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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
 Posted - 03/19/2006 : 3:04:42 PM
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After reading some of the reviews on the commentary track, notably Bats and Holocroft Covenant, I wonder at the logic in expecting the commentary to be forthright on the quality of the picture. I think this may be a little unfair. I would imagine that even the most delusional director or performer is not entirely unaware of how well or not the movie worked. It may be they are simply under contract to not bad mouth the picture. After all, it is still a commercial item, something to be sold, and the suits still haven't grokked that something doesn't have to be good to sell, in spite of looking over sales in the past 100 years of film and much of their current output, ferchrissakes. But this may explain the ridiculously positive commentaries on many DVDs, especially those on fairly bad movies.
Eventually, someone is going to have the wherewithall or something to put a negative commentary on a bad movie and the refreshing honesty will cause sales to go through the roof. Then a whole bunch of movies will have similarly negative commentary even if the movie in question is good and doesn't deserve it. And then a new trend for positive commentaries will come about
Such is life. |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 3:09:49 PM
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If you haven't yet, you owe it to yourself to check out the commentary on C.H.U.D. i wouldn't say it's negative but it's honest- three cool guys who have a definite sense of reality on exactly what they foisted on the world. it's hysterical and possibly the best commentary ever- right up there with the good John Carpenter/Kurt Russell tracks.
You could make the argument that the commentary on the "Love Conquers All" cut of Brazil on the Criterion Box Set fits your description of a negative commentary, but it's by an outsider.
I'm with you- I'm amazed at hearing the makers of stuff like The Sixth Day and battlefield: Earth try and justify the carp they have expelled upon the world. |
Edited by - Sardu on 03/19/2006 3:11:51 PM |
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TheFoywonder
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
833 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 3:11:22 PM
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Keep in mind that many of the commentary tracks these days are recorded before the film even gets released theatrically so those involved have yet to incur the wrath of critics and the general public.
Now Playing in Foyeurism at Schlocktoberfest.Com:
2 TURBO 2 TEEN - Turbo Teen returns one last time!
Plus: B-WARE THE BLOG is alive at http://www.livejournal.com/users/foywonder |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 4:50:10 PM
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| I heard that for Batman and Robin, Joel Schumacher all but came out and said he knew he'd delivered a massive pile o' crap. Not something that makes me want to go see that thing in its entirety, but kinda refreshing all the same. |
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Juniper
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
616 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 4:56:13 PM
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Hop on over to The Onion AV Club for their Commentary Tracks of the Dammned, were they give the rundown on various tracks for horrible films, great stuff.
"The Devil Made this Movie for You!" |
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jackspencerjr
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
262 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 5:34:42 PM
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| Boy, the one on Rent sounds horrible. Got to love it when a director calls critics ***holes like that. I do wish the archives of the commentary track reviews are easier to browse |
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Juniper
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
616 Posts |
Posted - 03/19/2006 : 5:58:28 PM
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I know I hate the re-design you used to be able to get right to the Films That Time Forgot archives too.
"The Devil Made this Movie for You!" |
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BrainFromArous
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 01:45:45 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Sardu
If you haven't yet, you owe it to yourself to check out the commentary on C.H.U.D. i wouldn't say it's negative but it's honest- three cool guys who have a definite sense of reality on exactly what they foisted on the world. it's hysterical and possibly the best commentary ever- right up there with the good John Carpenter/Kurt Russell tracks.
Right there with you. The CHUD track is so good that I would actually recommend newcomers watch the film with the commentary ON and not bother seeing it "straight." It's as good as a good MST3K episode - and that's pretty damned good.
I hear it got Stern, Heard, etc. in some trouble, as well, for some borderline-lawsuit comments made about who really wrote the film.
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Boards don't hit back.
(Bruce Lee) |
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BrainFromArous
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 01:47:31 AM
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Another good commentary moment is FIGHT CLUB, wherein Ed Norton goes off on film critic Kenneth Turan for slamming the film. Good stuff.
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Boards don't hit back.
(Bruce Lee) |
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andy80
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
81 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 07:37:40 AM
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| You should try the one for Cannibal: The Musical. They basically rip the movie apart the whole time, way more than it deserves since its not a really bad movie. |
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Gristle McThornbody
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Germany
186 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 07:49:03 AM
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My two favorite commentary tracks:
'Evil Dead II' - very funny, and Bruce Campbell et al enjoy pointing out continuity and set errors.
'This is Spinal Tap' - the actors do the commentary in character, as if they're the band seeing the film for the first time since its release. As funny if not funnier than the movie itself.
"Hi, I'm Bob Evil!" |
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Max Torque
Diocesan Ecclesiarch of the Sacred Order of Jabootu
USA
61 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 09:26:46 AM
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There are a few I can think of along this same line....
The track for The Sum of All Fears features author Tom Clancy nearly coming to blows with the director (or so it sounds) because he's so pissed about something they changed in the translation from book to screen. I think it was the changing of the bad guys from Arab terrorists to white neo-Nazis. In any case, Clancy gets louder and angrier for quite a while, then things go quiet (apparently they stopped recording for a bit so everyone could calm down), then they proceed as if nothing had happened.
The director commentary for Disturbing Behavior was interesting. The director did speak well of his film for the most part, but you can sense a deep, seething hostility toward the studio, which apparently required edits that the director felt harmed the film. After seeing the deleted scenes on the DVD, I agree with the director; they should have been left in the film. It wouldn't have made it great, but the movie would have made a lot more sense. |
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hbrennan
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Philippines
1455 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 2:20:40 PM
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I highly recommend "Joe Bob Briggs Presents: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter". It's a classic and can be obtained on Netflix.
"...yet it hadn't destroyed his brain."
re: Charles "The Butcher" Benton (1956)
http://henrybrennan.blogspot.com/ |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 6:14:46 PM
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The director's commentary for Tron was quite good. My favorite parts may be when the actors say a bit of goofy dialogue... and Steven Lisberger and Harrison Ellenshaw start cracking up.
The text commentaries in the first two Star Trek movies do that too. Kirk says, "The only ship in range is the Enterprise," and the text commentary states rather drily, "That happens a lot, doesn't it." |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 03/20/2006 : 8:35:14 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by hbrennan
I highly recommend "Joe Bob Briggs Presents: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter".
Ohh- ooh- Joe Bob's commentary on the Millennium Edition of I Spit On Your Grave is a classic, if for no other reason than to hear him say "I spit... on yore grave." *g*
I have a friend who gets giddy just thinking about that DVD- "Look- it's THX approved!! They had to watch I Spit On Your Grave at Skywalker Ranch!!" |
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Flangepart
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
2329 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2006 : 1:55:35 PM
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Aw, man...now ya gone and done reminded me how much i miss Joe Bob!
See, its the High Shariffs actin' all prissy about film makeing. "Its ain't shake-spear" i wanna say, but they respond, "Wellll...we can't be irritating the people who's movies we show." Yeah? Well, when They Kill off Ernie Hudson at the end of LEVIATHAN, by shark attack , for no good reason, I...feel irritated! Do they care? Bout as much as Wanda Boudine cares if i like the taste of her new super duper fruit flavored lipstick what comes in a gold plated bottle.
I need a beer, Ya'll...
"Cole, stop handing Dr. Doom the Keys to the Baxter building." Brent Sienna/PvP.
"I speak 34 different languages. But gibberish is not one of them."- Danger Mouse.
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