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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-Something Smells Funny (2000)

The Tom Green Show-Something Smells Funny (2000)

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Released 13-Feb-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Featurette-Picture Gallery
Notes-Timeline
Featurette-Production Team on Tom
Biographies-Cast
DVD Credits
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 58:48
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Ray Hagel
Studio
Distributor
MTR Entertainment
Madman Entertainment
Starring Tom Green
Glenn Humplik
Phil Giroux
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI $28.95 Music Tom Green


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, during and after credits

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

Plot Synopsis

    This is the first disc I have reviewed, and it was a tough one. I found some of the content offensive, and most of it asinine, but that's just my opinion. Let's look at it another way. On the front cover of this DVD is a quote from Rolling Stone; they called it "Purile, Unpredictable. Genius" - interesting spelling of "puerile". On the back cover is a quote from Mike Bullard, Open Mike: "I threw up for Ten Minutes." - not encouraging.

    I haven't seen The Tom Green Show, but I get the impression that it is the show you should watch if you think that Candid Camera, or, more appropriately, Sam Newman's Street Talk (The Footy Show, AFL version) doesn't go far enough, or if you think South Park is too politically correct.

    There is some studio content, and some direct-to-camera, but a fair bit is vox-pop - confronting people in the street and getting their reactions.

    This disc is just under 59 minutes long, and it has 34 chapter stops - that's 1:44 minutes per stop. It is a series of grabs from the show, with no connection between them. Six of the grabs are out-takes, and one is "banned from TV". If you were familiar with the show, then this disc might bring back memories (nightmares?). If you are not, then it will come across as disjointed, with some of the scenes making little or no sense at all. Some examples are:

    "Mustard Inspector" - Tom Green, in a white coat, enters unsuspecting supermarkets to inspect their mustard. Apparently inspecting mustard involves gargling it, having it poured all over your body, and wiped all over your face. Unfortunately it was sweet American mustard - it would have been funnier with English mustard.

    "Hip Hop Camping" - Tom Green, as a character, attempts to show how to go camping. He tries, unsuccessfully, to light a camp fire, open a can of beans, and get a drink from a cactus. His lack of success may be attributed to attempting to light the camp fire with a stick of dynamite, to attempting to open the can of beans with a stick of dynamite (he did blow the label off, but only dented the can), and to break open the cactus with a large stick of dynamite. This sounds funny, but it wasn't.

    "Burning Feet Man" - Tom Green wraps his shoes in rags, douses them with gasoline, and sets fire to them. He runs around, playing a super-hero to bemused passers-by. He needs his feet extinguished at regular intervals.

    "Cow Brain Boat" - Tom Green, playing a character, demonstrates how to build a model boat from cow brains. This is possibly the most tasteless scene, as it has him beating on four severed cows' heads with a baseball bat and an axe.

    "Glenn's Tattoo" - Tom Green plays a guitar and sings a song about children to his co-host's bare buttocks which have a felt pen drawing of Tom Green's face on them - this drawing is supposed to be a tattoo.

    "Slutmobile" - Tom Green gets an airbrush artist to paint a pornographic scene on the bonnet of his parents' car, captioned "Slutmobile". He is surprised when his parents are unimpressed.

    "Cooking Tips" - Tom Green's co-host pours, squirts, and throws food all over Tom Green, who is running through the audience. Some of the foodstuffs include flour, oil, eggs, and what looked like raspberry cordial. The audience members get liberally bedaubed.

    This material is not a coherent whole. It is much more like a "deleted scenes" extra. Perhaps they left the programme off this disc, and all we got was the extra?

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

Transfer Quality

Video

    A lot of this material has been filmed outside, using portable cameras. I would guess that all of it was recorded on videotape. That given, the video quality is quite high - all in all this is a good transfer of TV material.

    The entire DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced, which is to be expected for a TV programme.

    The image is not razor sharp, but offers perfectly acceptable sharpness, although not as good as you would get from film-sourced material. It is clear throughout. Shadow detail is acceptable for videotape-sourced material. There is little apparent low level noise.

    Colour levels were good, with no hint of oversaturation.

    There were few artefacts to be seen, the most noticeable being the occasional touch of aliasing, most noticeably at 18:56 on a corrugated iron fence, but nothing serious.

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

Audio

    A lot of this material has been filmed outside, using hand-held microphones. There is no ADR looping here. Considering that, the sound quality is quite acceptable.

    The only soundtrack on this disc is a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English track, which of course is the one I listened to.

    Dialogue was clear and easily understood except in a few cases (Tom Green speaking while running a loud petrol motor, for example). There were no visible audio sync problems.

    There was very little music, and what there was rarely called attention to itself.

    My surround speakers and subwoofer took the night off, but they weren't missed; there were a few explosions that could have used the subwoofer, but nothing special.

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

Extras

    There is a reasonable selection of extras for a disc of TV programming. If you consider the main item an extra, as I suggest, then there's a good selections of extras, but no programme.

Menu

    The menu is a static picture with no sound. It offers only three entries: Play, Scenes, and Extras. There is no language selection because there is only one soundtrack, in English Dolby Digital 2.0. There is no subtitle selection because there are no subtitles..

Picture Gallery

    This is a sequence of stills, with various transitions between them and music playing in the background. Most of the photos are from scenes we haven't seen on the disc.

Timeline

    This is a sequence of text frames detailing Tom Green's rise to "fame". A slightly more detailed version of his bio, with bigger dates.

Production Crew on Tom

    This featurette has some of the crew talking about Tom and his show. They concentrate on a segment which isn't shown elsewhere on the disc, but excerpts of it are shown here. A warning - the sound level on this featurette is far higher than anywhere else on the disc - about 15dB higher - reduce your volume before starting this.

Bios

    There are only three bios here: Phil Giroux, Tom Green, and Glenn Humplik.

DVD Credits

    This still frame is the credits for the Australian DVD production team, both Siren and Madman.

R4 vs R1

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

    There is no Region 1 version of this disc, although there are two other Tom Green discs available in Region 1.

Summary

    Something Smells Funny, for me, was tasteless, unfunny, and pretty much a waste of time. Strictly for fans of the show only.

    The video quality is quite good, considering that it comes from videotape.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    The extras are fine - more than I'd expect for a TV programme.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Sunday, February 18, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-737, using Component output
DisplaySony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 (280cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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