The Truth About Cats & Dogs
by Michael Lehmann
from 20th Century Fox
One of the most memorably offbeat romantic comedies of the 1990s begins when a talk-radio veterinarian named Abby (Janeane Garofalo) takes a call from Brian (Ben Chaplin), the owner of a roller-skating Great Dane. Brian is intrigued by Abby's voice and asks if she'll agree to meet him. Insecure about her looks and her nonexistent love life, Abby agrees, but describes herself as a tall blonde, then begs her attractive neighbor Noelle (played by Uma Thurman) to meet with Brian in her place. The ensuing case of switched identity is complicated when Noelle takes a liking to Brian who, of course, thinks she is Abby. This confusion gains comedic momentum when Abby safely plays herself on the radio and in a long, hilariously seductive phone call with Brian, but by now the situation has grown hopelessly complex, and Abby has to find a way to reveal herself without disappointing Brian. Many viewers rightly complained that the movie relies on the assumption that Abby is unattractive, even though Garofalo is more attractive and appealing here than she'd been in several movies before and since. Still, this contemporary variation on Cyrano de Bergerac is a lightweight, good-natured surprise that values the quirks and foibles that make lovelorn romantics (including their pets) uniquely appealing. --Jeff Shannon
Charming and bittersweet, this modern-day romantic comedy starring Uma Thurman, Janeane Garofalo and Ben Chaplin, explores the beguiling perils of mistaken identity.
Abby (Garofalo), a savvy, witty veterinarian who hosts her own radio talk show, is anything but confident when it comes to love. A petite brunette, she describes herself as tall and blonde when Brian (Chaplin), a caller who is smitten with her radio persona, asks her on a date. She then talks her tall, blonde neighbor Noelle (Thurman) into assuming her identity, setting off an escalating series of hilarious and romantic crises.
Sarah Silverman - Jesus is Magic
by Liam Lynch
from Interscope Records
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, the movie, is the year s most outrageous comedy starring the funniest, sexy woman in America today - Sarah Silverman. Sarah delivers her trademark comedy that is so outrageous you have to watch her film over and over again. Available only in its original unrated, uncut theatrical version.
System Requirements:
Format: DVD MOVIE
She stole your heart (or turned your stomach, depending on your perspective) with her show-stealing delivery in the hit documentary The Aristocrats. With Jesus Is Magic, comedienne extraordinaire Sarah Silverman is hell-bent on marking her own territory. Jesus Is Magic is a more or less a one-hour variety show, littered with musical numbers and comedic vignettes wedged between video footage of her live act. Though humorous in parts, most of the vignettes and songs are a little bland. You can't help but think they are mere fillers to stretch the film to an hour. The real essence of the film, however, is Sarah Silverman live on stage, mic in hand, delivering the goods. After sitting through Jesus, you will undoubtedly feel Sarah Silverman's magic and find her extremely funny. You may, however, not be able to pinpoint why. Silverman's act is extremely crass, vulgar, obnoxious, disgusting, heavy on race-laced humor, and downright gross in parts. The amazing thing about Sarah Silverman's material is that if you repeated it to a friend, or read it in an article, you probably would think it was base, childish, and just not that funny. But what makes the material sparkle is Sarah's deadpan, blunt, matter-of-fact delivery and perfect comedic timing. Not to mention she is super foxy, which has a way of amplifying her humor for better or worse. Jesus Is Magic is proof that Sarah Silverman is the smartest and funniest comedienne on the circuit today. We just hope the next release is a full performance, minus the filler. --Rob Bracco
The Comedians of Comedy
by Chad Callner
from Image Entertainment
It's a night of comic anarchy as 15 of today's edgiest comedians perform at Los Angeles' legendary Troubadour rock 'n' roll club! You're guaranteed to laugh, and occasionally gasp with shock, as new comic frontiers are crossed. The humor is always fresh and funny as Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, Maria Bamford, David Cross, Sarah Silverman, Blaine Capatch, Jon Benjamin, Jasper Redd, Andy Kindler, Morgan Murphy, Bob Odenkirk, Doug Benson, Dana Gould and Eugene Mirman share their unique styles of comedy.
The Ben Stiller Show
by John Fortenberry
from Warner Home Video
The funniest show you never saw - starring Ben Stiller - is now available as a fully-loaded 2-disc DVD set, featuring all 12 regular season episodes plus an originally unaired episode. This cutting-edge Emmy-award winning sketch comedy show aired on Fox in the 1992-93 season and in syndication on Comedy Central.
Running Time: 299 min.
Format: DVD MOVIE
For its brief and shining moment--12 aired episodes, to be exact--The Ben Stiller Show, which aired on Fox in 1992, recaptured the anarchic spirit and subversively funny voice of first-season Saturday Night Live and SCTV. More too-hip-for-the-room than ahead of its time, the show suffered dismal ratings and was unceremoniously cancelled. It then went on to win an Emmy for best writing and attract a fervent following, enhanced by the fact that the series has seldom been syndicated. This long-awaited DVD release fills not a void, but an abyss. To watch Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick, and a pre-Mr. Show Bob Odenkirk at the dawn of their mostly unconventional careers, romp in the show's opening is akin to watching the Beatles frolic on that football field in A Hard Day's Night. Stiller and company's pitch-perfect and intimately observed skewering of movies, television, and show business convention could be exhilarating, as witness "Woody Allen's Bride of Frankenstein" (you'll never watch another Allen film with a straight face again), "Cape Munster," with Stiller as a psychopathic and vengeful Eddie Munster, "Skank," a potent comment on the crass programming that was initially Fox's stock in trade, and even brilliant riffs on the seminal reality series Cops, which re-imagine the series in witch-hysteric Salem, Massachussetts, ancient Egypt, and medieval times.
In addition to the cast's uncanny impersonations (Stiller's Bono, Tom Cruise, Bruce Springsteen, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Bruce Willis, and Garofalo's Juliette Lewis), The Ben Stiller Show was home to a gallery of recurring characters--agent Michael Pheret, the No, No, No Guy--who, thankfully, SNL producer Lorne Michaels was not around to parlay into godawful films. The topical humor can't help but date some of the material (the show is a veritable Trivial Pursuit of pop culture references, from The Partridge Family to Beverly Hills 90210, but the brilliance of the writing and sheer abandon of the performances are still a joy to behold. --Donald Liebenson
Relative Strangers
by Greg Glienna
from First Look Pictures
Wayne's World 2
from Paramount
Somewhere in the world, there are probably people who don't understand why Mike Myers's character, Wayne Campbell, is funny--which is too bad. Granted, the laughs are often cheap and silly, but there's no one who can embody a comic character and riff within that character the way Myers does. Wayne and his pal Garth (Dana Carvey) were fixtures on Saturday Night Live before the unexpected success of Wayne's World, which is about what happened when they tried to take their local cable-access show citywide. This time, they want to stage Waynestock, a mammoth rock festival in their little Chicago suburb, even as Wayne copes with girlfriend Tia Carrere's interest in record-company exec Christopher Walken. For extra fun, Garth gets involved with the babelicious Kim Basinger. Yes, the humor is scattershot and the plot is lame--but you'll find yourself laughing nonetheless. --Marshall Fine
Fired!
by Chris Bradley (IV)
from Shout Factory Theatr
A first-person documentary about a real-life bummer, Fired! finds actress Annabelle Gurwitch sorting through the phenomenon of losing a job. The impetus for this search? Gurwitch was cast in a Woody Allen play, only to be fired by Allen after rehearsals began. This showbiz stubbed toe inspires Gurwitch to go Michael Moore on the subject, only cuter and pleasanter. She solicits anecdotes from a large pool of comedy buddies, including David Cross, Tim Allen, Sarah Silverman, and Jeff Garlin, and she includes clips from a comedy concert where stand-ups recount their worst job experiences. These are generally pretty funny; less successful are Gurwitch's conceptual ideas, like putting Andy Dick in a traveling food van so that he can bewilder unsuspecting customers. Gurwitch also travels to Lansing, Michigan, interviewing auto workers about their tenuous relationship with a big car company. Surprisingly, she also gets an interview out of former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich--which turns out to be not so surprising when Reich wonders if Gurwitch could maybe help out his son, who's also in show business. Some of this is mildly funny, but as appealing as Gurwitch is (you were wrong, Woody Allen), the movie feels unfocused. Included in the DVD: copious outtakes with more anecdotes from celebs about getting canned. --Robert Horton
When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen, she wondered how she would cope with being downsized by a cultural icon. Turning to friends in show business she was assured she was not alone. Fired! features funny moments and tragic tales with a who's-who of top-rated comedians and actors.
Danny Roane: First Time Director
by Andy Dick
from Lions Gate
The Independent
from Allumination
With 427 films like Twelve Angry Men and A Baby, The Man With Two Things, and The Heart is A Strong Muscle, Morty Fineman (JERRY STILLER) has made audiences laugh, cry, think, and feel. But now he s broke, and must turn to his estranged daughter Paloma (JANEANE GAROFALO) to help find a way to save his company.
The Independent is the story of one man's struggle for a little bit of recognition. It's filled with interviews from Morty's celebrity friends, clips from his thirty years of films, and a cinema verite camera which follows Morty and Paloma as they try to find the money to help him complete his latest work, the socially conscious semi-erotic thriller, Ms. Kevorkian. The Independent is filled with great performances, and finds its way into your hands as the result of the settling of a lawsuit with a now-defunct, terrible little independent film distributor, the ugly details of which we are contractually unable to revisit here. Enjoy!
Monkeybone
Brendan Fraser plays the best-looking cartoonist you'll ever see in Monkeybone. Stu (Fraser) has created an animated character named Monkeybone, who sprang from his repressed sexual anxieties. He's just sold his animated series to a cable channel, and is being bombarded with proposals for toys and other marketing extravaganzas, when he and his girlfriend Julie (Bridget Fonda) get into a car wreck and Stu falls into a coma. But comas are much more complicated than you might expect: Stu finds himself in Down Town, where lives a mixture of other people in comas and figments of these people's imaginations. Naturally, Monkeybone himself is there, and he and Stu quickly start fighting like cats and dogs. When Stu realizes that his sister, due to a pact they once made, is preparing to pull the plug on him, Stu makes a deal with Hypnos, the god of sleep, to help him steal a golden ticket from Death himself (or herself, as Death is played by Whoopi Goldberg). Sound complicated? Well, from there it only gets more ornate. Monkeybone is a bit of a mess, but it's never boring, and every now and then it roars to amazingly dynamic life. Fraser is excellent, and the strong supporting cast includes Giancarlo Esposito (Do the Right Thing), Rose McGowan (Scream), Dave Foley (Brain Candy), and Saturday Night Live's Chris Kattan as a gymnast with a broken neck who... well, it's a bit complicated to explain. A crazy quilt of a movie, chock-full of delirious ideas and inspired moments. --Bret Fetzer
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