Commentary Commentary

I gotta say, they really do give you your money's worth on the extended Fellowship of the Ring dics. I just finished listening to the cast commentary, and that was a lot of fun. It's great to hear all the actors' reminiscences and all the behind-the-scenes anecdotes, not to mention the way they alternately praise each other's performances to the high heavens and rag on each other mercilessly (but always in good fun). Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd are particularly amusing; apparently they're as much of a two-many comedy team in real life as their characters are on the screen, and their jokes about how Merry & Pippin are the real heroes of the story and how they left all the elf-girls brokenhearted when they left Rivendell are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. In between all the joking, though, they've all got interesting and insightful things to say about their characters. And I love the way that "the hobbits," probably quite unconsciously, tend to keep saying, "Oh, this is the best scene in the movie!" over and over. They're probably right every time, too. Viggo Mortensen, oddly, is conspicuous by his absence. I wonder if he was unavailable for the commentary, or if he just decided he didn't want to do it?

Anyway, it's definitely whetted my appetite for The Two Towers even further, if that's at all possible. I've heard that, amazingly enough, the crappy little theater here in town is actually going to get it in on Wednesday, which makes it all the harder to wait until Friday when I'm going to be up in Albuquerque to see it. It's absolutely worth waiting a couple of days to see it on a decent screen, though. So I shall grit my teeth and be patient...