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Dom Robinson reviews
Universal Pictures UK
Doing Life (2007 DVD): 
Live (2006 DVD):
My Booky Wook:
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 8253974
- Running time: 63 minutes
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 8 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 16:9 (1.78:1)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: The Russell Brand Show (Radio 2), Friday Night with Jonathan Ross interview, Backstage at the Hackney Empire,3 sketches
Director:
- Mick Thomas
(TV: The Big Fat Quiz of the Year, The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz 2007, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Time After Time, Watchdog)
For example, I loved his Ponderland series on Channel 4 recently, and I’d enjoy the occasional episode ofhim on Big Brother’s Big Mouth, but not for the whole series. He’s best at observational comedy and thisgets mostly overlooked by the media in favour of rabbiting on endlessly about his apparent highly-charged sexlife.
Topics featured in this gig include his new boots, his attempting to give the audience an orgasm, Russellleafing through the Hackney Gazette from the day of recording, The Brit Awards, and Chip & PIN machines, includinghow the shopkeeper turns away with a Duran Duran ‘Wild Boys’-style head movement.
He also talks about why are Dad’s willies more brown than your own when you’re a child – something also broughtup on Ponderland, as was talking about holidaying near where you live and how disappointing it is that you’ve nottravelled very far so it doesn’t feel like a holiday as well as also pretending to be surprised when yourgrandparents visit you, even though it’s hardly a chore for them to travel over there. However, he only toucheson those things here, and on the show he devoted a whole programme to each topic, so don’t get worried thinkingyou’ve seen it all before, because you haven’t.
On the downside, given the title this live stand-up film, recorded at the Hackney Empire, London, has a prisonsetting… even though no mention is made of this so it doesn’t have any particular relevance. Also, why don’twe get to see the whole gig? It only runs for 63 minutes and I can see that some editing has been done to tidyup some areas of it so things run smoothly, but fans have paid full price so why not release the full gig, evenas an extra? Seamless-branching could be used so that the 63-minute version could easily be achieved withouthaving to have two copies of the film on the disc.
And another downer – Why are there no subtitles? He’s a funny guy but he often talks ten-to-the-dozen and theyare required for times like that.
However, I’ll end this section on a positive as I love the fact Russell said he tried to chat up Mila Kunis (akaMeg from Family Guy) on the set of the movie they filmed together in Hawaii, Forgetting SarahMarshall, but then she revealed she has a boyfriend, and he says, “How long is it polite, to continue*pretending* to be interested in what someone says after they reveal they’ve got a boyfriend?….I think it’s 11 seconds(!)”
“My Booky Wook
There’s some good extras on this DVD, running for a total of 54 minutes, thus aiding the value of the disc:
- The Russell Brand Show (Radio 2) (30:22):Point a camera on Russell, with his radio show crew, and film him as he goes out on air live. That’s thejist of this section, which is presented in a pseudo 2.35:1 widescreen ratio in a sepia-toned image, andit works just as well as the segment in the live DVD where he’s rummaging through the local paper, as hereads out emails from listeners and reacts to them.
Russell’s co-host Matt is away and he needs someone to help him. Someone suggests he gets Noel Fielding,star of The Mighty Boosh and who co-starred with Russell on Channel 4’s 2006 The Big Fat Quiz OfThe Year, and that’s the man who’s with him.
- Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (14:19):Although he was on the show the Friday before the release of this DVD, this clip is Russell Brand’s interviewon June 22nd earlier this year. This clip is presented in 16:9 anamorphic as filmed and Brand absolutely runsrings around Ross here.
- Backstage at the Hackney Empire – One Hour Until the Show Starts (4:31):Done in the same style as the Radio 2 clip,
- Sketch 1: Nativity Live (1:08):A spoof fly-on-the-wall sketch all that’s wrong with TV today mixed with Xmas. Very funny 🙂
- Sketch 2: Secret Lives (2:30):What a 31-year-old plasterer gets up to in his spare time…
- Sketch 3: Channel Swim (1:08):Russell attempts to out-do David Walliams when it comes to swimming the Channel.
The main menu features a loop of soundbites from the show, there are a mere 8 chapters to break up the act,plus a couple here and there for the longer supplementals, but, alas, no subtitles.
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.