Best commentaries

[tobiaswragg]

Yes, I do. It's pretty enjoyable, (intentionally) funny and informative. The two of them seem to get on as well which always helps.

[jacksmith1983]

The MacColl commentary with Jay Slater is nothing like as good as the MacColl/Warbeck one. Despite his enthusiasm Slater is really not a good host at all and MacColl clearly has no real fondness for the film and is often at a loss when Slater pushes her for details regarding certain parts of the production. MacColl's squeamish reactions to the gore scenes are quite funny though and keep your ears peeled for a jaw-dropping exchange late in the film where MacColl speculates that films such as City Of The Living Dead may fuel the murderous desires of homicidal maniacs and expresses her discontent at getting typecast as a "Video Nasty Girl". However, she does seem to have a lot of affection for Fulci himself, despite describing him as "a bit of a masochist" at one point.

One interesting revelation is that Fulci apparently approached MacColl with a view to offering her a role in The New York Ripper, but by that time she had moved on and declined his offer.

All in all its a bit of a farce and accidentally winds up insulting the sort of consumer who would actually go out and buy the UK disc exclusively for the commentary. Perhaps that alone makes it worth a listen if you can pick the Vipco disc up cheap?

[tobiaswragg]

I've just dug out the disc of COTLD and notice that the commentary is not mentioned anywhere on the sleeve. That's VIPCO for you.

[jacksmith1983]

Which version do you have Tobias? The original Vipco release or their later "Screamtime" re-issue? I seem to recall the commentary being listed on the back cover of the original Vipco release but as I got shut of my copy about five years ago I could be wrong on that count.

The soft, grainy transfer on the Vipco release was vastly inferior to that of the Stateside Anchor Bay release which I eventually replaced it with. But that goes without saying really doesn't it? At least they got the OAR right though, which is more than could be said for their release of The Beyond.

[tobiaswragg]

It says 'VIPCO'S SCREAMTIME COLLECTION' on the sleeve, which is one of the dull, plain, generic ones (no photos or artwork on the front) that everyone (apart from Mike Lee, one assumes) sneers at.

[Wes Moynihan]

Commentaries are probably my favorite feature of DVDs, and for awhile I just didn't have the time to listen to them....so what I do now, is rip the audio commentary from the DVD as an mp3 file and listen to it in work, or on my mp3 player...Yeah, its not as good as listening to it as the film plays out before you, but at least I'm keeping somewhat up to date with my commentaries...

[Peter Neal]

Given the things Radice has said about Lenzi over the years I think it's a distinct possibility.

If I recall correctly, there are at least 2 bits, which suggest that the two men were indeed present in the same room during the recording. One is the scene with the muskrat, the way Lenzi throws in his "I saved it!" after Radice's disgusted commentary on the scene, the second one follows during the "turtle for dinner" scene, when Lenzi is going on about this being an "authentic" depiction of the tribe's eating habits, with Radice, again, seeming to react to Lenzi in disagreement....Then again, it COULD be very god editing.

Fave commentaries:

Bill Lustig never disappoints, same goes for David Cronenberg.
Wes Craven is good when he's paired up with somebody like Sean Cunningham or Peter Locke
I kinda like the Eli Roth commentary for "Bloodsucking Freaks", too.

[gax]

John waters is my fave,female trouble and polyester spring to mind funny and very informative.

[helen-bot]

Bruce Campbell commentaries are always great - I particularly like the in character one on Bubba Hotep, as well as the Evil Deads.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the single funniest commentary in history - Arnie and John Milius on Conan the Barbarian. I laughed so much I fell off the sofa in a hysterical heap.

[Kel E]

I want to hear the Conan commentary! I heard the Total Recall is funny too but havent got around to checking it out.
Frayling's documentary on Victorian Horror was excellent I really ought to get the book one of these decades.

I dont listen to many, definitely had to listen to the Carpenter/Russell's the Thing and the Dante/Picardo/Stone one on the Howling--which is fun with interesting anecdotes-especially when they get to the nude scene.

And had to listen to the Ridley Scott comments on the deleted Alien sequence, otherwise I generally dont bother.

[Wes Moynihan]

I think my favourite commentary is the group talk on Synapse's 42nd Street Forever Volume 3: Exploitation Explosion disc - fast, loose, full of amazing B-movie factioids and pretty funny too. Well worth digging out your copy if you haven't heard it yet...

I'm shamelessly plugging the blog here, but if anyone wants the hard to find Criterion laser commentaries for Crash (Cronenberg) and Taxi Driver (Scorsese/Schrader), you can grab 'em here (mp3, rs/mediafire)

Plutonium Shores presents The Lost Criterion Commentaries

[thehamish]

Recently enjoyed Guillermo De Toro's fan comm for Vampyr, boy does he love that film!! Richard Franklin & Lesley glib, comm for Lemora am currently checking out, even though RB seems to have forgotten most details!! Ahem. Speaking of Waters, i love the comm for his A Dirty Shame, though i only have the BBFC version, would be intrigued to see if this "unrated" version has a different 'tary on it cough cough....

[TheRoadWarrior]

There's some good stuff on the dvd to Dead Poets' Society, on film craft, lighting, doing takes, time issues vs getting on with it. The nature of filmmaking and how it will always be imperfect.

[thehamish]

love Jess Franco's comm on Exorcism btw (Synapse?). This is what really made me a Franco fan, to be honest.