Tommy Boy (Holy Schnike Edition)
by Peter Segal
from Paramount
Before his death, comedian Chris Farley made a pair of surprisingly successful comedies that teamed him with Saturday Night Live colleague David Spade. Their relationship in each film was pretty much the same, but then so was Abbott and Costello's or Laurel and Hardy's (not that Farley and Spade are in their league). In Tommy Boy, Farley plays the ne'er-do-well son of a successful auto parts manufacturer (Brian Dennehy). When Dad drops dead just after marrying a young new wife, it's up to Tommy (aided by sarcastic bean-counter Spade) to rescue the company by taking over for his father. Black Sheep features a slightly different plot: This time, Spade is hired by Farley's brother (Tim Matheson), a candidate for governor, to keep Farley (an accident-prone buffoon) out of sight until after the election. Farley has a likable quality that is exploited by continuous slapstick centered on his clumsiness, both physically and socially. --Marshall Fine
When the family business starts to fail Tommy must hit the road as a salesman with a smug family accountant.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: FARLEY/SPADE
Title: TOMMY BOY
Street Release Date: 08/30/2005
Genre: COMEDY VIDEO
Black Sheep
by Penelope Spheeris
from Paramount
Chris Farley plays the disaster-prone brother of a gubernatorial candidate in Washington State. Though he is well meaning, the havoc he creates on the campaign trail is drawing press attention, so a snotty aide (David Spade) to the politician is dispatched to keep the big lug under control. Spade's character initially insults his charge as often as possible, but over time, the two bond and end up becoming a part of the final election push. Farley and Spade have some very funny moments, but overall the film feels rushed and poorly planned. Constant changes in character and script happen recklessly and randomly so that nothing ever really makes sense; the film keeps changing the rules by which it plays. --Tom Keogh
An aspiring gubernatorial candidate tries very hard to keep his bumbling brother out of the limelight and from helping with his campaign.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 16-JUL-2002
Media Type: DVD
Tommy Boy (1995) / Black Sheep (1996) (Double Feature)
by Peter Segal
from Paramount
TOMMY BOYTommy Callahan Jr. is a slow-witted clumsy guy who recently graduated college after attending for seven years. His father Big Tom Callahan owns an auto parts factory in Ohio. When Tommy arrives back home he finds he has a position at the factory waiting for him. His dad also introduces Tommy to the new brake pad division of the factory and to Tommy's soon-to-be stepmother Beverly and her son Paul. But when Big Tom dies the factory threatens to go under unless the new brake pads are to be sold. Therefore Tommy must go on the road to sell them along with the assistance of Richard Big Tom's right-hand man. Will Tommy save the company or will the factory and the town go under?BLACK SHEEPComedy about the prospective Washington State Governor Al Donnelly (Matheson) whose only stumbling block on the road to power is his embarrassing younger brother Mike (Farley). To keep him out of mischief Al forces one of his aides Steve Dodds (Spade) to keep an eye on him during the election. However this is easier said than done...Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 097361242347 Manufacturer No: 124234
The Benchwarmers
from Sony Pictures
Gus and his nerdy buddies Richie and Clark are scouted by a millionaire nerd Mel who wants to form a baseball team and compete with the meanest Little League teams in the state. A stellar ballplayer Gus becomes a role model for nerds and outcasts everywhere. But when his fans learn that Gus himself was once a school bully they feel outraged and betrayed until Gus takes extraordinary steps to win back their admiration and trust.System Requirements:Run Time: 80 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396138698 Manufacturer No: 13869
Credit The Benchwarmers for achieving the impossible: It makes the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears look like a masterpiece. They're essentially the same film, with the same lowbrow PG-13 humor (mostly involving bodily functions, broad slapstick, little people, nerds, geeks, and nose-picking), but this baseball comedy earns a few brownie points for its heart-warming message about including non-athletic kids (i.e. "benchwarmers") in Little League baseball, if only to boost their confidence and give them a moment of ball-field glory. It's a pleasant sentiment intended to encourage under-achievers to feel good about themselves, and that makes this loose-and-goofy vehicle for Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder an easygoing time-killer. Parents with good taste should be warned that his movie has no taste at all (it's hopelessly mired in the swamp of fart jokes and juvenile sight-gags), and is there really a need for mild profanity in a movie like this? That said, there are a few laughs in the efforts of Schneider and his ultra-nerdy pals as they form a team of rejects and go to bat against an enemy squad of current and former school-bullies, led by former late-night talk-show host Craig Kilborn. In addition to Schneider and Spade, Saturday Night Live alumni Jon Lovitz and Tim Meadows show up for an easy paycheck, and director Dennis Dugan handles the dumb-and-dumber shtick as if he were on vacation, sipping margaritas and shamelessly going for the easy laughs. If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.--Jeff Shannon
Joe Dirt
by Dennie Gordon
from Sony Pictures
Another of those cut-and-paste comedies from Adam Sandler's production company starring one of Sandler's erstwhile Saturday Night Live colleagues, The Adventures of Joe Dirt finds the magnificently caustic David Spade emasculated by a sentimental script and shapeless, haphazard cutting. Spade plays the title character, a white-trash orphan in search of the parents who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon. The humor is supposed to come from Joe's misadventures, his redneck gullibility, and his encounters with such figures as a serial killer, a wacked-out janitor (Christopher Walken), and a lovable gal (Jamie Pressly) who may, unfortunately, turn out to be his sister. But the squishier requirements of the story, requiring the audience to feel deeply for the pain of Spade's caricature, are an irritant and force Spade to veer from the nastier stuff he does so well. With Kid Rock, Dennis Miller. --Tom Keogh
From the producing team that brought you Deuce Bigalow and Big Daddy. David Spade plays Joe whose search for his family has him hittin' the road and keepin' it real with every lowlife he meets including a sweet hottie (Brittany Daniel) a janitor (Christopher Walken) and a psychotic cannibal (Brian Thompson) with whom he has a brief interlude. Through it all Joe keeps on truckin' all the wayto L.A. where a shock jock DJ (Dennis Miller) targets Joe as the butt of his show. But Joe's plucky spirit encourages listeners to cheer him on and help him find a better family than the one he thought he wanted. Rock on!System Requirements:Run Time: 91 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396153844 Manufacturer No: 15384
PCU
by Hart Bochner
from 20th Century Fox
Almost 10 years before playing a by-the-books college dean in Old School, Jeremy Piven was King Slob of an underground fraternity in this frequently amusing cult comedy. Piven is Droz, who introduces nervous freshman Chris Young to his eclectic frat-mates (which include Jon Favreau) while steering clear of vicious prepster David Spade and malevolent school head Jessica Walter. Piven's off-the-cuff humor and the capable cast help anchor the film's gleefully anarchic tone, which is refreshingly free of the cheap scatological gags that usually sink collegiate comedies. The result is a breezy, likable comedy that should please fans of cinematic campus capers. 20th Century Fox's surprisingly extra-laden DVD includes fullscreen and widescreen versions of the film, as well as commentaries by a typically wry Piven and director Hart Bochner; a short behind-the-scenes featurette; a video for Mudhoney's cover of Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up," which is featured on the soundtrack, and the original theatrical trailer. --Paul Gaita
Welcome to Port Chester University, where the Politically Correct go head-to-head with the Party Animals in the rowdiest college comedy since "Animal House." With all the new social rules on political correctness, the only fun place left on campus is The Pit, an outlawed underground fraternity house. Here, no behavior is too offensive and no lifestyle too bizarre. These fraternity brothers and sisters are lazy, lawless and loud - and determined to turn PCU back into the party school it was meant to be!
Tommy Boy
by Peter Segal
from Paramount
Before his death, comedian Chris Farley made a pair of surprisingly successful comedies that teamed him with Saturday Night Live colleague David Spade. Their relationship in each film was pretty much the same, but then so was Abbott and Costello's or Laurel and Hardy's (not that Farley and Spade are in their league). In Tommy Boy, Farley plays the ne'er-do-well son of a successful auto parts manufacturer (Brian Dennehy). When Dad drops dead just after marrying a young new wife, it's up to Tommy (aided by sarcastic bean-counter Spade) to rescue the company by taking over for his father. Black Sheep features a slightly different plot: This time, Spade is hired by Farley's brother (Tim Matheson), a candidate for governor, to keep Farley (an accident-prone buffoon) out of sight until after the election. Farley has a likable quality that is exploited by continuous slapstick centered on his clumsiness, both physically and socially. --Marshall Fine
Saturday Night Live - The Best of Dana Carvey
from Lions Gate
The opening sequence of this video, a lively and hilarious parody of a contentious Ross Perot press conference, immediately makes one wonder whether the public, when recalling Perot's 1992 presidential campaign, remembers Perot himself or Dana Carvey's dead-on impression of the eccentric billionaire. From his position as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, Carvey's skill as an impressionist was a national sensation, and this video captures him at his best, doing his Perot, his President George Bush (with the trademark fractured syntax and oddly disconnected hand gestures), and a devastating Carsenio, a diabolical amalgam of Johnny Carson and Arsenio Hall. Besides the great impressions, The Best of Dana Carvey also offers sketches featuring the insufferably conceited weightlifters Hans and Franz, Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth of "Wayne's World," and of course the Church Lady (who does her bizarre stiff-backed dance, rips into a mean drum solo, and of course makes her perennial sarcastic comment, "Isn't that special?"). Some sketches, such as one featuring the misbegotten character Massive Head Wound Harry, may make you wonder how it wound up on this tape, but for the most part this is very impressive collection of Carvey's best work. --Robert J. McNamara
Joe Dirt
by Dennie Gordon
from Sony Pictures
Another of those cut-and-paste comedies from Adam Sandler's production company starring one of Sandler's erstwhile Saturday Night Live colleagues, The Adventures of Joe Dirt finds the magnificently caustic David Spade emasculated by a sentimental script and shapeless, haphazard cutting. Spade plays the title character, a white-trash orphan in search of the parents who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon. The humor is supposed to come from Joe's misadventures, his redneck gullibility, and his encounters with such figures as a serial killer, a wacked-out janitor (Christopher Walken), and a lovable gal (Jamie Pressly) who may, unfortunately, turn out to be his sister. But the squishier requirements of the story, requiring the audience to feel deeply for the pain of Spade's caricature, are an irritant and force Spade to veer from the nastier stuff he does so well. With Kid Rock, Dennis Miller. --Tom Keogh
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