John Safran vs. God (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Additional Footage-Bonus Bob-11 Short Featurettes Additional Footage-Bumped-14 Scenes Deleted Scenes-7 Outtakes Trailer-John Safran's Music Jamboree, The Corporation Trailer-Bowling For Columbine, Calm Om Yoga, Letters To Ali Trailer-Amandla!
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	199:28 (Case: 243)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	John Safran
Case	Gatefold
RPI	$34.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, incl Drugs
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    John Safran is a young Jewish man from Melbourne with courage and a good sense of what is funny. He first rose to prominence in Australia when he appeared in the first series of Race Around The World, an ABC game show/travelogue which involved young people being sent wherever they wanted on a shoestring budget to shoot amateur short films of their travels. They had to submit a short film each week and the films were judged by a panel of filmmakers. Safran did not win, but was the most popular by miles due to the things he got up to such as streaking naked through the centre of Jerusalem or adding an Iran doll to a Disneyland ride. Since then he has appeared irregularly on Australian television, especially after being involved in a scuffle with Ray Martin over Martin's rubbish bin. More recently he made a interesting series for SBS about the music industry which exposed numerous facts about how the industry really worked, combined with silly stunts like dressing up as Prince or singing Ozzy Osborne lyrics backwards on railway stations. It was called John Safran's Music Jamboree. A lot of his previous television work has had religious topics included either overtly or more subtly such as going back to his old Jewish High School to dance. This series takes the religious topics to a whole new level.

    John Safran Vs God is a series where John investigates different religions and organisations with religious subtexts around the globe. The series is a mixture of poking fun at various people's approach to religion and serious investigative journalism, although even the more serious sections take a comedic approach, with the exception of the last episode which focuses on his interactions with an exorcist called Bob Larson. Other than the final episode, the episodes are similar in structure, made up of a number of stories interspersed with John, sitting in a large red chair, either introducing a story or launching a diatribe. Most episodes also include a religion road test where John tries a religion out to see if it's for him. During the series John manages to insult just about all major religions in some way, so if you get offended easily you may not like this series. Personally, I think it's great television.

    Before I describe the episodes in more detail I should mention that this set is really well packaged, including lots of funny photos and other things like John's Israeli citizenship certificate (Ep3) and his Sorry! (sorta) plaque (Ep2). The only thing some people may not like about the packaging is that it utilizes fold-out cardboard instead of Amaray, but this allows the other pictures and jokes to be included. This is a 2 disc set.

    The episodes include the following sections:

1.  John wants to see how difficult it is to get a fatwa issued by the UK Shariah court, so tries to get one on Rove McManus; Road Test - Peyote Way; Scientology; Atheists (this is a great start to the series, and is both funny and controversial).
2. Funny stunt about Aboriginal land rights; Road Test - Buddhism; Great section on Masons; Diatribe on the design of Catholic Churches.
3. Story on the Ku Klux Klan where John asks the Grand Master whether he can join and then mentions he is Jewish (top story); John spends time with Father Bob, a Catholic Priest in Melbourne (hilarious); John offers his Israeli citizenship to Palestinians if they can impersonate a Jew.
4. John pitches a film idea to Mormon film producers; Road Test - Voodooism in Haiti (this is not for the faint of heart and even John looks petrified and horrified); John visits a group called Jews for Guns and takes the p*** out of Michael Moore and ends the episode with a very funny diatribe.
5. John revisits the priest he visited during Race Around The World to confess the sins he committed last time he was there; John goes door knocking in Salt Lake City to try to convert Mormons to atheism (funny stuff!); a comparison of quotes from the Pope and the Dalai Lama to see who is more conservative; Road Test - Hinduism and a funny rant about Anti-Semitism
6. John tries out for the Harlem Gospel Choir; John brings in Sara-Marie from Big Brother to try and solve the Middle East crisis; Road Test - Vikings; Vampires. This is probably the weakest episode but is still worth watching.
7. John tries to get the curse on Aussie Soccer lifted by a witchdoctor (this is gross and involves John being covered in chicken blood); John buys Mormon underwear and reveals its secrets (great story); John discusses the Bible Code books and religious boycotts.
8. This last episode is in a completely different format to the others. It contains only one story and very little in the way of jokes. John visits an exorcist in the US, Bob Larson, who believes he badly needs one after the stuff he has done during the rest of the series and his life. The exorcism he performs on John seems real and John seems genuinely affected by it. This is either a very powerful and confronting piece of television or one of the greatest acting performances of all time. You'll have to decide for yourself. Either way it's great viewing.

    Overall, this is an excellent series, which I would recommend as one of the best Australian shows of recent times. It is both funny and confronting. Highly recommended.

Video

    The video quality is good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some grain in evidence in some footage. The shadow detail was very good.

    The colour was generally good, however it did contain some colour artefacts such as rainbow effects from time to time.

    From an artefacts perspective there was some significant aliasing (although only occasional) which was particularly bad on newspaper clippings and other documents shown onscreen. I also noticed some macro-blocking on the red chair which John sits on to talk to camera in most episodes.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change is not noticeable and must be between episodes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The theme song of this series, Hate Priest by Mozart on Crack is a thrash metal song, which personally I found a little annoying.

    The surround speakers added some atmosphere when played with Dolby ProLogicII.

    The subwoofer added bass, particularly to the music, as a result of my amp's bass management.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Extras are non 16x9 enhanced except the menus.

Menu

    The menu included motion, and the ability to select episodes or play all. The menus were quite well designed and included some funny images.

More Bob

    This is a section of extra footage with Bob Larson, the exorcist, which is quite interesting and well worth watching. The specific sections are:

• Bob on Music (2:41) Hall & Oates are demonized!
• Bob on Other Religions (1:41) Bob's views on Scientology, Mormons, Islam and Catholicism
• Bob on Kids (0:45) Kids are welcome at exorcists!
• Bob on Harry Potter (0:35) I think you can guess...
• Injuries and Death Threats (1:02)
• Exorcism : Hanuman (2:50) A deleted scene from the actual exorcism
• Vox Pops (1:18) Audience opinions on Bob
• Craig Questioned (0:27) Bob checks with John's cameraman whether he usually acts like he did during the exorcism
• The Pick Up (0:10) I won't spoil this...
• John's demonic showbag (0:33) Bob shows demonic stuff John relinquished to him
• John & Jesus (3:21) After the exorcism, Bob pushes John to accept Jesus

Bumped

    This is a section of stories and ideas bumped from the series. There is some excellent stuff here and it is definitely worth watching. The specific sections are:

• Alex Safran's Intro (0:48) John's father complains about being bumped from the series himself.
• Rove's Fatwa uncut (11:02) Alternate version of the story from Episode 1 which SBS wouldn't air. Includes more discussion of beheadings and other forms of execution which would suit Rove.
• Matchmaker (6:21) John visits a traditional Jewish matchmaker. Funny story.
• Santa's Bones (3:18) St Nicholas's bones have been stolen by the Italians and John tries to get them back for Turkey. Silly.
• Kava Cursing (6:55) John arranges a Polynesian curse for his enemies including John Blackman. Funny.
• Shabbos Table (4:04) An idea involving John's father and other people discussing the religion John Road Tested that week at the Shabbos (Sabbath) dinner.
• Master & Grasshopper (4:12) Another idea for a repeating section of each episode where John, dressed as a grasshopper, discusses an issue with his Master.
• Tom Elliott (4:12) Another idea for a repeating section of each episode in which a finance reporter discusses the finances of various groups such as the Mormons, Amish & Salvation Army.
• Scientology March (1:21) John joins a Scientology protest march.
• Islam (1:37) John learns about how to wash.
• Kate Langbroek (8:13) Kate from The Panel discusses growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. Interesting.
• Den Intros (3:12) More stuff from the red chair.
• John Vs First Aid Dummy (3:27) The disastrous First Aid Course SBS made John do before starting the series.
• John Vs Literacy (4:11) John introduces various books he used as source material.

Deleted Scenes

    Deleted scenes from the various stories including:

• KKK (1:37) More funny stuff with the Grand Master.
• Peyote Way Church of God (7:11) More scary weirdos on drugs with their knives!
• Catholicism (2:44) More funny stuff with Father Bob.
• Zen Buddhism (1:13) More beatings.
• Secret Handshake (0:23) More of John trying to see the Masonic equipment.
• Catholic Guilt (0:27) A little bit more of Father Piero.
• Extreme Mormons (0:36) More of John's film pitch.

Outtakes (1:39)

    One of the least funny sections of the entire disc...

Madman Propaganda

    Trailers for Music Jamboree, The Corporation, Bowling for Columbine, Calm Om Yoga, Letters to Ali, Amandla.

    This set is coded for all regions but does not seem to have been released outside of Region 4.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The set has an abundance of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall