Mann delivers another solid track and he really did his homework, talking about the realistic details used in the background of scenes and with various characters. He also talks at length about the characters’ backstories and motivations.

Mann's commentary is a must hear. He provides a great balance between discussing production, behind-the-scenes stuff, and exploring the characters and their motivations. He explains shots, hidden meanings, and things the movie viewer should look for. It makes you want to see the movie again with a different perspective.

Mann is fluent, indeed, and knows the characters and the script very much, but also comes across as a little bit boring and pretentious by spending a disproportionate amount of time telling useless and uninteresting trivia about the character's origins and the real locations in L.A.

Mann’s finest commentary yet. It’s nothing but sheer pleasure to hear him talk about his characters’ backstories as if he knew them in real life. His extensive knowledge of the characters proves how important details are to Mann’s films. He also has fun pointing out how the use of HD cameras pick up on certain things the film wouldn’t.

It doesn’t say on the back of the DVD case that Mann has a commentary, but believe me, it’s there, and it’s not to be missed. 10/10

Mann's favorite word is paroxysm, says it many times.

He comes off as one of those guys who thinks "I just ramble on and on, about psychology and human nature and people will think I'm smart"

An average intelligent man trying to sound like he's smart.

Tedious and boring.

^ He only used it three times, hardly overkill.

Mann's commentaries always enrich the film. He goes into great detail about 'backstories' of different characters. Obviously it's his take on it, and possibly even the original backstories and motivations he had in mind when making the film, but regardless - they're very solid. There's not too much you can learn from Mann as far as process on how he does things but he throws little tidbits that are sparse, which are definitely insightful into how he does things but he never goes at great length about it. What you can be sure about is that he provide an enriching quality to the film.

This is probably one of the top five commentary tracks I would use to get people excited about listening to commentary tracks.

Mann never stops making excellent insights that make you more impressed with what he did, and what the film does.

I personally found his many takes on the background of the characters, what happened in the story before the film starts, why some of these people are the way they are to be the most fascinating parts.

Others will really enjoy his breakdown of how once he saw how well the new (for 2003) digital cameras worked, how he decided to use them in all sorts of ways that a regular film camera never would. He is constantly pointing out lights in the distant hills, or the way some things glow with mere reflected light from natural sources, without having to be highlighted by the cinematographer.

Listening to this absolutely makes you enjoy and appreciate this great film even more!