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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

Freddy Got Fingered (2001)

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Released 13-May-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Audio Commentary-Tom Green
Featurette-Rated PG Version
Featurette
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots-4
Featurette-MTV: Freddy Got Fingered Movie Special
Deleted Scenes-6 +/- commentary
Alternate Audio-World Premiere Laugh Track
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 83:29
RSDL / Flipper RSDL Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Tom Green
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Tom Green
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Various


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (96Kb/s)
English Alternate Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles Croatian
Czech
Danish
English for the Hearing Impaired
Finnish
Hebrew
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Swedish
Turkish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement Yes
Action In or After Credits Yes, both during and after

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    A warning first: If you have some weird kind of love for Tom Green, then I suggest skipping to the Transfer Quality section right now, because this is going to get ugly.

    Tom Green is not a comedian, he is a stupid, immature little **** who gets paid to be annoying, offensive, and disgusting. This sad excuse for a comedic act also continues into his first (and hopefully last) feature film Freddy Got Fingered, which is one of the most offensive pieces of **** I have ever had the displeasure of laying my eyes upon. By the way, journalists in general, Tom Green was not the first director/actor/anything who went to pick up his Razzie award in person - Paul Verhoeven did that in 1995 for Showgirls. This is the only way that a snot-nosed little moronic punk like Tom Green could ever be compared with a genius like Paul Verhoeven.

    Now, onto the plot (I'm sorry, did you really think I was finished letting off steam?). Gord Brody (Tom Green) is a little punk whose parents, Jim (Rip Torn) and Betty (Marisa Coughlan) have paid his way through higher education just to see him sit on his duff and draw cartoons. Now twenty-eight, he finally leaves home and goes off to Hollywood, where he pitches his cartoon ideas to a studio head by the name of Dave Davidson (Anthony Michael Hall), after a seriously unfunny scene in which he tells Dave's secretary (a cameo by Drew Barrymore) that Dave's wife has died. His cartoons do not get a good reception, and soon Gord is back off home to live with his parents, who are utterly sick of the sight of him. After his best friend, Darren (Harland Williams), injures himself on the skateboard ramp that he is building at what looks like three in the morning, Gord meets a young woman in the hospital whom he starts dating in spite of her paraplegic status.

    Unfortunately, this results in running unfunny gag number one: I'm not a medical expert by any means, but I do believe that people with paralysis would not allow someone to strike their legs with a bamboo stick as is done at 28:02. When you have no feeling in your legs, it's somewhat hard to tell if they have become bruised, cut, or otherwise injured, and if they get infected in the process, well, I'm sure you can figure the rest out. Still, despite this, I found Julie (Julie Hagerty) to be the one thing worth watching in this cow pie. The second unfunny gag is when Gord and his parents go to see a family counsellor, only to have Gord tell said counsellor that his father "fingered" Freddy (Eddie Kaye Thomas). Child abuse is not a laughing matter, Tom Green, and I am sure the dedicated souls who work to protect children from it in spite of the system would agree with me. Come to think of it, neither is molesting animals - it is just plain sick.

    You're probably wondering about now exactly why I volunteered to review this pungent little t***, and the answer is as simple as this film - I was thinking to myself that Tom Green's antics on-screen cannot possibly be that bad. Well, friends and neighbours, they are, and to be quite frank, if I were confronted in the street by this man in the style of his cable show, I would probably beat the living **** out of him. Anyone who bases a career upon frightening and bullying small animals or people who can't speak English is a complete wimp, end of story. Now that I've expended my breath on all that, let's dive right into the transfer.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    The theory goes that the worst programmes get the best presentation on DVD, and here is exhibit A.

    The transfer is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced.

    This is a very sharp transfer, with plenty of detail for you to get to see just how sick and perverted Tom Green can really be (and this is coming from a guy who thinks of parts of RoboCop or The Evil Dead as comedy). There is one mildly funny moment where one crowd member holds up a sign that says "when the **** is this movie going to end?", and this sign is quite readable. The shadow detail is good, and there is no low-level noise.

    The colours in this transfer are well represented, with no composite artefacts or smearing in sight.

    MPEG artefacts were not apparent in this transfer. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some very minor aliasing on a car at 5:37 and a bed at 37:09. There were a few minor film artefacts, but nothing too offensive, unlike the content.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are very accurate to the spoken dialogue, so such viewers can also get to see how offensive this film really is.

    This disc is RSDL formatted, but I had trouble locating the layer change.

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

Audio

    There are three soundtracks on this disc: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 384 kilobits per second, an English audio commentary in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding at 96 kilobits per second, and finally an English Alternate Audio soundtrack in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding at 192 kilobits per second. I listened to the English dialogue and sampled about half of the other two soundtracks.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, with the only exception being when Tom Green mumbles or otherwise acts like an idiot. There were no discernable problems with audio sync.

    The music in this film is mostly made up of contemporary numbers, with the first off the rank being one by the Sex Pistols. I guess Green waved a fair wad of cash in front of John Lydon, because I cannot imagine any other reason why Lydon would endorse this atrocity. The rest of the music is pretty forgettable, much like the film.

    The surround channels were used extensively to support ambient and directional effects in the film, with a disembodied voice at 15:23 seeing the most creative use of the surrounds.

    The subwoofer was used sparingly to support the occasional bass-heavy effect, such as the nail gun at 18:45. It supported the soundtrack well without calling undue attention to itself.

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

Extras

    Not only did I have to suffer through the film itself, but I had to evaluate all of these lovely extras for you readers out there. The things I do...

Menu

    The menu is static, 16x9 Enhanced, and unremarkable.

Audio Commentary - Tom Green (Idiot)

    Normally, I enjoy audio commentaries, but where do you begin when you are listening to the creator of a piece of filth like this? It is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 with surround-encoding, and sounds rather tinny due to being compressed down to a mere 96 kilobits per second.

Alternate Audio - World Premiere Laugh Track

    This Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded alternate audio track is handy as a guide to working out what the hell you're supposed to be laughing at.

Featurette - Rated PG Version

    This three minute and nineteen second version of the film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced. I never thought I would say I enjoyed the MPAA-approved version of a film more than the director's vision, but here it is.

Featurette

    This four minute and nineteen second featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Essentially, it is an extended theatrical trailer.

Theatrical Trailer

    The two minute and sixteen second theatrical trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio.

TV Spots

    A collection of four TV spots, all presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio. All of them run for thirty seconds except the first, which runs for sixteen seconds.

Featurette - MTV: Freddy Got Fingered Movie Special

    This twenty minute and forty second featurette is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio. It basically shows people on the set, trying to act.

Deleted Scenes

    Six deleted scenes are presented under this menu in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio, and they are not 16x9 Enhanced. Their total running length is eight minutes and fifteen seconds.

Cast & Crew Biographies

    Biographies for Tom Green, Rip Torn, Harland Williams, Julie Hagerty, Marisa Coughlin, and Eddie Kaye Thomas are presented under this submenu.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

    Unless you really want this film and the extra 64 kilobits, I would declare both versions as equal. Therefore, my recommendation is to buy neither disc. Trust me, you will be better for it.

Summary

    Freddy Got Fingered is the first film I have ever encountered that, for eighty-four minutes, made me wish the film camera had never been invented, and this is coming from a fan of such lousy films as Rebel High or Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle Of Death. CNN described it as being the single worst film ever released by a major studio in Hollywood's history. There is no way you can get the time back - avoid this piece of puke at all costs.

    The video transfer is excellent.

    The audio transfer is excellent.

    The extras are numerous.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Dean McIntosh (Don't talk about my bio. We don't wanna know.)
Saturday, April 27, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 2109, using S-Video output
DisplaySamsung CS-823AMF (80cm). Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationSony STR DE-835
SpeakersYamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NSC-120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer

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