Tackle Happy (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Tony Martin & Mick Malloy (Director) Featurette-Puppetry Of The Penis Slide Show Featurette-Bonus Tricks (4) Notes-CD (with audio-only samples) Trailer-Shonky Golf DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	74:17
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Mick Molloy
Studio Distributor	Radiant Industries Madman Entertainment	Starring	Simon Morley David Friend Mick Molloy Tony Martin Darren Chow Richard Molloy Stephen Curry
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Gareth Skinner

    From humble origins, the show was premiered at the 1997 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The performers then decided to take it on the road via their ageing Kombi, and Tackle Happy follows their travels around the coast of Australia from Melbourne to Perth. They are accompanied by their faithful sound and camera man Chowie, and later by Stephen Curry as they make their way from pubs to nudist colonies to the back of a truck performing their extremely unique show to all manner of people.

    Recorded on what appears to be a home style video camera by the roadie, Chowie, the entire documentary has something of an amateur home video feel about it. It has been well edited, though, and Morley's weekly telephone calls to the Martin Molloy radio show are used to give some structure to the chaos. As with the stage show, the documentary is somewhat one-joke, and I felt that a little more investigation into the dynamic between the travelling companions (which is touched upon) would have made for a more interesting documentary piece. As it stands, it gets a little repetitive (I don't know about you, but there is a limit to the amount of time that I can stare a p**** in the face) and thankfully it is kept down to a reasonable 74 minutes or so, but some of the tricks are truly amazing, and Puppetry of the P**** seems to be as good a subject for a documentary as any.

Video

    For the most part, when the conditions are right, the video is clear and sharp. Whenever the light drops, though, the grain creeps in fairly quickly, and due to the nature of the show that it follows, much of the video is taken in darkness. Especially grainy are the shows themselves, and this gives the entire documentary a somewhat amateur video feel. Shadow detail was a little variable, especially during some of the overexpose shots in the night-spots. There was no low level noise.

    Colour was a little muted, again, especially in the low light shots. The outdoor stuff (especially in bright daylight) was just fine, although much of the travelling shots feature mainly browny tones. Some of the stage sequences are overexposed leading to a real wash out of the colour at those times.

    I didn't spot any MPEG artefacts, but there were some instances of aliasing. These occurred on an air conditioner at 17:05 and the buildings around a city skyline at around the 19:00 mark. The Kombi also caused a little trouble (around the windows) and much of the feature is set inside it. There were no videotape artefacts to speak of.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    At times, the dialogue was a little muffled, but this was also related to the fact that it was recorded via a camcorder.

    There were no audio sync issues to report.

    There isn't really much in the way of a score per se, but rather, there is a collection of songs from a variety of artists, including the theme song from Gareth Skinner, as well as DerBrains and Grand Theft Auto. It does give the action a bit of a kick along at times, and you can't really ask much more than that.

    The surrounds and subwoofer kept themselves entertained by watching the screen, and offered nothing of a sonic nature to the performance.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Audio Commentary - Mick Molloy (Director), Tony Martin (Sidekick)

Select-A-Trick

Puppetry of the P**** Slide Show (2:27)

Bonus Tricks

Tackle Happy CD

Shonky Golf Preview

DVD Credits

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall