BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation & Audio  Trivia  Outtakes
Rating
Year Released	1994
Running Time	172:44 (not 174 as stated in packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	Dual Layer	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	Martin Dennis
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Neil Morrissey  Martin Clunes  Leslie Ash  Caroline Quentin
Case	Transparent Amaray
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alan Lisk

    This particular compilation of episodes comprises the entire Series 3 of Men Behaving Badly. The episodes that make up this DVD are;

    1. Lovers (28:40). Gary boastfully claims that he has had at least 50 lovers before Dorothy and is forced to back up his exaggerated claim with hard evidence, which he attempts to do in his own inimitable way.

    2. Bed (28:12). During a particularly stormy night, Gary wants sex with Deborah, but all she wants is an antacid which she makes Gary go through hell to get. The same night, Tony is cajoled by Deborah into fixing a noisy, flapping fence which is stopping her from getting to sleep, and she uses all of her feminine wiles to make him do it. Needless to say, there is not much sleep that night for anyone, but not for the reasons that Gary and Tony hope for.

    3. Casualties (29:09). Deborah is depressed, and decides to sell her upstairs flat and travel to Asia. Both Gary and Tony desperately try to convince her not to sell, including scaring off potential buyers. Gary's constant lying gets him into significant trouble with Dorothy.

    4. Weekend (28:33). Tony gets a new job as a bartender at the local off-licence, hoping that it will impress Deborah, which it doesn't. Gary is cajoled into a weekend away in the country with Dorothy in order to rekindle their flagging passion, but if anything, it has the opposite effect, much to Gary's surprise.

    5. Cleaning Lady (29:09). Gary and Tony are made to employ a cleaning lady by Dorothy, and they both end up attracted to her. Tony gets a new career as a male model, still trying to impress Deborah.

    6. Marriage (29:01). A drunken Gary proposes to Dorothy in the funniest episode of the series, and then tries desperately to get out it, with often hilarious results. Meanwhile, Tony bugs Deborah's flat in an attempt to get her to break up with her current boyfriend, Ray.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is sharp and clear in the main, with plenty of fine detail visible in both the foreground and the background of shots. Shadow detail is markedly better in this series than in previous series, particularly important since the first two episodes take place in relatively low lighting conditions. There is no low level noise to mar the blackness of the blacks in the image.

    The colours were nicely rendered without ever being stand-out in quality.

    There were no significant MPEG artefacts seen. There was some mild aliasing occasionally in venetian blinds, but certainly not at a level to be at all concerned about, and I noted no video artefacts or dropouts at all.

    This disc is Dual Layered, but no layer change was detected during any of the episodes, so it seems as if the layer change sensibly separates episodes from each other.
 

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is always easy to hear, and there are no audio sync problems.

    There is a small amount of music in a couple of the episodes of this series, unlike previous series, all credited to Alan Lisk. It is functional music without being particularly remarkable.

    There was no activity in the surround channels, and the stereo presence of this soundtrack is limited to the music and the audience laughter. There was one directional vocal cue during Episode 4 (Weekend), but if anything it was distracting since it was so unexpected after the strictly monaural dialogue which preceded it. The subwoofer helped the music along a little but otherwise did little except stand in the corner and laugh at the on-screen antics.
 

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    You are able to select each individual episode from the main menu, which then leads to a chapter submenu for each episode. This is a tad cumbersome, and an option to play all 6 episodes sequentially would have been appreciated.

Trivia/Outtakes

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    The extras are limited in quantity but very good in quality and thematic appropriateness.
 

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
6th September 2000