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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.
The Tom Green Show-Tonsil Hockey (2000)

The Tom Green Show-Tonsil Hockey (2000)

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Released 24-Oct-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Gallery
Notes-Timeline
Featurette-Production Crew On Tom
Biographies-Cast
DVD Credits
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 60:31
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By None Given
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Tom Green
Case Click
RPI $29.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    If you are a fan of Tom Green, then perhaps you should scroll down to the rest of the review, because this is not going to be pretty.

    Tom Green-Tonsil Hockey is one of the most offensive things I have seen in a long time. I thought that the world had moved on from this type of behaviour. Obviously I was wrong.

    Tom Green is not funny. In an attempt to become funny, he crosses many boundaries that should not be crossed. I suppose his style of humour would be called 'shock humour' or something similar. The show consists of a series of skits, usually out in public where Green performs some bizarre act. Examples of this include finding a poor person on the street that does not speak English and proceeding to humiliate and harass them. Even if this behaviour was permissible at some level he continues on far past this point in both the time he does it for and the level to which he takes it. Further examples include taking a broken bike and putting red paint all over himself to simulate an accident and then seeing who stops to help. We continue in the same vein, finding people to make uncomfortable and humiliate. He is also cruel to animals. He chases a wounded pigeon into a bank full of people just to film the results. The bird is obviously terrified as people chase it around the bank. He turns a CO2 fire extinguisher on a cat, and so on. He finishes the show by getting under a cow and sucking on its udders.

    This guy can't even fill 60 minutes with what he calls humour. Some of the skits repeat and others, given that they exist, go on for far too long. Far beyond what even someone that might find this stuff funny would regard as acceptable.

    I personally do not understand where this behaviour comes from or where it finds a market. Green is Canadian but I think his show airs in the USA. There seems to be a move towards this on-street, humiliation type humour, particularly in the USA.

    I also do not think that a disc with a person simulating sex with a dead moose at the side of the road should only be rated M.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The majority of the material is captured outside using a small handy cam and the results are about what you would expect. Focus is somewhat variable, sometimes losing it completely, and the quality is not the best.

    We are presented with a 1.33:1 transfer that is not 16x9 enhanced. It is reasonable to assume that this is the original format.

    Sharpness is lacking. We hover around VHS quality throughout this disc. There is a reasonable amount of low level noise, though not as much as I might have expected from a small video camera. Shadow detail is about at the same level, and not particularly good.

    The colours are lacking, again reminding me of VHS.

    Considering they had only an hour of material to fit on a whole side of a DVD, the fact that there is macro-blocking and posterization present is interesting, particularly on moving objects such as Green at 2:41.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

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

Audio

    There is a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack on this DVD which appears to be mono.

    There are no problems with the main dialogue. Green is easy to understand throughout. Some of the people that he harasses are hard to understand as they are trying to get away from Green and are not near the handheld microphone. The audio is in sync.

    There is very little music other than some muzak in the background.   

    There is no surround nor subwoofer use.

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

Extras

   

Menu

    The menu is a single static graphic with no music.

Production Crew Interview:

    This is an interview with some of the production crew from the show interspersed with footage from the show. Even the crew is somewhat surprised at the antics of Green. It runs for 4:35.

Stills:

    A series of stills that stay on screen for a couple of seconds accompanied by some music. This runs for 59 seconds.

Time Line

    A series of text pages covering the time line of the career of Green.

Bios

    The usual series of text pages of cast and crew biographies.

DVD credits

    A single page listing the producer and other staff responsible for authoring the DVD.

R4 vs R1

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

    There does not appear to be a Region 1 version of this DVD. There is an NTSC VHS tape available.

Summary

    Tom Green-Tonsil Hockey is certainly not my kind of humour, though from the customer reviews on places like Amazon, some do find this type of material funny. A total of 29 people have voted for this title on the Internet Movie DB and have given it a total of 7.9.

    The video quality is not much better than a VHS tape.

    The audio is good considering the source material.

    The extras would be of interest to a fan, if a little lacking in quantity.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Terry McCracken (read my bio)
Saturday, November 03, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDSkyworth 1050p progressive scan, using RGB output
DisplaySony 1252Q CRT Projector, 254cm custom built 1.0 gain screen. Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre.
AmplificationSony STR-DB1070
SpeakersB&W DM305 (mains); CC3 (centre); S100 (surrounds); custom Adire Audio Tempest with Redgum plate amp (subwoofer)

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