Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movies?

[Harvey]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

Roger Ebert had nothing to do with the production of Dark City. He's just a professional fan. But his commentary on that film is fascinating, and (IMO) more interesting and informative than Proyas' directors commentary on the same disc.

But he's a film critic, which I guess I should have included with film historian.

All the Ebert commentaries I've listened to - Dark City, Floating Reeds, Casablanca, Citizen Kane - are excellent. Because he's basically a professional at talking and writing about movies, and it shows.

It was a bit of a straw man I set up there, I admit, although the poster I was responding to was adamant that a commentator who was associated with the production would be better than one who was not. And that's clearly not the case. There are plenty of commentaries where the people speaking are uninformed, unprepared, and disinterested concerning the material they're commenting on.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

There's no such thing as a pro fan.

Well yes, there is. Professional film makers can also be fans of a franchise. Because they work in the industry, their comments on any movie can be interesting, and can show what influenced them in their own endeavours. Interesting, at least to some people.

(I'm likely to be invited to do a commentary on an Australian DVD set of a TV show very soon. I'm really excited about participating, even though I had nothing to do with the original production. But I do have a lot of unique knowledge about that show, and I'd like to think fans will enjoy the contributions of the invited guest commentators.)

They have not anymore useful to say than the normal fan. They weren't involved in the production, so what they say is only just as interesting as what's here on the message boards.

Well, that's your opinion, of course. I've really enjoyed these new commentaries!

By the way, I'd probably call Bjo Trimble a "pro" fan. Bjo - "the woman who saved Star Trek" - has practically managed to make a (meagre) living by being a fan of Star Trek. It led her to writing numerous books and articles, and making convention appearances, but essentially she's a fan of science fiction, SCA and NASA.

 

[Jeyl]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

There's no such thing as a pro fan.

Well yes, there is.

Well why should we care?

What matters is that these are people who are talking about something for entertainment purposes. Some succeed, some don't. I've heard many fan commentaries that are more informative, more entertaining and a lot more insightful than some with the writers, directors and actors.

You want the genuine talent that were there during the production? Here's an example of one commentary where the studio actually had to pay the actor from the movie a five figure amount just to get him to participate. Here is the result.

Conan Commentary.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

What matters is that these are people who are talking about something for entertainment purposes. Some succeed, some don't.

Exactly. Jonathan Frakes supposedly did a commentary for the first two-disk release of "Insurrection", and Paramount decided it wasn't up to scratch (or too political? - who knows?) and didn't include it - and fans wailed anyway.

Like any production, commentaries entail risk. You have to pay out for the taping, cab fares, the participants' talents, red tape, researchers... and sometimes they don't work.

 

[Jeyl]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

Like any production, commentaries entail risk. You have to pay out for the taping, cab fares, the participants' talents, red tape, researchers... and sometimes they don't work.

Sylvester Stallone did the commentary track for "First Blood" for nothing, and that is one of the better solo commentaries I've listened to. Bill Paxton even commented that he wasn't getting paid to do the commentary track for Aliens, but he was having a heck of a time sitting beside Lance Henrickson, Michael Biehn and Jenette Goldstein, talking about the movie as it was playing.

Lance Henrilksen: I don't really have a big part in this movie.
Everyone: LOL

 

[Joker]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

What matters is that these are people who are talking about something for entertainment purposes. Some succeed, some don't.

Exactly. Jonathan Frakes supposedly did a commentary for the first two-disk release of "Insurrection", and Paramount decided it wasn't up to scratch (or too political? - who knows?) and didn't include it - and fans wailed anyway.

Oddly enough, years ago, I recall Shatner making a remark to Nimoy either at a convention or somewhere else that was reported, that he'd done "all his commentaries" for the DVD releases, implying that there were more than what we ended up with for the original movies.

 

[Harvey]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

Well, "all his commentaries" could mean all the commentaries he was asked to record--which would be the commentaries for Star Trek IV and V. I do wish Nimoy and Shatner would comment on together on the rest of the films, though. Their commentary track together on Star Trek IV is better than either of the ones they recorded on their own.

 

[Ryann866]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

Just listened to TMP and TWOK commentaries. Both were fine -- Meyer's original commentary was better. And the Okudas are always great.

What bugs me about this Blu-ray set is how little new extra content there is on each disc. I guess you are paying for the upgraded image quality.

As far as the commentaries go, I wish they would actually get some of the creative people who worked on these films to record commentaries as opposed to the "pro-fan" approach. The Lord of The Rings extended editions had multiple commentary tracks from the various teams (design, production, etc) that actually worked on the films. I feel like Trek deserves that kind of treament, especially with the added space on Blu-ray.

The Director's Edition TMP dvd release has a great commentary with Wise, Goldsmith, Dysktra, etc, but it's all of them edited together -- I would have rather seen individual tracks on different topics, especially the entire film from Goldsmith's perspective.

Similarly, the earlier dvd releases have included some of the behind the scenes talent along with guest actors, but where are any of main TOS actors (besides Nimoy & Shatner)?

How about a joint cast commentary for the first 6 films; Nichols, Takei, and Koenig together? Maybe Robin Curtis & Kim Catrall could join in for their respective films.

And what about a full track on II, III, and IV from Harve Bennett and Ralph Winter... I'd love to hear their play by play of the making of these films as opposed to Ron Moore or Kurtzman & Orci (no offense to these guys, but I'd prefer to hear what went into the production and some stories as opposed to 2 hours of fan observations)

Coto and Meyer were fine, but again, I feel like it was a wasted opportunity. I would have rather had Meyer and Bennett together.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

The Lord of The Rings extended editions had multiple commentary tracks from the various teams (design, production, etc) that actually worked on the films. I feel like Trek deserves that kind of treament

The big difference is that Peter Jackson was an early DVD extras pioneer - he loved the DVD concept and wanted to explore how to make full use of integrated bonus scenes (for each movie, deliberately filming extra scenes he knew wouldn't make the theatrical cut), Internet-based updates during production, also using them as bonus DVD material, and the use of multiple commentary tracks. As he proved on the LotR trilogy and "King Kong".

Organising these packages is extremely expensive, and risky when the movies have already been available in multiple formats. There is no one ST showrunner at Paramount/CBS any more, and they farm out the productions to the highest bidder - and then the winning group must produce their packages to meet their own budgets.

Peter Jackson had money to burn on his various DVD projects.

 

[buffyscrubs]

Re: Anyone listen to the new commentary on the Blu-Ray "Classic" movie

There's no such thing as a pro fan. They have not anymore useful to say than the normal fan. They weren't involved in the production, so what they say is only just as interesting as what's here on the message boards.

Ok, you have two choices.

1. The TMP fan commentary
2. Stuart Baird's Nemesis commentary

Choose wisely, for one will kill you.

yeah i agree with you buddy!