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DVD Commentary / Live-Action Films

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Examples of DVD Commentaries from live-action films.

Movies/franchises with their own pages:

Individual examples:

  • Director Tamra Davis did Billy Madison by herself, adding "We love you, Chris!" in tribute to the now-deceased Chris Farley.
  • Director Tom Shadyac recorded a solo commentary track for Liar Liar. He's pretty serious, but he also tells a really nice story about taking Justin Cooper, who played Max, to meet Jim Carrey at Carrey's house. Apparently, Jim and Justin got along really well.
  • Most of the Saw DVDs come with at least one commentary from directors, actors, writers, and producers. They tend to involve hilarious comments or antics, and YMMV about when they start to become more entertaining than the actual films.
  • Director James Cameron and many of the main characters on the Aliens Collector's Edition (part of the Alien Quadrilogy). Cameron is busy discussing behind-the-scenes work, while the actors are goofing off and having a great time with each other. It continues all the way over the end credits.
    • The commentary for AVP: Alien vs. Predator with Paul W.S. Anderson, Sanaa Lathan, and Lance Henriksen is more entertaining than the film itself, the star Sanaa Lathan all dolled up as she was on her way to a premiere and chomping on a burger whilst swigging Perrier whilst Lance Henriksen takes a call from his daughter but tells her he can't talk now as he's recording a commentary.
  • Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy features a surreal but hilarious fake commentary, where Will Ferrell talks about hookers and gets drunk with the director. Then, two actors who didn't get cast in the movie show up, and attack Ferrell. Then, after that, Lou Rawls, of all people, shows up!
  • Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's DVD of Arguing With Myself has a commentary track. As one of his character's puts it when you launch it, 'if you're watching this, you have too much time on your hands!' At the beginning of the commentary he admits he really doesn't know why a commentary track to a comedy ventriloquism act is even necessary, but the directors wanted to include one.
  • Army of Darkness: all of the Evil Dead movies are essentially Bruce Campbell and his childhood friends Sam Rami and Rob Tapert kicking back and remembering the fun they had finally realising their childhood dreams on the big screen.
  • Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) has several commentaries, by the older actors and creators, and then another with several of the child actors. This second commentary is absolutely hilarious, the kids going wildly off subject and clearly having a lot of fun.
  • Ridley Scott is well noted for his commentaries.
  • Bowling for Columbine features commentary recorded by Michael Moore's interns and secretary.
  • Bound (1996) features The Wachowskis along with the woman they consulted for the portrayal of lesbianism. Jennifer Tilly also shows up in the last 20 minutes. The track is notable for being the last time the Wachowskis did anything related to promotion for one of their films.
  • The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension:
    • The audio commentary takes the rather surreal tactic of claiming that what we're viewing is an adaptation of actual events. The commentators include the "real person" on which one of the secondary characters was supposedly based, and they go so far as to constantly explain how the events depicted differ from "what really happened" and make comparisons between Peter Weller's portrayal and the "real" Buckaroo. (At least this is equally odd as the movie.)
    • The DVD also contains a subtitle track that provides additional commentary with the same conceit. The subtitle comments are consistent with the audio commentary, but its author seems to be privy to additional details not known to the audio commentators.
  • Tromeo and Juliet had four different audio commentaries.
  • Cannibal! The Musical features one of the earliest "drunken commentaries". Director Trey Parker repeatedly comments on how his character's wayward horse is a thinly disguised allegory for his break-up with a former girlfriend, which he is apparently still bitter about at the time of the commentary. At the end, the commentators decide to go to a titty bar, and the last comment heard is one challenging the other to a fight.
    • Specifically, they begin the commentary sober, but openly declare at that point that they will be drinking during it and you can even hear the alcohol being opened and served. In case you thought they were faking it though, there's an entire segment where the commentary cuts out...and then picks up as if nothing happened.
  • Orgazmo, also by Trey Parker and featuring Matt Stone, continues the tradition of drunken commentary.
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and The Goonies each reunited their now-adult child actors for commentaries.
    • A point of interest about The Goonies commentary track: Occasionally during the film, the viewer is treated to the sight of all the now-adult stars sitting at a long table watching it, while the movie shrinks away into the corner of the frame. Sean Astin unfortunately had to leave the session early to honor a prior commitment (leaving a Samwise Gamgee action figure in his place), never getting to finish a personal message to Cyndi Lauper.
  • The director's commentary for Dancer in the Dark reportedly consists mostly of Lars von Trier bitching about how much Björk sucks. Not in a teasing way or as a way to make the commentary interesting — he actually means it.
  • Roger Ebert used to host a program called "Cinema Interruptus" during the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs. He and the audience would watch a movie on DVD in an auditorium and pause the film whenever someone has something to discuss. His notes from the event are incorporated into DVD commentaries for the films.
    • His commentary for Dark City shows you just how brilliant the film is, pointing out visual motifs, cinematography tricks being used, and just how perfectly the movie's playing with Noir archetypes. The DVD's worth it for the commentary track alone.
    • Ebert also contributes an excellent, in-depth commentary for Citizen Kane. Again, notable for the breakdown of cinematography, shot design, and other interesting tidbits.
  • DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story features two commentaries, the first of which featuring Marshall Thurber, Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller arguing for 40 minutes whereupon all three exit and the commentary is replaced with that from the There's Something About Mary DVD. The second (serious) one is an Easter Egg.
  • The commentary track for El Mariachi is Robert Rodriguez pointing out all the goofy tricks he was forced to use to fit into his $7,000 budget.
  • The commentary for EuroTrip features the crew playing a drinking game during the movie.
  • The commentary for The Fast and the Furious (2001), by Rob Cohen goes to show the depth of insight a director can have about hidden aspects of the movie. Oh yeah, and he likes to blow stuff up too.
  • Amy Heckerling and Cameron Crowe have such a good time talking about Fast Times at Ridgemont High that the commentary goes on 20 minutes longer than the movie.
  • Danny DeVito's commentary for The War of the Roses is pretty standard (and quite good) except for several parts where he starts complaining about an unnamed movie composer, living near the mansion where the exterior shots were filmed, who kept calling the police and complaining about noise from the production. Each time, DeVito stops ranting after a few seconds and apologizes to the audience.
  • Each movie of the Star Wars saga has a commentary track by George Lucas and heads of the principal production departments. They mostly discussed common knowledge facts. To the contrary, the commentary for Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie was much more informative, as the whole thing was rather fresh and new at the time. Movies released after Lucasfilm's purchase by Disney also have commentaries, recorded without Lucas.
  • Fight Club has four commentaries, the most interesting of which is by Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhls. It's a masterclass in how to adapt a novel.
    • The track featuring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and David Fincher together in a room is highly amusing, as the actors frequently gang up on the director for laughs but also respect his craft and the info he wants to share. Helena Bonham Carter is dropped in via solo clips, some of which have priceless anecdotal information. Most notably, the very English HBC had no idea how old American children are in grade school, so the "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school" line meant nothing to her when she delivered it.
  • On the Frequency DVD, there's an alternate commentary track by writer Toby Emmerich and his brother Noah, who appeared in a small role. Toby openly questions who's listening to the commentary and gives his email address (which became more useful once he became the head of New Line) and Noah has to leave midway through the commentary to get to another appointment.
  • The Region 1 DVD of Godzilla 2000 features a commentary by the three guys who did most of the work Americanizing the film. It's full of information on what goes on in dubbing and adapting a film and is hilarious to boot.
  • Hot Fuzz has several commentaries, including one of two actual police officers from Wells, Somerset (where it was filmed). The one with Quentin Tarantino is basically he and Edgar Wright geeking out about films for two hours - by some counts they reference 190 different movies.
  • Shaun of the Dead features numerous commentaries, including one with zombies.
  • Kevin Smith is known for the excellent commentaries he sets up for his View Askewniverse films:
    • The commentaries for Clerks: The Animated Series, essentially three hours of ranting against ABC and bad Korean animators, may be just as funny as the cartoon.
    • His first commentary he ever did was for the Clerks laserdisc (which is also featured on the later DVD). It's notable for — aside from insights on how Smith put together a film for the price of a new car — featuring Jason "Jay" Mewes on the floor, drunk, occasionally loudly shouting an expletive before falling asleep.
    • He has also done commentaries for Mallrats, Chasing Amy (in which he says "Fuck DVD, Laserdisc is the future"), two for Dogma (once with the cast, then again when it was deemed that nothing was learnt from the first), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, two for Jersey Girl (including one with Jason Mewes), three for Clerks II (including a podcast commentary that was intended for people to take to the cinema and listen to while the film was on release). Interestingly, he didn't do one for Zack and Miri Make a Porno, apparently because of Smith's response to the low box office reciept.
  • Famously, the Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings came with four commentary tracks per movie: directors/writers, actors, production team, and design team. That's 48 hours of commentary across the whole series. To add to the greatness, the actors' commentary for The Return of the King includes comments from both Sméagol and Gollum. And Andy Serkis too!
    • In the commentaries featuring Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Christopher Lee (Saruman) it is painfully obvious that the actors are not actually watching the film and the commentary from them is simply spliced bits from interviews.
    • The commentaries from Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Phillipa Boyens are fascinating, and will keep you highly entertained and informed over all 11+ hours of the extended trilogy.
    • In the commentary featuring Elijah Wood (Frodo), Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Sean Astin (Sam), Sean Astin completely takes over the conversation several times to rattle on about how great the story and production values are to the point that you can hear Wood and Serkis shifting uncomfortably in the background. This is easily the weakest of the assorted commentaries. While the others are a mix of good humour and fascinating information, Wood, Serkis and Astin spend most of their time praising each others performances.
    • The commentaries featuring Dominic Monaghan (Merry) and Billy Boyd (Pippin) are utterly hilarious. Especially when Billy keeps waxing lyrical about his feelings for Minas Tirith.
    • Bernard Hill has a few solo sections, where he lets loose a few Precision F Strikes.
      • Also Fran Walsh jokingly threatens to give viewers of ROTK a test afterwards!
  • The Hobbit was scaled back to one commentary track per movie, by Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens. They are as informative as they were on The Lord of the Rings, explaining the reasoning behind many of the changes made while adapting the book.
  • Love Actually's commentary gets off to a rough start — Hugh Grant arrives late (about 10 minutes into the film) and almost immediately has to excuse himself to answer his cellphone. Later, Bill Nighy and director Richard Curtis realize that young star Thomas Sangster (who was 13 years old at the time) is legally unable to watch the movie, which is rated 15, which results in them desperately talking about something else during the scenes he's not supposed to watch. In the end it's quite a nice mix of funny/informative and mutual-admiration gushing (which is to be expected considering the writer/director and cast). It's also worth it just for Hugh Grant's snark about absent co-star Colin Firth, his fake nemesis. (After Richard Curtis had commented on what a nice close-up Firth had in a love scene: "I'd just assumed you'd cut it in from one of his other movies.")
  • For Made, Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn use pens to draw on the screen (hidden in a sub-title track).
  • Barry Sonnenfeld's commentary on Men in Black II falls under the awkward self-congratulation category, in addition to Sonnenfeld seemingly having no charisma whatsoever. The commentary for the first movie is unique in that Barry and actor Tommy Lee Jones are sitting in front of the movie MST3K-style, and at various points even draw on the movie to point things out. These MST3K-style visuals are also used in the commentary for Ghostbusters and Muppets from Space (as seen below); this was because Sony Pictures owned the rights to all three movies.
  • Conversely, Barry Sonnenfeld's commentary on Get Shorty along with the Making Of features reveals just how much of this movie was made exactly how the movie in the movie was made, especially how Danny DeVito was basically playing himself.
    • He bought the rights to the movie before actually reading it, just like Chili Palmer in the book/film.
    • He was originally going to play the role of Chili Palmer, but he and other producers thought he'd be too short for the role, which is the ending punch line of the movie!
    • He was asked a question in the Making Of interviews and starts rambling in an arrogant way and then admits that he forgot what the original question was, totally as his character Martin Weir would do.
    • He and other actors admit to ordering totally off menu and not knowing their own address just like Martin Weir.
  • Muppets from Space had the director joined by Gonzo and Rizzo, which resulted in an amusing joke commentary that's largely Parental Bonus stuff — clean, but most of their references would be missed by kids.
  • The screenwriters' commentary track for Night at the Museum is just hilarious. "It's magic".
    • Their commentary for the second one is just as good.
  • The actor's commentary track on Ocean's Eleven. If watching the movie didn't make it obvious that the cast had an absolute ball making the film, hearing them riff on the movie and each other does.
  • The colorized DVD release of Reefer Madness has two commentaries. One is by the colorization team, which combines fascinating insights into the colorization process with lame pot jokes. The other is by none other than Mike Nelson.
  • Resident Evil Film Series:
    Anderson: And in this scene we...
    Milla: Who cares about that, you can see my boobs! Look!
    • It continues in a similar fashion in Resident Evil: Apocalypse with Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, and Sienna Guillory. The problem is that Milla and Oded clearly recorded their commentary separate from Sienna and the two were spliced together to alternate between them, causing major Mood Whiplash from hearing happy joking Milla and Oded to hearing down to earth and serious-about-her-job Sienna.
  • "Comedian" Carrot Top has a commentary track on The Rules of Attraction in which he watches the film for the first time. He keeps making inappropriate jokes throughout the film... and then a woman gets drugged and raped by frat boys. The sheer bizarreness of listening to him try to backpedal on his statements is gold. Also notable is the fact that the DVD packaging tries to keep this a surprise: The list of special features includes "Bonus commentary by a MYSTERY GUEST!", with the text being accompanied by a small carrot icon as the only hint.
    • If you were wondering why they went with *him* of all people, it was because they originally recorded a commentary with Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the original book. But Ellis came to the studio severely sleep deprived from a late night drug session, and his commentary was so rambling and scatterbrained that it was never released.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events has an in-character commentary with Lemony Snicket berating the director for making him sit through such a miserable movie. (After watching it, you may agree with him.)
    • Lemony Snicket goes through the entire thing acting as if the things had actually happened, and that Count Olaf, the main villain, is playing himself, having kidnapped Jim Carrey and locked him away somewhere.
    • On the other hand, it's worth watching for this commentary alone, said commentary containing not a few instances of Funny Moments.
  • This is Spın̈al Tap has had several commentaries. For the Criterion Collection edition, it's played straight, with the cast and director talking about how the filmed the movie. For another special edition, the cast performs a commentary in character. It's hilarious. They protest at how stupid they were made to look by the director.
    • And point out the "key turning point" of the film. Twenty-five times.
    • Apparently every single person in the film besides the band themselves has died by the time the commentary is made. A few times the person making this claim is challenged on how they know that, and the gag is even extended to when they visit Elvis Presley's grave.
  • The director's commentaries of Stephen Sommers's films, featuring writer/director Sommers and producer/editor Bob Duscay, are just as entertaining as the movies themselves, with both either elaborating on the movie or admitting that things don't quite work that way in real life.
    • The special edition of The Mummy has two additional commentaries: one with Brendan Fraser (Rick O'Connell) by himself, and another with Oded Fehr (Ardeth Bay), Kevin J. O'Connor (Beni), and Arnold Vosloo (Imhotep). Given that Vosloo speaks no English during the film itself, hearing his natural voice and accent is interesting in its own right.
  • Michael Bay's commentary for Transformers gives many reasons as to why some things were different in the movie as well as elaborating on the backstory. He's also fairly knowledgeable about the mythos of Transformers, save for his mistakenly calling Scorponok "Scorponox".
    • Bay's commentary for Bad Boys (1995) is also especially fascinating. He doesn't pull any punches when talking about the hardships faced during the production.
  • Tropic Thunder: In-universe, the extreme method actor Kirk Lazarus is known for getting deliberately Lost in Character with every role he plays, and says at one point that he never breaks character until after he's finished recording the DVD commentary. True to his word, in the real-life DVD commentary for Tropic Thunder itself, Robert Downey Jr. does his commentary in-character as Kirk Lazarus in-character as Lincoln Osiris. When the aforementioned line in the movie comes up, he breaks character. No, not Downey, Lazarus breaks character and continues the commentary as himself. When Movie!Lazarus has an identity crisis and breaks character near the end of the movie is when Downey finally breaks character in the commentary.
  • UHF has a rather bizarre (and hilarious) one, with minor cast members wandering in and out at various times. Most notably when Emo Phillips' scenes are on Weird Al wonders whatever happened to the guy only to hear "I'm right behind you". Al also calls Victoria Jackson on the phone during the recording (which she clearly wasn't expecting), and appears on screen a couple of times, once to simply leave and get a snack for the director.
    • That said, it's also full of genuine production info; Al's memory is so sharp he recalls the addresses of the filming locations, much to his director's amazement.
  • Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God had three members of the production crew pose as three famous heroes of D&D lore, giving in-character comments about the plot and pointing out references to common D&D concepts. Better than it sounds, partly because it's genuinely unique and interesting, and partly because it includes a sizable about of jokey heckling, somewhat reminiscent of a RiffTrax audio stream.
  • The Gamers contains two notable commentaries: one is by RPG designer Monte Cook, the other is a psychoanalysis of its events, including backstabbing someone with a ballista.
  • The commentary for The Usual Suspects is played straight until the final scenes, when Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie suddenly engage in a heated argument. Portions of the argument fade in and out of the commentary track much like the dialogue of the film's climax. The filmmakers each land a parting insult before the track ends.
  • The commentary for The Rocky Horror Picture Show is done by Patricia Quinn (Magenta) and Richard O'Brien (Riff-Raff) and is both informative and rather humorous.
    Richard O'Brien (As Riff-Raff): (Regarding a mysterious third-string on Patricia Quinn's Space-Magenta costume.) My dearest sister. What is that extra bit between your knickers and your stockings?
    Patricia Quinn (As Magenta): (Laughs) I have no idea. Oh, I don't know....
    • It also includes a track recorded at a live screening of the film, featuring audience participation callbacks. However, it was made for/taken from the 1995 laserdisc, and thus has some Unintentional Period Piece callbacks referencing then-current events like the O. J. Simpson trial.
  • In the "More Entertaining Than The Film" category: Dude, Where's My Car?. It features the director, Ashton Kutcher, and Seann William Scott. After about twenty minutes, Seann says "Do you guys want some beers?" Hilarity Ensues.
  • Conan the Barbarian (1982) features an all-time classic commentary track with Arnold Schwarzenegger and John Milius. Schwarzenegger and Milius start the track by introducing themselves with each other's names, then the future governer of California adds, "And if you believe that, then you probably also believe there are little Richard Simmonses running around! Neeyaahaahey!" He goes on to utter such pearls as, "I get laid a lot in this movie!", "Is that kid wearing lipstick?", and—when a belly dancer comes on screen—Arnie going, "Oh, I remember her."
    • "THIS IS THE BIT WHERE I PUNCH A CAMEL! WATCH ME PUNCH THE CAMEL!" "No Arnold, it's not that bit yet."
    • Arnold's thoughts on the orgy scene: "LOOK! EVERYONE'S BANGING!"
    • And going back and forth about what's in the stew in one scene, before concluding that it's "Split pea and hand". Later, when a mook loses an arm, Milius quips, "Right into the soup."
  • Batman & Robin featured Joel Schumacher apologizing for the movie.
  • If you watched Space Jam and still think that it has any vestiges of seriousness then turn on the commentary that includes Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck commenting on the movie in-character in addition to the director. Bugs and Daffy came back for Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
  • Eddie Izzard's standup DVDs all contain commentaries, but since he tends to forget his material after he's stopped using it, and doesn't watch the discs before recording them, they consist mostly of him laughing at his own jokes.
  • The commentary for Mommie Dearest is done by John Waters, as he's a fan of the film and doesn't consider it all that campy. He actually makes some very interesting points while managing to be totally hilarious.
  • The Coen Brothers typically avoid commentary tracks, but the original DVD of Blood Simple has one by fictional artistic director Kenneth Loring, written by The Coen Brothers themselves, that essentially spoofs commentary tracks themselves. Loring generally alternates between waxing rhapsodic about the framing of certain shots ("the human face... we all... have one"), telling rambling off-topic stories, and offering up spurious details on how certain effects were accomplished (he claims a scene where two characters are driving in the rain at night had to be filmed in reverse with the actors hanging upside down — the fact that their hair doesn't appear to be standing up is attributed to copious amounts of hair spray). The Criterion Collection release of the film eschews the gag commentary for a proper academic select-scene commentary with the brothers and cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
  • Stand-up Tim Vine's first DVD had a commentary that not only provided some really interesting insights into the creative process, but that he used as an opportunity to tell some jokes that he forgot to include in the performance itself.
  • Armageddon (1998) has a surprisingly delightful one where Ben Affleck spends a good portion of the time riffing on and poking holes in the logic of his own movie.
    Affleck: I asked Michael why it was easier to train oil drillers to become astronauts than it was to train astronauts to become oil drillers and he told me to shut to the fuck up. So, that was the end of that talk.
  • The best part of Twilight on DVD is listening to Robert Pattinson's thinly disguised hatred for Edward Cullen. Eclipse furthers this when he and Kristen Stewart repeatedly mock everything about it. It's implied that they're both high in order to cope with watching the movie.
  • For the commentary for Superbad, Judd Apatow brought his 10 year old daughter to the recording of the commentary, with Jonah Hill in the same room. Seth Rogen, in another studio via audio uplink, taunts Jonah by running his mouth off for as long as possible. Jonah loses it and goes on a rant about why Judd brought a 10 year old girl to the commentary of such a dirty movie. Judd then storms out and isn't heard from again. It's unclear how much of this was staged.
    • Later on, Jonah says Judd's daughter is still in the studio. Whether this is true or not is unclear.
    • Also, they'd tell stories about what happened on the set. One particularly amusing tale is about when they were shooting a scene and an old lady wandered on set and began telling dirty Disney jokes.
      • "What's red and has 7 bumps in it?"
  • Pirates of the Caribbean:
    • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl:
      • There are a couple of commentaries for the first movie, but the one with Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport (more of the former than the latter) is hilarious. Sadly it's only on selected scenes and not the entire movie.
      • The one with Keira and Davenport is rather priceless for the moment where he realizes he didn't understand a significant plot point: He's stunned to find out that when the water ripples when Elizabeth faints and falls into the ocean, that the medallion is "calling" to the Black Pearl and it's what makes it appear later.
        Keira: What exactly did you think it was?
        Jack: I thought the film skipped!
      • "Oh, mini-me! Mini-me! Mini-Orlando! Look at that cleavage!" A particularly amusing exchange happens when Elizabeth is running from the pirates in the governer's mansion; Keira Knightley explains that a shot showing her running up stairs practically killed her because she wasn't prepared, having expected her stunt double to do it. After Jack Davenport incredulously asks "You need a stunt girl to run up some stairs," she responds, in an extremely posh voice, "Yes, excuse me, yes, I am extremely lazy!"
      • Given how Davenport laments his (sexy, sexy) very ornate Naval costumes and how much more fun all the scruffy pirates were having, one wonders, given his character's rather extreme make-under in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, if the writers were listening.
      • During the scene where character Norrington is made a Commodore of the British Navy, Davenport comments "how can one man be wearing that much brocade and not be classified as a Mardi Gras float?"
      • He then laments losing so much screen time to better-looking actors. One particular scene required some complicated ceremonial swordwork. "I practiced for weeks with that, and I'm in the background of your shot!"
    • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: The commentary by the writers included their noting the bone-cage chase on the cannibal island and the three-way sword fight on a giant wheel caused them to ask the director "Did you get your kids a hamster for Christmas?" They also go into a fair amount of self-deprecation, explaining the symbolism behind certain scenes only to say, "Oh, c'mon, you know no one uses literary devices in these summer blockbusters..."
  • Listening to Uwe Boll's commentary on any of his movies is a truly fascinating experience, it gives you an inside look as to how utterly ridiculous he truly is. Some highlights:
  • The commentary for Cast Away is dominated by the sound mixer's commentary on sound effects during the most pivotal scenes of the movie — most notably as he gets off the island. While some of the commentary is interesting, you would think by listening that the sound effects were the absolute centerpoint of the film.
  • Step Brothers features a musical commentary, with the actors and writers all spontaneously breaking into improvisational songs at random periods throughout the movie, accompanied by the movie's composer on keyboard. This is notable because the movie itself is not a musical, although it is largely improvisational.
  • Daredevil includes a commentary track in the most literal sense. While most blind people are familiar with a commentary track describing the action onscreen allowing them to "watch" a movie, back then, those tracks were not typically included on wide-release videos and DVD. Daredevil includes the commentary track for the blind — fitting, as Daredevil is a blind superhero — which explains the actions onscreen as they happen.
    • It's an interesting experience to "watch" the movie with your eyes closed and that commentary on to get a feel for how the blind see movies.
    • There's also a funny moment when director Mark Steven Johnson openly admits that an effect looks terrible—towards the end when Daredevil awkwardly leaps upwards between two buildings onto a roof—and tells the audience to look away for thirty seconds and then come back.
  • The Mars Attacks! DVD is a strange case whether you want to hear the commentary in English or in Martian! ("AK AK AK AK!")
  • The Shawshank Redemption commentary is pretty impressive, considering it was recorded ten years after the movie was made and director Frank Darabont is able to name off many trivial facts and details, down to names of crew members, about the film.
  • Rocky Balboa has a quite interesting track by Sylvester Stallone, covering tidbits about the shoot and philosophical pondering on the characters in pretty much equal measure.
  • The DVD commentary for Red Eye has Wes Craven giving out more background information, such as Rippner's complex mindset and the strange, underlying chemistry between Rippner and Lisa. Another good mention is the many extra cameos were people who worked on the film. And yes, Craven confirms that when Lisa got the scar, she was raped.
  • Predator has a terrible commentary from director John McTiernan that is nothing short of a chore to sit through. McTiernan sounds utterly disinterested, muttering his way through the film, audibly sighing and lapsing into long periods of silence. It's a shame, as some of the things he manages to bring himself to say are actually fairly interesting.
  • Total Recall (1990): The one for this film is particularly hilarious. For one, Paul Verhoeven's Dutch accent, coupled with Schwarzenegger's Austrian accent, serve to make it almost unintelligible. Schwarzenegger's commentary consists almost entirely of making jokes about the three-breasted hooker, a grating tendency for stating the patently obvious ("This is me as a construction worker", "I used this guy as a Human Shield and then threw him down the escalator"), and expressing how he likes certain parts of the movie because they serve to reinforce the possibility that it's All Just a Dream. Verhoeven for his part has a Verbal Tic that leads him to end most of his sentences with "Izznit?", though it's possible he's just trying to get Arnold to contribute more, who seems to respond with "Exactly", the occasional "That's right", or complete silence to pretty much everything Verhoeven says.
    • Verhoeven says "Izznit?" when he's alone in interviews so often it's a verbal tic. Just like Tony Scott saying "Yeah" on commentaries of his movies.
  • As a rule, any commentary track Paul Verhoeven does is worth listening to if you can understand him through his accent. He's an extremely smart man and generally has a lot of interesting things to talk about.
  • The Criterion Edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has several commentary tracks, including one by Hunter S. Thompson himself that makes the CE a must-have for Thompson fans. Throughout the film Hunter insults Terry Gilliam, screams randomly, audibly smokes weed, and tries to call cast members when he's bored. Yet for all his randomness, he remembers that Johnny Depp is using audio from the anti-drug law enforcement movie-in-a-movie on his answering machine and calls Depp's answering machine to prove it — and Hunter times it almost perfectly to sync up the film and the machine.
  • The Criterion laserdisc editions of the first three James Bond movies reportedly feature commentary so controversial they have since been banned from ever getting the rights to release any Bond movie ever released. Forever.
    • Most of the commentaries that do appear, especially the older Bond movies, are audio clips from past interviews introduced by someone from the Ian Fleming Foundation. The "Ultimate Edition" release in 2006 allowed Roger Moore to do a solo track in all his movies - and while he at times digresses to talk about The Saint or his UNICEF work, it's somehow fairly detailed for a man reaching his eighties!
    • GoldenEye featured not only a commentary with director Martin Campbell and producer Michael G. Wilson, but in the extras disk, Campbell offers comments in parts of a documentary - namely, the director of photography questioning why the producers hired a New Zealander "given how all they know is sheep! Baaaaaction! (saying the DP's a long time collaborator of his) and scenes from a Monaco shoot where Campbell drops a Cluster F-Bomb (the day had been so busy he couldn't help it).
  • The commentary for Roland Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow features Roland himself and (mostly) producer Mark Gordon, who spends 88% of the commentary complaining about the difficulties of production, pointing out plot holes, and making fun of the acting.
  • Hotel Rwanda has a fascinating one with Paul Rusesabagina, the real life subject of the film, who gives further Backstory on the events and points out historical liberties. The film's director Terry George is also there, but he's clearly comfortable just letting Rusesabagina tell his story and acts like more of an interviewer for the most part.
  • Death at a Funeral has two commentaries, one with actors Alan Tudyk and Andy Nyman with writer Dean Craig, and one with director Frank Oz. If you've ever wanted to hear a film commentated on by Fozzie the Bear, the second commentary is surprisingly close.
  • The director's commentary for Freaked manages to combine hilarious and informative by telling stories of being on the set (such has having to get a "scab T" after Mr. T left shooting for a day as he felt the shoot was going too slow) to the constant interference that the directors suffered from Fox. Even after all of the difficulties, they were still proud of their baby.
  • The Lost in Space movie is worth a rental just for Akiva Goldsman's comments over the end credits, where he gleefully discusses his plans for the sequel. It sounds like he was saving all his best ideas for it, making this a textbook example of why that's a bad idea.
  • The DVD of White Oleander has an interesting commentary with the director of the film and the author of the novel it's based on, leading to interesting tidbits for fans of the book as well as those who had only seen the film.
  • The audio commentary for An American Werewolf in London is done by the film's two lead actors, David Naughton and Griffin Dunne. It has some funny moments, but other than that mostly has one asking the other "Do you remember filming this scene?", interspersed by long silences.
  • In the commentary for The Muppets (2011) they have an ongoing joke about "Future Movies Magazine" talking about how great movies they are working on but haven't been released yet will be. When "Man or a Muppet?" starts, they joke about it getting an Academy Award — one even says "Yeah, in Future Movies Magazine". "Man or a Muppet" did indeed eventually win the Academy Award for Best Song.
  • Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day has a rather lovely commentary, discussing why they made a few changes in plot and setting (shifting the time-frame to introduce elements of the up-coming war, for one); notes on camera angles, cutting, and pace; utterly fangirling over the actors; and mentioning the ridiculously expensive hand-painted wallpaper that appeared in precisely one scene. (But it was very nice wallpaper.)
  • One of the two commentaries of Apollo 13 is by Jim and Marilyn Lovell — Jim Lovell is the author of Lost Moon, the book the film was based on and, oh yeah — was the commander of Apollo 13. His wife doesn't say a lot, but Jim talks about the differences between the movie and the events, and the similarities. If you are a space nerd, the commentary really makes you feel like a witness to history.
  • On the commentary for The Social Network, David Fincher basically gives a film school masterclass, and at one point tells viewers to take it up with writer Aaron Sorkin if they have complaints about a certain scene, and provides the latter's email address (which is bleeped out).
  • The Super 8 commentary featuring director J. J. Abrams, director of photography Larry Fong and producer Bryan Burk has them mulling over what question to ask Steven Spielberg via email, since he never does commentaries. There's also talk of Fong's magic skills (which are demonstrated in a featurette elsewhere on the disc), and he promises to bend the silverware in the house of anyone listening to the commentary.
  • Bubba Ho Tep has an amusing one featuring Bruce Campbell as Elvis, commenting about his thoughts on the film, completely in character.
  • Pink Floyd — The Wall has a very funny commentary track with Roger Waters (music/lyrics/story) and Gerald Scarfe (artwork/production designer).
  • The 2006 DVD editions of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth each have commentary tracks featuring production designer Brian Froud who was with both productions from the get-go and key to their Worldbuilding.
  • At one point during the Scream 4 commentary track with Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere (who has to leave two-thirds of the way through mirroring her role in the film itself), Neve Campbell (via phone from London, and another one who doesn't stay to the end — she only takes part for half an hour from around the 15-minute mark) and director Wes Craven, Hayden realises her shirt's on the wrong way around and promptly takes it off to put it on properly, much to Miss Roberts' amusement and Mr. Craven's bemusement bordering on blushing. As with the film, Panettiere is therefore the best part of the track.
  • Insomnia is a rather odd case. While it does have a usual commentary track by Christopher Nolan, scene-specific commentaries are made by Hilary Swank, screenwriter Hillary Seitz, director of photography Wally Pfister, production designer Nathan Crowley, and editor Dody Dorn. Of course, the option can be made to listen to the tracks combined for a more traditional listening experience.
  • The commentary for Zardoz is particularly interesting in that John Boorman not only admits large parts of the film are unnecessary, but openly admits the movie was made on drugs.
  • The commentary for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe featuring director Andrew Adamson and the four child actors who played the Pevensie siblings is almost as entertaining as the film itself largely due to the four child actors spending most of the commentary playfully bickering and joking at each other's expense to the point where you could almost believe that they were actual siblings while Adamson hopelessly tries to keep them on-topic to talk about the actual film.
  • In addition to a creator commentary for Goodfellas, there is a "Crook and Cop" commentary, which feature Henry Hill (the ex-gangster whom the film is based on) and the prosecutor who used Henry as a witness in mob cases and put him into witness protection. The pair provide an insight into what the gangsters were like in real life.
  • In the Blu-ray of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the film stops to have the actors discuss certain scenes on screen.
  • The Sound of Music has a commentary by Robert Wise, in which he stops talking during musical numbers to play what the song sounds like sans vocals.
  • The commentary for the incredibly forgettable 2005 monster movie The Cave is a study in listening to screenwriters come this close to bitching about the shitty movie someone made out of their script but then backing off just in time to save their livelihoods.
  • The West Side Story (1961) 50th anniversary Blu-Ray has lyricist Stephen Sondheim provide commentary for the musical numbers, discussing abandoned concepts, differences between the play and the movie, and which songs he does and doesn't feel proud of in retrospect.
  • Tim Burton's sparse commentary for Edward Scissorhands is of the "there's so little talking I don't even know if the commentary is on" variety, with little more than a few amusing interjections.
    "Does anyone really understand bowling?"
  • World Trade Center features commentary by several of the actual police and rescue workers depicted in the film, including one of the trapped men.
  • As the commentary track for Thirteen (2003) features then-teenaged actors Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed,note  and Brady Corbet, as well as Catherine Hardwicke in her directorial debut, its tone drifts between serious discussion and an almost slumber party-esque atmosphere. Among the highlights:
    • When Evan describes - matter-of-factly and at some length - how for one scene her makeup artist had purposely done her lipstick in a way that made it look like she had just performed the sex act that had been implied between scenes, the others are noticeably uncomfortable. Brady giggles nervously, Catherine seems unsure of whether to change the subject, and Nikki reacts with an, "Umm... thanks for sharing!"
    • The botched navel piercing scene is revealed to be a case of Throw It In! - Nikki accidentally cut Evan with the piercing, who notes that her subsequent F-bomb was not in the script but because "I was experiencing intense pain!"
    • Nikki Reed had objected to a scene requiring her to shimmy a tube top down into a makeshift (and rather short) skirt. When it was pointed out that she had in fact written that scene, she replied, "Well, I thought I was writing it for someone else!"note 
    • One of the actresses mentions how their advocatenote  had misheard the lyrics "I feel like humpin' something" as the much more uplifting "I feel like hope is something"... and the perverse pleasure they took in correcting her.
  • The commentary track of Krull consists mostly of the crew making excuses about the special effects and the cast name dropping famous people they've worked with in other films.
  • The audio commentary for Spaceballs has the drawbacks of a solo commentary, as it's done by Mel Brooks alone, but is otherwise quite good. One thing that makes it notable is that Ronny Graham is there with Brooks - though you mostly have to take Brooks' word for it, as Graham is completely silent save for a giggle when Brooks introduces him and a brief remark near the film's end.
  • The Back to the Future DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs each have two commentaries: A Q&A with director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis and co-producer/co-writer Bob Gale answering questions from fans, and a screen-specific commentary with producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton.
  • Star Trek began including commentary tracks with its films beginning with the 2001-05 Special Edition releases.
    • Most of the Special Edition releases featured commentary from the directors of each film, usually with additional members of that film's production. The two exceptions are Generations, whose commentary was done by the film's writers, and Insurrection, which received no audio commentary whatsoever.
    • The Blu-ray releases and their corresponding DVD reissues feature commentary tracks newly recorded for those releases. The Blu-rays also include the Special Edition commentaries, except for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (whose Director's Edition commentary was specific to that version of the film) and the aforementioned Insurrection; both films only had the new commentary recorded for the Blu-ray edition.
    • Star Trek Into Darkness has "enhanced" commentary, which was originally an iTunes exclusive, later included on the "Compendium" box set of the first two J. J. Abrams Star Trek films.
  • The director's commentary for Equilibrium was primarily just a very long apology from writer and director Kurt Wimmer, apologizing for the various things that they had to cut corners on for bugetary reasons, and generally discribing the superior film that could have been made had they been given enough time and money.
  • John Carpenter has made commentary tracks for most of his films, which tend to be very entertaining. The ones with Kurt Russell in particular are clearly two good friends reminiscing and catching up.
  • The commentary with Andrew Davis and Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive is probably one of the most disappointing ever. Davis spends most of the time simply talking about shooting locations and praising every actor on screen while Jones' is quiet most of the time and when he does speak his comments amount to things like "I liked this part" and "it was cold that day".
  • Solomon Kane has a fun one with the director Michael J. Bassett and James Purefoy, where they discuss things like the low-budget, how they storyboarded and were prepped for a rowing scene but the lake froze so they used it for an establishing shot, the directors love of the plague doctor masks and how they deliberately didn’t want Solomon and Meredith to be love interests hence the casting of Rachel Hurd Wood.
  • The Fly (1986) found an interesting way to split the difference when it came to bonus features — director/co-writer David Cronenberg provides a lively solo commentary track. Then the feature-length (as in longer than the movie) retrospective documentary Fear of the Flesh features just about all of the film's other major participants — the three lead actors, the other writer, the producer, the production designer, the effects crew, the cinematographer, the director originally attached to the project, etc. — to give their sides of the story of its production, with optional extended segments featuring tangential anecdotes.
  • Beyond Suspicion (aka Auggie Rose) is a minor Jeff Goldblum drama from 2000 that went direct-to-cable in the United States, but it is also one of the only films he's ever participated in a DVD commentary fornote  with director-writer Matthew Tabak (who also provides a second track with the film's producer). As one might expect from the famously quirky Goldblum, there's not a quiet moment as he makes many whimsical digressions (such as briefly discussing The Incredible Mr. Limpet, which was one of his favorite films as a kid) and jokes, but guided by Tabak he also discusses his typical preparations for a role, how he gets into the right frame of mind for individual scenes when they're being shot out of sequence, how his acting has evolved over the years from fairly straight Method Acting to a more improvisational style, and his experiences teaching the craft to others in Los Angeles, along with anecdotes about this film's production and themes. They also joke that anyone who stays through to the end of the commentary is eligible to have dinner at Jeff's house.
  • Cats, already one of the most bizarre movies ever to be put out in wide release by a major studio, has a director's commentary by Tom Hooper that only adds to the weirdness.
  • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby has not one but two bizarre commentaries. On the unrated edition, Adam McKay and Ian Roberts talk about such bizarre tidbits as Ricky Bobby's sons being played by robots and Sean Penn being paid $3 million to play an extra. And then there's the standard edition's "25 Years Later" commentary, set in 2031 - or at least one where, among other things, McKay was eaten by a shark years ago (causing his son Darnell to fill his role in the commentary) and John C. Reilly is a military captain who defeated Ted Nugent's militia on the "island state" of Michigan. On a somewhat poignant note, the latter commentary features Michael Clarke Duncan, who died in 2012.
  • The otherwise very serious and in-depth director's commentary of Pan's Labyrinth features Guillermodel Toro going on a humorous tangent where he professes his hatred of horses during a scene involving them and, despite not being in the scene, cows. And he HATES them. Behold.
  • Jason X has a commentary noted for having director Jim Isaac and writer Todd Farmer throwing insults at each other regarding their different approaches to the film (in-between, a producer tries to actually say tidbits on the production).
  • The Sum of All Fears has a pretty amusing commentary featuring featuring director Phil Alden Robinson and Tom Clancy himself (who introduces himself as "the author of the book [Phil] ignored") where the latter spends nearly the entire running time picking apart every inaccuracy and change to the book right in front of Robinson.
  • Doctor... Series: Five of the films in the series had one with British comedy historian Robert Ross talking to some of the surviving stars of the films:
  • Carry On... Series: Every film barring the final (Carry On Columbus) had British comedy historian Robert Ross talking to surviving stars or crew of the films:

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