The strangest news of the day is that of all people, F.X. Feeney, easily one of the most brightest and most insightful film critics of our time (as well as a top-grade screenwriter and all-around human being), has provided feature-length audio commentary on the just-out DVD of The Towering Inferno. I love many aspects of this film (I’m especially fond of Steve McQueen’s performance as “the fireman,” as well as the scene when Jennifer Jones falls to her death) but it’s odd for a guy of Feeney’s depth and cinematic compassion to be doing this. Why is he talking on a Fox Home Video DVD of a crass Irwin Allen film that’s basically focused on people burning to death or falling to their deaths from an absurdly high skyscraper? Feeney “rambles amiably and very informatively throughout all 160 minutes of the flick’s running time, and he focuses on everything from the cast to the FX to the controversies, stopping occasionally to point out something clever about the film’s editing style or production design,” says DVD Talk’s Scott Weinberg, who says that “this is one of the best ‘historian tracks’ I’ve heard in the past few years…great, great stuff.” Congrats to F.X., but he should be riffing about films of greater substance.