Thursday, March 17, 2005

Anchorman

I finished off watching the DVD set (if you buy it from Best Buy you can get two extra discs) and the extras are disappointing, short of the deleted scenes and a portion of the commentrak, everything is pretty much a waste of time. One of the discs features another movie put together from storylines they cut out of the original film. It's edited together nicely (although it doesn't fit well into the continuity of the original film) and has a few genuine laughs, but mostly it's just rehashing the same jokes. The portion of the commentary that shines features a surprise appearence by Lou Rawls. Now, I have no idea why or how they got him on the track, but it's got to be the most inventive use of this DVD staple I've seen, or rather heard. Unfortunately he's only there for a short time, but hearing him out-scat Will Ferrell is priceless. Andy Richter and Kyle Gass also show up kfor a period of time, but neither of them are that funny here. Also, one of the deleted scenes from the second "movie" features Stephen Root, and he's always great. But, overall, all the extras aren't really worth the $25 asking price, unless you've just got tons of cash lying around

Two more things to note-

If you're a member of Sam's Club and you do have about $25 to spare, go buy the Abbott and Costello-Best of Franchise collections. Right now they have Vol. 1&2 for $12 a piece, each one features eight films and is well worth the asking price. The highlight of the first set is Who Done It?, hands down one of the funniest films ever made, and the second volume features The Naughty Nineties, the only film to feature the full "Who's on first?" skit I believe, but I could be wrong about that (and probably am). But all the movie are great, so if you're a member, go buy em! (They also have The Princess Bride for $8, which is a steal.)

And finally, Chris Allen has found himself a new "home", so go check it out. It's always nice to see new content from Chris, his Breakdowns column over at Movie Poop Shoot remains one of my all-time favorite columns, and his Chris Allen Comments over at the Galaxy is right up there with it, so I'm absolutely positive his new blog will be among the must-reads on the 'Net. Big thanks for Alan for pointing me in this direction.

-L

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