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Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell

Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ferrell deserves two DVDs
Review: This was a DVD that had to be made, and everyone knows it. Sketches include:
--Anti-drug school assembly musical number
--Blue Oyster Cult ("I need more cowbell!" shouts Christopher Walken)
--Robert Goulet infomercial for his CD
--Craig the cheerleader working a chess match
--Ferrell as: George Bush, Janet Reno (boxing Rudy Giuliani), Saddam Hussein (on 3 way phone call with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky)
--As James Lipton of Inside the Actor's Studio interviewing Alec Baldwin

--His Harry Caray impression
--As Alex Trebek on Jeopardy, with contestants including Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds
--As professor Roger and his hot-to-trot wife Virginia in the hot tub, harrassing poor business traveler Doug (Jimmy Fallon)
--As one of the Roxbury brothers with Jim Carrey and Chris Kattan
--Substitute art class nude model Terrence Maddox
--Infomercial for Dissing Your Dog
--Weekend update special guest Jacob Silj
--Father of a dysfunctional family with Sarah Michelle Gellar as his rebellious teenage daughter

Extra features include his SNL audition routine (he does his Harry Caray, a Ted Kennedy, and some original characters), two Conan O'Brien guest appearances, some outtakes, and one hilarious dress sketch which never made the final show in which he played Old Prospector Gus Chiggins, assigned to accompany an army unit into Afghanistan.

You know this stuff is good--in half the sketches, the other actors are sobbing they're trying so hard not to laugh. Especially Jimmy Fallon, who finds Ferrell so funny he snorts out half his lines. And through it all, Ferrell stays in character, fully committed. As James Lipton would say, "What courage! What humanity! We are in the presence...of greatness!"

But any Ferrell fan will instantly rattle off several classic Ferrell sketches which are missing: Doug, the face of erectile dysfunction; the bad doctor; the commercial for the hamburger helper mix with antibacterial agents for weeks old ground beef, etc. NBC really needs to honor Will's body of work by issuing a second volume, or a box set, even. Such work must not be relegated to the whims of Comedy Central reruns.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Could have been much better
Review: This DVD is great, but could've been much better. At only 75 minutes, SNL/NBC are giving a [weak] product. Of course Will Ferrell doesn't disappoint at all on this though. Skits include:

-Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult ("more cowbell")
-Spartan Cheerleaders @ a chess match
-"Dissing Your Dog" commercial
-Harry Carey show
-the annoying lovers (with Rachel Dratch)
-the pretentious NYC store clerks (with Jimmy Falon & Sean Hayes)
-the bum as the nude art school model (can't remember his name)
-fishing with Bush Jr & Sr
-Jeopardy with "Burt Reynolds" "French Stewart" and "Sean Connery"
-Robert Goulet does gangsta rap
-Bobby & Marty Culp at the Drug Awareness seminar
-Inside the Actors Studio w/Charles Nelson Riley
-Roxbury guys with Jim Carrey

the extras are pretty cool..especially the deleted skit with the "old prospector." I think that's the funniest thing on the whole DVD. It also has Will's "tryout" with SNL, and 2 Conan O'Brien appearances.

But what is missing is the Neil Diamond Storytellers. I can't believe they left that off. SNL/NBC really could have given everyone a quality product but they just phoned it in.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: I am the biggest Will Ferrell fan that I know. So, you could image how excited I was when I heard that the Best of Will Ferrell was coming out on DVD. I picked it up the day it came out, and the second I got home I watched the whole thing through, that is to all 8 or so skits. Not only was it hugely lacking in length, but so many of his most brilliant performances, like the unibomber at his high school reunion, and many others that I can't think of off hand, wheren't included. And, the producers of Will Ferrell's best of managed to pick the worst of his cheerleader and morning talk show skits. The fact of the matter is that Will Ferrell is funny in everything he does. So, the one deciding factor in why not to purchase this dvd is that there are such few skits showed. You will see more of Will Ferrell just watching the SNL reruns on Comedy Central in one night.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not sure about 'Best Of', but still funny
Review: Like most Saturday Night Live 'Best Of' compilations, it would be more accurate to call this a random sampling of Will Ferrell skits than his greatest ones. How else do you explain the fact that there are throw away skits like the dysfunctional family, yet only brief clips of him doing George Bush and Janet Reno, among others. Also there are a few skits on this that are also on the Best of SNL 96-97 tape.
With that said, this DVD does have enough funny skits and redeeming value to make it worth checking out. You can't go wrong with him playing a flustered Alex Trebeck in 'Celebrity Jeopardy;' his Marty Culp the singing/preaching principal is also always good for a laugh. Both longtime fans and those who don't know Ferrell's work as well will appreciate the range, audacity, and irreverence of the characters he played.
There are also some good extra features, including two very funny apperances on Conan O'Brien. Again this is not perfect, but still is well worth a look.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "I Gotta Have More Cowbell"
Review: The only reason I'm not giving this DVD a five-star rating is that I was never a fan of the Lovers sketches and they include two of them here (one from the show and one from a bloopers segment).
I am giving it the full four-stars for the Celebrity Jeopardy (always a classic), Ferrell's always side-splitting impersonation of Harry Carray, Robert Goulet singing rap (and Ferrell appearing on Conan O'Brien as Goulet), James Lipton from "Inside the Actor's Studio" (although I preferred the Toby Maguire as Screech better), and a VH-1 parody of "Behind the Music" where the always-hysterical Christopher Walken insists on more cowbell for a Blue Oyster Cult recording. There are several more very funny ones but these are my faves.
Other really interesting segments includes a sketch cut during dress rehearsal and Will Ferrell's actual audition tape.
I'm looking forward to other SNL Best Of editions if they're as decked out with extras.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The phrase "Best of" is used rather loosely...
Review: I'm a big Will Ferrell fan. But if you're going to make a single DVD claiming "The Best of Will Ferrell" it should include better selections. I was pretty suprised to see many of my favorites missing.

This DVD has sketches including many of your favorite Will Ferrell characters, but I would not say they're the best sketches with these characters... Sometimes the audience barely laughs through the whole scene. Shouldn't that be a major indication that the sketch isn't that great?

Some of the sketches are totally incomplete and only feature very short portions of the scene. Why? The DVD doesn't even have a very long playing time. They could've easily fit in more video.

But that being said, it does feature some humorous sketches. I enjoyed watching the scenes where they would bust out laughing.

In the end, this DVD is just too short and would benefit from some better sketch selections. I wonder which sketches Will Ferrell would choose as his favorites? Would be interesting to know.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Get Of The &%$#@ Shed!!"
Review: Watching this DVD you realize that Will is a true Comedic acting genius. The extras are worth the price of the DVD. I just wish the DVD was longer. Hopefully they'll release a Vol. 2. All the great political sketches were left off DVD (Bush, Janet Reno). Also, they left off the funniest Jeopardy sketch, the one where Sean Connery writes "Buckfudder".

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The phrase "Best of" is used rather loosely...
Review: I'm a big Will Ferrell fan. But if you're going to make a single DVD claiming "The Best of Will Ferrell" it should include better selections. I was pretty suprised to see many of my favorites missing.

This DVD has sketches including many of your favorite Will Ferrell characters, but I would not say they're the best sketches with these characters... Sometimes the audience barely laughs through the whole scene. Shouldn't that be a major indication that the sketch isn't that great?

Some of the sketches are totally incomplete and only feature very short portions of the scene. Why? The DVD doesn't even have a very long playing time. They could've easily fit in more video.

But that being said, it does feature some humorous sketches. I enjoyed watching the scenes where they would bust out laughing.

In the end, this DVD is just too short and would benefit from some better sketch selections. I wonder which sketches Will Ferrell would choose as his favorites? Would be interesting to know.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Liked it a lot
Review: I must admit I'm not the biggest SNL fan in the world and I don't watch it every week. I do remeber seeing Will Ferrell on there a lot when I did watch and I love the movies he's doing now. This DVD is missing some stuff like the 2000 Election skits but there are pletny of notable skits here.

The Blue Oyster Cult skit with Christopher Walken is excellent. I was rolling over in pain he was so funny. All the guys on the set were laughing and they couldn't even look him in the face.

Craig the Cheerleader is great. He was great as the cheerleader and it's one of the funnier skits on the best of. Will and Cheri Oteri are great together. The skit they do as the singing teachers is great also. Great parodies.

I was disappointed their wasn't a whole lot of Bush stuff. He was great as George and there is only a brief moment he is on there doing him.

I was disappointed they didn't do the whole dress down patriotic skit with Sean William Scott. Will is great in that g-string panty thing he is wearing. That was one of the funniest skits I've ever seen and I wish there would have been more of it.

There is a Jeopardy skit on there. It's not the funniest one they ever did, but it did have Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds in it, so you know it's going to be good.

This isn't as good as I hoped it would have been, but I love it a lot. It's a must for Will's SNL fans and I think his newer fans will like it a lot as well.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good extras help bolster good main feature.
Review: As many have stated, some great moments from Will Ferrel on SNL have been left off this disc(you can't please everyone, and you certainly can't put all of his best on one disc-esp. at only 72 minutes). While I agree some better stuff was left off, what is here is a good selection of skits(including two of my faves...Will as the devil trying to make a hit song for Garth Brooks and the 'more cowbell' session with Chris Walken). However, whatever is lacking in some skits in the main feature, is more than made up for in the extras. They include:

* audition: here he does Harry Carey(sp), the "get off the shed!" dad, and his cat playing with a toy impression. it's just a curiosity piece really, but interesting to watch once.

* photo gallery: nicely done, but only a handful of pics! seems like an afterthought really.

* dress rehearsal: an "old prospector in the military" skit. this one was funny mainly because Will(as he usually does) was cracking everyone up in this segment. worth at least a few views.

* outtakes: here we go...some great stuff here. it only lasts a few minutes, but has some LOL moments!

* tv appearances: 2 from Conan. one has him doing his Robert Goulet persona throughout, the other has him promoting his Roxbury film(in that revealing outfit, then doing his 'Patton' speech audition). Both segments are shown in their entirety surprisingly.

True, the outtakes coulda been longer and more 'never seen' skits coulda been included, and the best Will Ferrel/Conan segments(Will as the 'sexy' leprechaun) coulda been shown; but perhaps a best of Will Ferrel V.2 will handle all that? Here's hoping. Still, with what is included in the main feature, some really worthwhile extras, and at a good price; this come as a highly recommended purchase that you'll definitely watch over and over.


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