CNNNN: Chaser Non-Stop News Network (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Menu Animation & Audio Additional Footage-I'm Fungry, Get Boggered, Peaks Of Esteem, Meet The People Additional Footage-The Firth Factor, Chaser On The Streets Of America Additional Footage-Golden Moments Of Newstainment, Firth & Friends, Lameass Additional Footage-A Chaser Affair, CNX News Slam
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	118:56
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Craig Reucassel Chris Taylor Julian Morrow Dominic Knight Charles Firth Chas Licciardello Anna Skellern Andrew Hansen
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.93:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Sometime during 2002, the normally respectable ABC TV began taking a live feed from one of the world's newest and most self-respecting news networks - CNNNN (not to be mistaken for that 'other' news network with only two Ns). It was of course a weekly half-hour news satire that took the p*** out of basically anything to do with commercial television news and current affairs. Multiple newsdesks, a live newsband, a Washington correspondent who always seems to be live to air, gratuitous product placement, and of course the infamous news ticker, summarising all the important events of the day, this half hour show proved there is some life left in television comedy. The ticker is one of the lasting memories many will have of this show, providing distraction from the main news and includes such gems as Reserve Bank promoted to starting line-up, Perpetual loser finally realises it's not just how you play the game, and If you are reading this ticker you can't possibly be watching the news.

    The CNNNN team, consisting of Charles Firth, Andrew Hansen, Dominic Knight, Chas Licciardello, Julian Morrow, Craig Reucassel and Chris Taylor, write and perform all their own work, with a little bit of spit and polish from none other than Andrew Denton. The result is a hilarious half hour programme that proves commercial news takes itself far too seriously and conflicts of interest are just another line on the resume.

    There are five episodes included on this DVD, with a swag of extra footage also included as a bonus.

Episode 1 - Lunchgate (23:02)

    CNNNN brings you the dramatic crisis of Dwight Mahoney and his lunch. Mahoney left his lunch behind when he left for work. Watch as CNNNN crosses live to the helicopter and police pursue Mahoney across town in a dramatic chase to try and give him his lunch back. CNNNN will also manage to set a new record for the most number of experts ever interviewed during a half hour news programme.

Episode 2 - Cadman for PM (20:00)

    CNNNN breaks the story of a leadership challenge to Prime Minister John Howard by backbencher Liberal MP Alan Cadman. Cadman has spent 30 years as an MHR and has obviously been plotting all that time for a go at the leadership. Watch as other ministers and MPs squirm and wiggle as they are confronted with the tough question on who they support - Cadman or Howard.

Episode 3 - Shush for Bush (25:40)

    US president George W Bush. is coming to Australia for a flying 24 hour visit. Apparently all he is coming to do is have a nap and CNNNN spearheads the efforts by the whole nation to keep as quiet as possible so Dubya can enjoy his slumber.

Episode 4 - Animal Farm (25:07)

    The whole world is watching the Chaser Reality Channel's new hit show - Animal Farm. One contestant has already died on the show, but somehow his corpse is proving more popular than any of the living contestants. Watch as CNNNN picks up the baton to champion Todd, the dead housemate.

Episode 5 - Packer Health Crisis (25:07)

    A moment in history as Australia’s richest man, Kerry Packer's heart stops for the second time and CNNNN have the scoop. Will he make it or will journalists of the likes of Charles Firth finally be able to spill the beans and let loose with all the dirt they have on Packer. Only time will tell.

    This is probably the funniest of all the episodes and shows the boys really hitting their straps after a few shows of practice. The special 'DVD' features such as commentary track, French soundtrack, commentary on the commentary, and other bits taking the p*** out of DVDs in general are a real hoot.

Video

      As with most recent transfers of ABC television series, this is a magnificent video image all round. It obviously benefited from modern digital widescreen cameras and is presented in the slightly unusual aspect ratio of 1.93:1 (measured). It is also 16x9 enhanced.

    All the vision is incredibly sharp and detailed, and is consistently good throughout. There is not a trace of edge enhancement and there are absolutely no problems with shadow detail. There is some grain, but it is well controlled and is barely an issue.

    The colours are excellent, with deep, vibrant saturation and even and consistent shading. Reds, blues, green and yellows come out especially well and the skin tones are perfect.

    There are no compression artefacts and video artefacts are also absent. All up, this is a very, very clean image with no problems to report.

    Unfortunately, there are no subtitles available at all on this disc. This is disappointing.

    This is a dual layered disc with the layer change between episodes so it remains invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio soundtrack on the disc, that being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at the bitrate of 224 Kb/s and, despite the surround flag not being embedded in the bitstream, there is certainly enough separation across the front and rear left/right channels to suggest it is surround encoded. It is quite a decent soundtrack.

    Dialogue is handled well and there are no obvious audio sync issues.

    There is only minimal surround use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu Animation & Audio

Additional Footage

    The additional footage is at times funnier than the main programme. The CNNNN programme is renowned for some of the crazy satirical advertisements promoting some crazy products such as Fungry Fast Food and Bogg's Beer. This section of extras includes all the ads for those products plus the self-promotion pieces for the network.

    All are able to be selected individually. What we get are - Fungry’s Fast Food (3:54), Esteem Cosmetics (4:30), the very amusing Get Boggered campaign for Bogg’s Beer (3:03), the gratuitous self-promotion in Meet the People (4:00), The Firth Factor (10:15), Chaser in America (8:49), Golden Moments in Newstainment (5:31), Firth and Friends (2:05), Lameass (3:55), A Chaser Affair (2:34) and CNX News Slam (1:22).

    If you only watch a little bit of these make sure it is the very entertaining Chaser In America. Watching everyday Americans explain why the US should bomb the hell out of Kyrgyzstan (a country none of them have heard of) or trying to point to Iran on world map (when Australia has been relabelled as Iran) is pure comedy.

    This disc is not available in Region 1.

    CNNNN - Chaser Non-Stop News Network is a classic satire comedy lampooning the world of commercial television news and current affairs. It is done with intelligence and bite and given the sorry state of the current news outlets on television in this country it is going to be around for a long time, with a whole lot of material to cover.

    The video and audio quality are as good as we have come to expect from any ABC television DVDs. Near on faultless.

    The extras are excellent with more than two episodes worth of material included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall