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"DVD Commentarys. Does anyone watch them all the way through?"

When I first bought Crouching Tiger on DVD, the added extra of a feature-length commentary sounded like a great idea, but that was because I wasn't really sure what to expect. When I actually got to try it out, the premise seemed great but I couldn't really envisage myself watching the whole film again with just Ang Lee and James Schamus chatting about it. I suppose it'd be interesting to select your favourite scene and hear what they've got to say about it, but in general, it seemed like a bit of a pointless extra.

Anyone agree, or am I being too picky about my extra features?

When I first bought Crouching Tiger on DVD, the added extra of a feature-length commentary sounded like a great idea, but that was because I wasn't really sure what to expect. When I actually got to try it out, the premise seemed great but I couldn't really envisage myself watching the whole film again with just Ang Lee and James Schamus chatting about it. I suppose it'd be interesting to select your favourite scene and hear what they've got to say about it, but in general, it seemed like a bit of a pointless extra.

Anyone agree, or am I being too picky about my extra features?

Yes and no.

If it is a comedy film.. the commentaries are generally well worth watching.. and usually provide more laughs... A great one is the 'This Is Spinal Tap' commentary... for which Christopher Guest & co are in character, making for some great humour.

If it's a Serious film the commentaries can be very boring.. all too often directors just talk about the camera techniques, etc.. which is interesting to some, but your average dvd watcher is gonna get bored with all that. The commentary on the US Exorcist 2000 version is great though, there is alot that goes unexplained in the film that William Friedkin covers in the commentary. he also tells you about how he got 'reactions' out of his actors (shotguns, etc!)...

I liked the Ghostbusters commentary.

*looks around room*

I watched the Pokemon one. It gave a deep and meening full insight into the film!
Generaly though I do not watch the comentries.

As I've never watched a film on DVD, I don't know from experience, but I'd imagine that commentaries would be rather interesting in places, but I would be afraid that it could ruin the magic of the scene.

Personally I'd prefer a 'heckler' option, in which some goon pops his head up every now and then, making witty comments about the film.

Or the 'cinema' option, in which a head pops onto the screen every now and then, spoiling your view, and the sound of popcorn being munched can be heard all around you...

Some commentaries are ace. Fight Club is really good, as is Final Destination. The Kevin Smith movie commentaries are all great - they get all the actors in a room with beer and snacks and just have a laugh. At the beginning of the Chasy Amy DVD commentary (which was lifted straight from the Laserdisc version) Kevin Smith utters the immortal phrase '**** DVD'.

On the ghostbusters DVD they have sillouettes (sp) and people highlight stuff with 'ghostwriter' stylee pens.

Robert Rodriguez's commentary on El Mariachi is a fantastic one! Check it out! :)

./Steve

Yep, the Ghostbusters commentary is cool. I learnt a lot from the Vampires commentary by John Carpenter and I like all the Bond commentaries I've heard so far, so yes, it's a nice feature and even if you don't watch it all the way through, you can skip to your favorite scenes and learn more about them.

My favourite commentaries are El Mariachi and The League of Gentlemen. I thought the commentary on Final Destination was one of the worst i've ever heard.