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Ian Stanley reviews
VCI
- Cert:
- Cat.no: VCD0162
- Running time: 116 minutes
- Year: 1994
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 19
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Fullscreen: 1.33:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £14.99
- Extras: None
Director:
- Rupert Edwards
(It’s Just A Ride)
Chris Bould (Revelations)
This disc contains two different programs. The first, Its Just A Ride, is a documentary and the second is Revelations, the concert film made at the Dominion Theatre.
Its Just A Ride is an excellent documentary, made after his death and shown on Channel 4 before a repeat of Revelations It is a retrospective of his life and career and contains contributions from friends, family, fellow stand-up comedians and luminaries such as Jay Leno and Dave Letterman. All this is interspersed with clips of his routines taken from a number of sources at various points of his career. It runs for just over 41 minutes.
This video edition of Revelations contains material that was too explicit to be shown on T.V but has also had material, that was in the TV version, deleted from it. It was missing on the VHS version and it has not been reinstated on this DVD, its a bit of a shame that Channel 4/VCI didnt take the opportunity to create a definitive version. There arent huge chunks missing, just some odd lines and nice little pieces of audience interaction, mainly from the earlier portions of the show.
Unlike the HBO show, this is Hicks at his rawest and most obscene, I almost choked when I first heard the Goatboy routine. Topics covered in this show include British Pornography, The L.A. Riots, Drugs, The Arms To Iraq Scandal, The JFK Assassination, Teenage Girls, Violence in movies and even Michael Douglas ass, amongst others!
Its best to see Bill Hicks in this uncensored form, its fun to see him turn the obscenity (if thats the right word) level of the material up a notch to get a reaction from the audience. The squeals during the Goatboy routine, and also one when talent free people have to orally please Satan to become famous, always bring a smile to my face.
As with the One Night Stand disc, both programs here were recorded on video for broadcast on television. It is in it’s original full screen ratio and comes with stereo sound. Both picture and sound are more than adequate for their purposes, I noticed no compression problems and there were no tape defects this time.
Again, as with the ‘One Night Stand’ disc, we will find no extras here. The documentary is also awkwardly placed as the first chapter on the disc, meaning that if you want to just watch the concert you will have to go into the ‘Chapter Menu’ and select ‘Chapter 2.’ Not exactly the hardest task in the world, but for convenience, it would have been nicer to be able to select either program from the Main Menu screen. Also having no Chapter breaks in the 41 minute documentary is a bit stingy. To be honest, I get the impression that no effort at all has gone into producing this DVD. They have simply whacked the contents of the VHS onto a disc, chucked on a basic menu and a couple of chapter stops… That’s it Also, Hearing Impaired fans of Bill Hicks will have to be good at lip-reading as there are no subs of any kind provided here.
Considering the relationship that Bill Hicks had with Channel 4, the lack of effort comes as somewhat of a disappointment. To be honest though, ‘lack of effort’ kind of sums up Channel 4 now anyway, I don’t think Hicks would recognize it now from what it was 10 years ago. Once a place for challenging television it now stands as a repository for cheap, tacky reality TV shows… Whoops Wrong meeting again!
I cant stress enough how funny this show is. If, from my description, you think this show could be for you then I say “Buy it now” dont hesitate another second!
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
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0 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.