Y'know how some DVD movies offer commentary tracks? You just select the commentary option, and then either in background or foreground, you get commentary about what you're seeing, from some of the people who produced the movie, whether it be directors, actors, or other film personnel?

When was the last time that a DVD commentary actually provided insight into what you're seeing, that it actually told you more than what you saw on the surface?

Most commentaries, you just get reactions like, "Oh wow, that was so cool, I forgot we did that!" But every so often, the producers want to bare all, and tell you how they did all of the special effects tricks, how they got actors or stuntspeople to do certain stunts, etc.; they more-or-less give you informal film school.

Last commentary like this that I thought was actually any darn good was the commentary for Grindhouse: Planet Terror. Presented some REALLY interesting stuff on how they did some of that; I'm probably going to run through it again, because there WERE some things I didn't quite catch.

Bourne Ultimatum also had a pretty good commentary, too.

I find that commentaries from directors and producers are best; actors just tend to ramble on, if not say the same thing over and over again.

I've always liked the commentaties by Kevin Smith and his View Askew crew. The commentary for Clerks was very interesting as he talked a lot about casting his characters as well as the difficulties of shooting his first film.

Can't go wrong with Carpenter and Russell. They mix up film information, 'how they did that' type stuff, and random banter that's always completely entertaining.

David Fincher also does very good commentaries, especially on the technical details and his own choices.

I never listen to them.  I have, in the past, and either they don't discuss what I care to know more about, rattle on about some nonsense, bore the hell out of me, are too short to be effective (South Park's), or otherwise just don't care.  Of course, I'm probably not typical as I tend to ignore any special features available, with very, very few exceptions (like bloopers/gag reels... they can sometimes be entertaining, or 300's picture-in-picture making-of).

The only time I was ever interested in a DVD commentary was for the tv show Homicide: Life on the Street. Sometimes they had the actors do it, and sometimes the director or producer, or a combination of both. Usually they were verrry interesting, expecially if it was the director or producer, because they'd tell us how NBC objected to this and that, and how they'd fight over it, then compromise, but slip in something else the censors wouldn't catch. Great stuff. Great show.

Kevin Smith does a commentary on the Director's Cut version of Donnie Darko, even though Smith himself had *nothing* to do with the film. It's a great commentary, though I prefer the original version of the film ...

Speaking of, the original version of Donnie Darko has two commentary tracks. One is a stupid all-cast "hey remember inside joke #132894 while we were on set? Too bad no one watching cares!" ... yeah. But the OTHER commentary is just the director and Jake Gyllenhal, and they talk about all kinds of awesome deep stuff. Much love there.

Other commentaries I like... hmm....

Pokemon: The First Movie - What I like here is that the people doing the commentary talk regularly about the differences between the US and JP franchises. Pretty good, legitimate information, given to you alongside a film that was completely neutered for the American release.

Man, I thought I would've had more to list. But that's it.

The commentary on Donnie Darko kind of killed the movie for me for a while. As the director talks about it, I realised that the way he planned it was nowhere near as interesting as the theories I had invented myself. I wished I hadn't listened to it. One thing that's interesting on the original DD dvd is that there is commentary on the deleted scenes with the director explaining his very good reasons those scenes were deleted. And then they made it back in for his "director's" cut.

Idle Hands had a funny commentary and I loved the Bubba Ho-Tep commentaries, especially the one by the King, but most dvd commentaries bore me to tears. Especially ones talking about special effects.

It's even worse on ADV commentaries...they are basically the VAs talking to each other about, well, whatever. Not even about the show.

-Joshua

The only DVD's where I've EVER listened to the Audio Commentary are the Simpsons seasons, and I listened to ALL of them, they're a lot of fun actually.

I've dabbled with a few commentaries for various levels of enjoyment.  The ones with Paul Greengrass for Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum were defintely good, but my favorite still remains to be Peter Jackson's, Philippa Boyens' and Fran Walsh's Lord of The Rings Extended Edition trilogy; they strike a perfect balance of lively, informative, and entertaining.  Also love Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot's writers track for the first two Pirates of The Caribbeans, so you can imagine my massive disappointment when I found out there wasn't one featured for the third.  Nick Park's and Steve Box's in Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit was excellent, too.

I'm sad to hear that there's not going to be one for the upcoming Enchanted either, though the D-Files featurette on the Blu-ray version could make up for that.  Kevin Lima definitely sounds like he's got a lot of insight into the film.

One of the more interesting commentaries I've seen was the one for Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. I hated the movie, but I loved that the commentary was subtitled so I could watch the movie normally and just read the commentary. The commentary itself was pretty informative and explained some of the gaping plot holes.

I love the commentaries on Simpsons and Futurama. The producers and writers usually give the best info, while the actors are uneven. Oddly, the actors on the Simpsons commentaries are often very dry and boring, but the Futurama actors are usually hilarious (especially when Billy West did one commentary in character as Zoidberg).

I think what makes the Simpsons and Futurama commentaries work is the large group of people assembled. When it comes to commentaries, I always say the more the merrier. I've listened to one or two-person commentaries, and you invariably get long stretches of boring silence, whereas ensemble commentaries are generally much livelier. Sure, there's always cross-talk, but it's better than silence.

I swear to goodness if I don't pick this up when it comes out my wife will kill me.

If I wanted a fantasy movie, I'd go more along the lines of Chronicles of Narnia, Stardust or The Golden Compass.

Lord of the Rings trilogy was excellent, but there's no damn way I'm ever going to find the 12 hours it takes to watch all of those again.

I liked all the Pixar movie commentaries.
I remember the commentary on Finding Nemo quite well.

Stardust was a great fantasy movie.
I was kinda hoping that it would have been two discs instead of one.

Just picked up both Blu-ray and DVD versions today.  The Blu-ray version is insanely gorgeous and pristine looking, but the DVD does a very good job with its picture transfer as well.   But where the Blu-ray version really shines in its Dolby TrueHD lossless soundtrack; masterfully mixed, this is absolute reference material stuff for any good sound system set up.   

I'm glad that my favorite movies are getting such royal treatments, and Enchanted just gave me one more reason to invest in Blu-ray.

Yeah, I'm surprising her today with Enchanted on Blu-Ray.  It'll be wrapped up like a gift, maybe with a card as well, and I"m taking our daughter out to McDonalds.  She'll be able to feel "Enchanted" all over again!  *nyuk nyuk nyuk* .......

Here's a quick question, so I've got the PS3 hooked into the HDMI slot of my TV.  How would I go about setting up surround sound for the PS3?  Really, that's the only thing left for me to do. 

We recently bought Ratatouille (spelling?) on Blu-Ray and it's gorgeous.

I try to stay away from commentary tracks because it usually breaks down that fourth wall, but in a bad way. I remember watching some Office commentary with the actors and hearing about how things were put together started dissecting the show for me in a way that made it less appealing. The same thing happened when I watched the "Slice of Lynch" feature from the Twin Peaks boxset... it was so bizarre seeing these actors talking to Lynch with visible disinterest. It almost ruined it for me, so I just stopped watching.

Deleted scenes get a thumbs up, but I stay away from commentaries.

And actually I'm pretty sure Lynch is against those sort of things and I totally agree with his thinking. I think it was he who likened film and television to magic - if you know how the trick is done, it loses the appeal. I think he's right.

If a HDMI hookup is detected, I believe that the PS3 will set the audio output to HDMI by default.  If you're using any other sort of sound receiver, you'll need to use the included A/V cable in addition to the HDMI hookup.  At that point, you'll need to manually go to the Audio Output Settings at the PS3 menu to switch to either Digital Out or Audio Input Connector - SCART/AV Multi. Then, check off your supported audio output formats.

Thanks Angela

Just picked it up yesterday with a $10.00 off coupon.  Total (for the Blu-Ray disc, mind you) was $16.XX.  Not bad.