Rodney Rude-Goes the Growl-Volume 5 (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Additional Footage-Serious Comment from Rude Additional Footage-Bull Rider's Belt Buckles Additional Footage-Lindsay Harris Tribute Additional Footage-Rude's Grandson
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	87:36
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Rodney Rude
Studio Distributor	EMI Music	Starring	Rodney Rude
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

     Rude Goes The Growl is taken from a performance on the 2006 "farewell' tour of veteran comedian Rodney Rude (Rodney Keft). Television viewers of the 1980s might remember Rude featuring as a stand-up comedian in shows such as Hey Hey It's Saturday with his trademark padded-arse, blow-fly eyes, maniacal laugh and bawdy banter. These performances were tame affairs compared to the live gigs which featured gags of the most rudest, crudest, racist and often funniest kind. Such was the content of his shows that he was involved in several long and expensive court cases defending his right to free speech against allegations of obscenity. Ironically enough whilst Rude was successful in the courts a couple of the prosecuting police officers ended up in jail for corruption .

     Twenty-odd years later Rude embarked on his Goes The Growl tour with the intention of retiring afterwards. While many of the jokes are similar to those of his early years it seemed to me that he had lost a bit of the spark evident in recordings from the 1980s. The well lubricated audience in this performance however were lapping it up, but unfortunately I found only some parts of it amusing. It's probably a case where the crowd atmosphere and a belly full of bourbon or beer is really necessary to appreciate the unsubtle gags and constant very foul language. Rude doesn't hold back in responding to audience heckling and a good bollocking by Rude at one of his gigs is seen as a badge of honour by many. In my opinion some of his best gags were made in abusing a heckler - but he's probably used the same lines before a hundred times.

     The actual length of the performance is only around sixty minutes as there is an opening birthday tribute to what looks like the hotel receptionist preceding the show and around nineteen minutes of crowd responses after the show. Rude's routine as shown here seems to miss old favourite such as "You know what I hate?" and "I hate that" but I guess old fans would have heard them all by now anyway. As per the R18+ classification on the DVD cover this routine is for undiscerning adults only who don't mind highly offensive language and questionable sight gags. The routine involving a stuffed cat was almost too much - even for me. Sensitive or discerning viewers should look elsewhere.

Video

     Production values were quite amateurish with limited and sometimes shaky cameras and awkward stage positions. That being said there are no significant problems with the recording apart from some over-exposure and shadow problems due to the stage lighting. Being a fairly modern recording there are no problems associated with analogue equipment.

     The transfer is presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The picture detail was quite crisp.

     There were no examples of source film artefacts.

     This is a single layer disc so there was no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The default and only audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 at 256Kb/s which is adequate for the material content. Voices and crowd responses were clear throughout and there were no synchronisation problems.

     Being basically a mono track there was no channel separation. The subwoofer did not come into play.

     This audio track is clean and delivers what is required.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

     The menu featured a static cartoon-like display.

Serious Comment from Rude (3:40)

    Rude thanks his audience for their support and reminds them that this is his farewell tour before retirement. Note however that retirement was announced prematurely as he's back on the saddle in 2010. Rude also mentions past experiences with the law and how the Queensland review into police corruption led to a couple of his prosecutors ending up in jail while he remained conviction free.

Bull Rider's Belt Buckles (0:37)

     It seems in these parts that there are some who are skilled in fashioning various body parts into belt buckles.

Lindsay Harris Tribute (1:28)

     Rude coaches the audience into raising a glass to the memory of an old mate who died recently.

Rude's Grandson (1.40)

     Rude's grandson is introduced to the audience.

    There are no other versions of the DVD available.

     If you're a fan of Rodney Rude than this DVD is worth picking up if found in a bargain bin. The content is a bit light on and some of the humour more crude than funny however it is often quite amusing. The extras are structured strangely in that they follow sequentially after the main feature and are not really worth watching. Rodney has a lot of comedy gold in the vaults so I'd suggest checking out some older content for examples of him in his prime. Rodney Rude remains an Aussie comedy legend and that maniacal laugh and facial contortions are unlikely to be duplicated any time soon.

     The video quality is good. The audio quality is good.

     Extras are not worth watching.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall