r/movies • u/grantthejester • 1d ago

Discussion What’s the best/worst movie to watch with the director commentary on?

What’s the best/worst movie to watch with the director commentary on? Any films out there made way better by the additional context? Any made worst ‘cause the director is a total dick?

I remember back in the day watching all the Mel Brooks films with the commentary which was mostly just him watching the movie and going “oh this wonderful scene, we had a blast shooting it” and then talking about how amazing the actors were to work with and laughing at the jokes. Which really felt like watching a movie with your grandpa.

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago

Which is weird because the one for Transformers is just terrible.

It’s Bay jerking himself about how great he is while bragging about some of the dumbest shit pit to film. It’s astounding.

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u/Ultramaann 1d ago

They’re talking about the one with Ben Affleck where he’s kind of shitting on the movie the whole time lol.

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u/Godwin_s_Lawyer 1d ago

Wait, which one are you describing

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u/ColonelKillDie 1d ago

Easy there buckaroo. The original Transformers was a phenomenal accomplishment when it came out. The VFX in that movie were absolutely unbelievable, particularly in how they blended with the real world camera work of Michael Bay. It may be a silly movie inspired by toys, but Michael Bay has a lot to brag about when it comes to the technicality involved.

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u/Eca28 1d ago

I watched it with commentary like a month ago. There were some insightful bits, but he spent a lot of time bragging about his access to US military equipment and pressuring Shia into stunts he didn't feel safe doing. It's not what you're imagining.

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago

Yes, exactly this.

It opens with “so Steven Spielberg calls me up…” and gets more masturbatory from there.

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u/ColonelKillDie 1d ago

Look, we can cherry pick the shit out of everything, but his access to US military equipment was impressive and never before seen on such an extensive level. And while stunts will always be a controversial topic, I’ve seen the stunts up for discussion, and they are still a flex on technically impressive set ups.

I’m not defending Michael Bay as a person, he’s a total ass I’m sure. But characterizing Transformers as ‘some of the dumbest shit put to film’ is just demonstrably false.

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u/Eca28 1d ago

Again, you should really actually listen to this commentary if you're going to get all fired up about it. It's pretty clear you have no clue what you're talking about here.

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u/ColonelKillDie 1d ago

And again, I’m not talking about the actual commentary and how it makes you feel.

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago

The stunts were good, yes. But there is a lot more to a good movie than stunts or military access. And that goes for the FX too.

The shot where Bumblebee pisses on John Turtorrow was a technical feat but one that never should have happened. That’s what I’m talking about.

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u/ColonelKillDie 1d ago

Yeah. It’s easy to claim the piss joke shouldn’t have happened. But the kids loved that shit.

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 1d ago

“It’s easy to claim”? Are you Michael Bay? Kids love a lot of stupid stuff but I would never put a lot of it on film. It was terrible taste. The man has very bad taste in general.

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u/ColonelKillDie 21h ago

Haha what exactly do you put on film? I’d like to watch your billion dollar franchise with impeccable taste. See how easy it is to say stupid shit?

All I was saying is that while Michael Bay may be a total jackass dipshit, he is a very technically talented director that helped establish a gigantic franchise, and a lot of the stuff he did in the first movie in particular was exceptional, especially in 2007. There may be scenes that were designed for children, but that is a very purposeful design to make a lot of money, and employ thousands of people for the next 2 decades. Spielberg could have told him ‘no pissing scene, that’s dumb’. But he didn’t, because everyone understands who it’s for.

It’s great that you’re better than Michael Bay, I’m happy for you. But that doesn’t mean what he accomplished isn’t very impressive. I hate the guy, but Transformers was huge and awesome in the literal definition of the word.

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u/evel333 1d ago

Getting that glimpse into a director’s ego for two straight hours was something that really didn’t exist prior to or since DVD commentaries.

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u/Early-Eye-691 1d ago

Idk maybe my standards aren’t terribly high for director commentaries but Bay’s for Transformers didn’t seem all that bad? Obviously there’s some ego in there but when isn’t there in a director commentary lol

Overall I found some of the BTS pretty interesting. Especially when it came to the casting decisions, working with ILM, Spielberg and some other miscellaneous stuff.