
And agree 100% on the take of why film commentaries are awesome. I love learning the behind the scenes stuff from the people involved in the actual making of it.
Now we have to rely on random YouTubers who weren’t there. Kinda sad. 😢
But this is all interesting to me
https://youtu.be/ugBNzKY5vb4?si=fygEMJB6ia11AkMu
https://pca.st/podcast/ebfa9c00-2062-013d-ba5b-0e93fab1718b
Loved the multiple commentary tracks and listened to it multiple times.
It raised my respect for Tom Hanks to new levels. His acting in Forrest Gump is so sublime that it was almost shocking.
Yes, he's still in character for the commentary track.
Literally I miss them more than any other "feature"
https://www.avclub.com/this-is-spinal-rerelease-trailer
Honestly, if anyone on the cast and crew wanted to, I think they should do that.
I'm with you.
Now as then, not all DVDs have epic commentary tracks, but some do.
The commentary track for the Goonies that cuts back and forth from video to audio has the cast basically telling Sean Astin to STFU... and then he leaves without saying goodbye.
#oblivious
This Is Spinal Tap
The entire commentary is them in character, and it makes the movie twice as good.
Credit where due, D+ had those extras when I had it. If they don't anymore, that's a huge step backwards.
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2492773/how-to-best-use-disney-tips-to-get-the-most-out-of-the-streaming-servicea
This article is from 2025-04-25
I just watched the full set of Resident Evil and they have them. Star Wars.
I love owning blu rays. Special features are a bonus .
Also bought animated Lion King. Great commentary track
- Both The Simpsons and Community have tracks as funny as the show.
- Hoodwinked has a surprisingly funny and clever commentary.
- Leverage has great insights into the episodes and the background behind why they made them.
- Ben Affleck on Armageddon.
1st hand knowledge is desired from fans for all artists, actors and writers.
The 2 elements could interact in interesting ways.
The directors commentary of pitch black was good, while the one with the actors was shit.
And streaming victims gave up extras, like commentary, for permanently renting choice paralysis 😐
Fairly, I often get older movies, and they may be the ones that were on the laserdisc or DVD versions in my collection.
But when it comes to logistics... I literally know nothing, including where to go to learn more. Por ejemplo, speaking of Japan, I hunted down the Japanese DVD of John Dies at the End (for the dub), and it didn't include the commentary that's on the USA and Germany releases.
for me, the commentary track managed to pull you out of the film's world and remind you "this is a work made by people"
idk how else to explain it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAzXrZcJdFE
These are good things dont get me wrong but theyre not the same thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKrALAyBfDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNEwS3AHM2A
There's a brief scene in the movie where some local militants are brandishing AK-47s, and in the commentary they mention that real AKs were literally less expensive to buy than prop guns!
I also noticed the director/writer tracks offer a lot of great insight while most of the actor tracks make me think of boxes full of rocks and sacks full of hammers.
The latter two are abbreviated on YouTube due to trademark issues althought full-length versions are posted on Patreon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjZ-HHqGiJY
The Disturbing Behavior track is the director seething about how the suits cut up and ruined his movie.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2024/
In '01, it was commonplace.
1/
D+ has the physical extras for their movies. I think Prime is STARTING to include them.
2/2
Happy to read critiques, analyses etc. though.
Nope. Things were exactly as they were presented.
They got JIM AND MARILYN LOVELL to do a commentary track for Apollo 13 for fuck's sake. Marilyn spent half the thing talking about how nice Tom Hanks was and how eerie it was that he nailed so many of Jim's mannerisms.
The T2 commentary with James Cameron & Bill Wisher is great, too.
https://bsky.app/profile/kibblesmith.com/post/3lnrjf4ousc2t
All it takes is a platform to offer it. Like D+, credit where due.
Every movie ever made, no matter how good or how bad, how big budget or shoestring... they all are somebody's baby
Every movie had a mother
Would be interesting to know how many people now working in film - or studying or aspiring to - first had their creative spark ignited by poring over those special features when they were younger.