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Dom Robinson reviews
EDtvDistributed by
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: UDR 90038
- Running time: 118 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 18 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, German
- Subtitles: 11 languages available.
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Deleted Scenes, Featurette: Caught in theCamera’s Eye, Outtakes, Production Notes, Music Highlights, Cast andFilmmakers, Weblink, 2 Audio Commentaries
Director:
- Ron Howard
(Apollo 13, Backdraft, Cocoon, EDtv, Far and Away, Grand Theft Auto,Gung Ho, Night Shift, The Paper, Parenthood, Ransom, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,Splash, Willow)
Producers:
- Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Screenplay:
- Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel
Music:
- Randy Edelman
Cast:
- Ed Pekurny: Matthew McConaughey
Shari: Jenna Elfman
Ray Pekurny: Woody Harrelson
Jeanette: Sally Kirkland
Al: Martin Landau
Cynthia Topping: Ellen DeGeneres
Whitaker: Rob Reiner
Hank: Dennis Hopper
Jill: Elizabeth Hurley
John: Adam Goldberg
EDtv is what you get with no scripts, noedits, 24 hours a day, in what is lessTruman Showand moreBig Brother.
I first wanted to get the review of this DVD up online for when it was dueto come out in the shops, but circumstances such as a dead DVD-ROM decodingcard forced me to suspend all DVD reviews for a couple of weeks at the timeand some discs slipped into the back-catalogue round-up pile.
However, looking at the disc now, it proves that I could not have picked abetter time to review it and see the film for the first time.
Viewers of Channel 4 at the moment, mid-August 2000, have just experiencedthe first half of the nine-week run for the UK edition of Big Brother,a show that’s taken the world by storm and in this country, one man, dubbed”Nasty Nick”, was evicted for breaking the rules and showing pieces of paperto the other contestants one at a time, in a bid to vote out the right people,but the whole thing backfired as he was plugging different names to differentpeople and a kangaroo court on Thursday August 17th put paid to his game,causing him to leave later that day.
“I’ve… made a mistake”, blubbed 33-year-old marketing man NickBateman, to the Big Brother all-seeing eye. No you didn’t, Nick, you justbought yourself a shitload of TV contracts from now until doomsday, causingthe £70,000 first prize to be a drop in the ocean compared to yourpotential earnings, even if you are most definitely a plant from Channel 4however much he and brain-dead bimbo Davina McCall try to cover it up.
Well, since this review states EDtv at the top, I’d better talk aboutthe film itself too.
The real lives being tossed around here primarily feature video store clerkEd Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey), his elder, fitness fanatic, brotherRay (Woody Harrelson) and Ray’s girlfriend Shari (Dharma & Greg‘sJenna Elfman). As the TV cameras roll, it transpires that all thistime Ed and Shari have fallen for each other and when they kiss for the firsttime, it’s broadcast to the nation, including Ray’s TV.
Sally Kirkland plays their mother Jeanette, who laps it up for thecameras at first but is eventually found baring her soul like all the rest.Her wheelchair-bound husband – and the boys’ stepfather – Al (MartinLandau) is not long for this world and once the programme has begun,punters are already putting bets on how long he’s got left to go.
The show was the brain-child of wannabe-TV-exec Cynthia Topping (EllenDeGeneres), but naturally it’s her boss, Whitaker (Rob Reiner)who goes on to take the credit and you just know she’s going to get her ownback even if it is incredibly cliched.
Amongst all this are brief cameos from Dennis Hopper as Ray and Ed’s long-lostfather Hank, who turns up out of the blue after Ed begins his fame,Elizabeth Hurley, also getting just a couple of scenes, as Jill, whoonly wants to bed Ed as a way to further her onscreen career, the media-whoringtype that she is, Harry Shearer (The Simpsons‘ Kent Brockman)as the host of Late Show-a-like ViewPoint and Adam Goldberg asEd’s best friend John, who also took the role of Chandler’s flatmate for atime in Friends.
Add to this, cameos from people starring as themselves: RuPaul, Jay Leno,Michael Moore and Politically Incorrect‘s Bill Maher.
The picture is almost perfect, looking great as it goes with a 1.85:1anamorphic widescreen ratio save for a few flecks on the print.The average bitrate is a middling 5.34Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
I have no complaints with the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and everything is clearas a bell, but apart from the opening “True TV” titles, a scene at an icehockey match and some of the musical tracks, there’s not a great deal to gettoo attached to here.
Extras : Chapters :Just 18 chapters for this two-hour film. Not enough and it’d be nice forthe extras to get some too. Languages/Subtitles :Dolby Digital 5.1 in English and German.There are subtitles in 11 languages: English, German, Dutch, Swedish,Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Hebrew, Polish, Czech and Greek. And there’s more… :And it’s packed with some good extras too – a Theatrical Trailer,40 minutes of Deleted Scenes introduced by director Ron Howard,a Featurette: Caught in the Camera’s Eye lasting 31 minutes and mixingcast interviews and film clips, 8 minutes of Outtakes, mainly concentratingon ad-libbing when the actors’ fluffed their lines, the usual ProductionNotes, Cast and Filmmakers for many of the principal cast members,Music Highlights a la Out of Sight,which took you to that moment in the film when the song plays and aUniversal Pictures Weblink for those DVD-ROM-capable.
Finally, there are Two Audio Commentaries, one from director RonHoward and the other from Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel,its scriptwriters.
Menu :Static and silent with stills from the film. No big deal.
Overall, since I’ve experienced the realBig Brotherbefore I saw this, the differences between a programme that’s really notscripted compared with a film that will have had many treatments made standout a mile and while it was interesting to watch, it ultimately failed tograb my attention as much as the TV show does, particularly because not allof the actors are right for their parts.
Most of the male actors put theirtuppence-worth in, but Jenna Elfman doesn’t work and makes you feelshe really wants to be as good as Renee Zellweger was as the wantonwoman inJerry Maguire.And I must be the only bloke in the country who doesn’t find ElizabethHurley particularly attractive, but there we are.
Still, it has all the extras of the Region 1 DVD, save for promos fromBarenaked Ladies and Bon Jovi – so no real loss in the case ofthe latter then – and if you’re a fan of the film, it’s definitely worth apurchase.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.