5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Physical Comedy, July 12 2004
This review is from: Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley (DVD)
In his short tenure on this earth, Chris Farley provided us with some of the funniest moments in "Saturday Night Live" history. Heavily inspired by John Belushi (not just in his comedy but his dangerous lifestyle), he suddenly became the show's most talented physical comedians, bringing the pratfall back to households.
5 years of classic comedy has been put on this dvd. Farley created for himslef a variety of classic charcaters for himself, including Matt Foley (who lives in a van down by the river!!!), Todd O'Connor of "Superfans" and Barney The Chippendale Auditioner. All of these classic characters are here. Also, there's his "exciting" impression of Laurie Davis in the "Focus On Beauty" sketch. There are several montages that just to show how funny he was: one where he's in drag, a montage of his talk show, one showcasing his physical comedy, an impressions montage, and one featuring outtakes from Dress Rehersal.
Overall, very good. My one complaint may seem odd. There's not enough sketches featruing Adam Sandler! I know that the focus is supposed to be on Farley, but he and Adam shared so many great skecthes together, and they obviosuly bought out the best of each other. The ones with him are good, but it would have been better if "Zagat's" and "Gap Girls" (both featured briefly in the "Drag Montage) were on here. But still, it's an excellent dvd.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Strong start... poor finish, Jun 7 2004
This review is from: Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley (DVD)
I dunno what it is, but I've always enjoyed Chris Farley's "loud-obnoxious-fat-guy-falling-down-and-breaking-stuff" routine that he did in the handful of movies he starred in prior to his untimely demise. Keeping this in mind during my last visit to the local Hollywood video, I decided to check out this collection of SNL sketches that he starred in, just to see if I had a possible "keeper" to place alongside 'Tommy Boy' and 'Beverly Hills Ninja'. As soon as I got home I threw this into the player, pressed 'play', and relaxed to what was hopefully gonna be a good show. Which it was... at first. After gettin' past the way-too-love-fest-y "in memoriam" intro by Tim Meadows (jeez, whatever happened to that guy, anyway?) I found myself yukkin' it up over the opening sketch of the titular star playing then-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani's (Kevin Nealon) obnoxiously hyper son. After that, he showed his range by playing... an obnoxiously hyper motivational speaker who tries to set a couple kids straight with his bellowing "living in a van down by the river" spiel. Then there's the so-wrong-to-laugh-at-but-I'm-laughing-anyway alternative lifestyle-themed beer commercial with Adam Sandler, followed by the infamous 'Chippendale try-out' with Patrick Swayze... which I consider to be Farley's greatest SNL piece. Oh man, was that sketch a hoot! A very disturbing hoot, but a hoot all the same!
Unfortunately, after this initial volley of sketches and commercial parodies, things really go downhill. Save for his 'quotation-finger'- laden commentary on one Weekend Update segment, I hardly uttered a chuckle the rest of the way. I never did find any of those 'Da Bearsss' sketches all that amusing, and the one they show here with guest star Michael Jordan is no exception. And the string of stammer-laden 'Chris Farley Show' bits with Jeff Daniels, Martin Scorsese, and Paul McCartney were downright tedious. And it didn't help that two of the pieces centered more around Adam Sandler (his retarded 'Lunch Lady Land' tune, and the just-plain-lame 'Herlihy Boy House-Sitting Service' piece), while Farley basically acts as a sideline character for Sandler to play off of. Speakin' of Adam Sandler: his inexplicable success with those lame movies he does is proof positive to me that there is no God. No Supreme Being who truly cares for His creations would have let this unfunny yutz become such a profit-generating force in Hollywood while allowing Chris Farley to shuffle off this mortal coil from a coke overdose...
Needless to say, I'm definitely NOT gonna add this one to my personal video collection. It was hardly worth the rental fee I plopped down for it, let alone what they're askin' for it to own! Guess I'll just hafta settle for another viewing of 'Black Sheep' to get my Farley fix...
'Late
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5.0 out of 5 stars
chris farley funny goodness, April 19 2004
I can't believe anyone doesn't know about the where he's talking to the news guy dennis miller or kevin that one guy that does the weekend update. He forms his fingers into quotation mark things and says funny stuff on his imperfect things about him. like i'm not that attractive and "i dont wash regularly"its really funny and how come know one says anything about it. Your only cool if you write a review about this skit so every review writer who wrote one your not cool enough to write about chris farley. I think its the funniest skit and its not my fault that all of you people suck ass.
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