Rating: 
Summary: Hotchie Motchie!
Review: Yet another late, great series on DVD that was cancelled all too soon. Remember when Fox used to take chances on edgy shows? This three-DVD set is just wonderful---Jay Sherman at his best. And unlike many other DVDs, the extras on these discs are actually worth watching. I particularly enjoyed the "Trailor Parodies," "Top Ten List" and "Web-isodes." This set is fun for the whole family (my ten-year-old loves it) and a must-buy for the cartoon fan.
Rating: 
Summary: If you love movies, you'll love this sitcom..
Review: The Critic is one of the most innovative cartoons in history. Ironically, it lasted two half-seasons, but it's cult following has grown immensely over the past 10 years. Jon Lovitz voices Jay Sherman, a loser turned movie critic who gets no respect from anyone. The best part of this show is the multitude of mid-90's movie parodies including Jurassic Park, The Piano, Silence of the Lambs, Wolf, Scent of a Woman, Lion King, Alien 3, and many others. Lovitz is perfect as the lovable loser, and many of life's lessons portrayed in the movies wind up happening to the main character.
The extras include cast and crew commentary on all episodes, a documentary and interviews. Fans of this show will automatically purchase this, the uninitiated should take a look and will be delighted I'm sure.
Rating:
Summary: No, it doesn't stink.
Review: Having these shows on DVD to enjoy whenever I want is a dream come true. When it was first on the air, I was 14-16. Now that I am older, and have seen a lot of the movies parodied, i can enjoy it more than I did ten years ago.I've read some reviews here on Amazon that said that it has aged. It has with some of the jokes, but most of the movies, when you see the parody, you remember what it is they are making fun of. Some jokes (like cracks at Rosanne) have aged, but not enough to ruin a great show. Pick this up, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: They Should Have Made More!!!
Review: The only downside to this collection is that they only made two seasons of shows. Next to the Simpsons, it's the best animated show that made great use of satire. Every time Jay takes a look at a new film...hilarious! I bought this yesterday, and I've already watched almost all of the episodes. It's worth every penny. Even if you aren't that familiar with the show, I can pretty much guarantee you'll love it if you're a Simpsons fan. Like cartoons, love satire, looking for some good laughs? The Critic is for you.
Rating:
Summary: $34.99 is a killer price for this AWESOME series!
Review: The commentary alone makes the series worth the buy. While they did more reminiscing and laughing, they did mention some juicy behind the scenes stuff. It's nice to know why ABC cancelled the show (too racy), why FOX picked it up (make it racy), and why they cancelled it (they didn't own it and as such couldn't profit much from it - the show did have plenty of viewers...) There's even a storyboard for an episode or two, these discs are jam-packed... The DVD's episode order must be in production order as the airdate order is quite different... I saw the FOX series halfway through its run and I loved it. It was so fresh, so different, so atypical of mainstream drivel. So naturally I'd love it. I'd never seen the ABC series until purcashing the set. I must say the ABC series is somewhat funnier and more relevant to/critical of the movie industry. The ABC series, which started it all, has some great episodes. The pilot sets it all up, followed by "Miserable" (it spoofs the movie "Misery" (as I think it was called) and has a lot of very funny moments), "Marathon Mensch", "A Pig-Boy and His Dog", "Eyes on the Prize" (my all time favorite), and "Every Doris Has Her Day". There really isn't a clunker amongst the bunch. The best FOX episodes to look out for are "Chunk to Hunk", "Dukearella", "Ladyhawke", "All the Duke's Men", and "Frankie and Ellie get Lost". They come to mind as being utter classics, and the Star Trek TNG parody in "Sherman of Arabia" is NOT to be missed! (it was so nice, at the time, to finally see somebody poke fun at a Star Trek show that wasn't about Kirk.) And catch other episodes for the digs aimed at ABC, those are a real riot, especially the bit in "Sherman of Arabia" where Jay wants Alice and daughter Penny to watch 'wholesome ABC comedy'... LOL! You can bet your bippy I won't divulge its details, but it is hilarious! The only real clunker from the FOX series is "A Song for Margo", though it had a few cute lines as well. So watch that one last. :-) And while okay, the Siskel and Ebert episode seemed lackluster and ultimately became silly. But that's just my impression, and I'm weird. I won't mention the FOX season's clip show, featuring clips from the ABC season. You can watch it, but it's pointless unless you haven't seen the ABC episodes. Well, not really - the bits that aren't clips are funny, and you wouldn't believe who'd guest-starred... so, it's worth watching too. :-) Ultimately, both seasons are highly witty and entertaining in their own ways, but they are slightly different in their approach. But if you're a fan, you already know this! :-) Now why did I take off a star? * Trailers. I was expecting original commercials from "The Critic". Not adverts for mainstream Sony shows I could care less about. I want material RELEVANT to the show being sold, I'm sorry. This is just a nitpick as I am tired of the industry throwing in promos for shows that I'll never watch, let alone care for. Besides, how many people who like "The Critic" go for the mainstream stuff that everybody already knows about anyway, and would you EVER see "The Critic" trailers on some other DVD? (if they took the time to even take a guess at what people buying DVD X would like, having specialized promos would be better than just shoving anything and everything at us.) This is worth 1/2 star removal, mainly because I'm in such a good mood from critiquing the good points of this set. :-) So I won't see original Critic advertisements. Oh well, applesauce happens. * This one is not much of a quibble as I've seen far worse DVD image quality (think "Three's Company" season 1 as an example...): "Family Guy" season 3 managed to squeeze 8 episodes on a disc and have virtually perfect video quality and had commentary as well. How come "The Critic" has visible DVD compression in all the episodes?! (do note, it is much easier to see this compression artifacting when you pause a frame, and I'll admit it's not as easy to spot here as it is in lower quality releases...) In all honesty, considering everything jammed onto these three discs, the compression is not that bad and I've seen far worse in terms of picture quality. So maybe this is worth 1/4 star. Just another quibble, really. I just wanted to add filler material. At $34.95, this is a steal for fans and is easily worth the risk for anybody curious of the series. It's well worth the money. And I was stupid enough not to have checked Amazon.com first! (I'd spent $44.95 elsewhere... oops. Even then, it's worth the price, but I rather like $35 over $45, don't you?)
Rating: 
Summary: Great show, misleading/poor extras
Review: The show is great, no complaints there. I am however surprised that no one has mentioned anything about how poor the extras are. There are no foreign language tracks despite warnings in French. Why bother when there is no French language track. No big deal as I don't speak French, I just found that odd. The few "extras" I did check out turned out to be nothing more than advertizements for other TV show DVDs. The worst part is that the back of packaging says that there is closed captioning. When attempting to view the captions all I get is an error saying "No captions recorded". There are no options in the DVD menu for turning on closed captions either. I do not know if this is an error on the part of my DVD player (which displays captions for every other DVD I own), or they simply forgot to put the captions on. Am I the only one that the captions don't work for, or am I the first to notice? 5 stars for the show
-2 stars for the DVD extras/presentations
Rating:
Summary: For those who love their film fried
Review: The Critic is an irreverent cartoon along the lines of the Family Guy and South Park. It celebrates the love of the Celebrity and Pop Culture, and although not as abscure as the other two shows, it remains to be edgy and dark, with sometimes ridiculous slapstick moments.
There are some impressive, solid, and hilarious perfomances that never cease to stay true to the character being played. The line between actor Jon Loviz and the educated but simple minded charecter of Jay Sherman is so blured that any other live action film with the former is hard to watch without imagining this cartoon.
It is true that the jokes and parodys of Hollywood Blockbusters littered throughout the series become a bit redundent. However, the show has moments of gold that can't be ignored, and it remains to be one of the most sharp and relentless cartoons created in the ninties.
Rating:
Summary: I don't even have the DVD yet and I already love it!!
Review: About 6 months ago I signed a petition to encourage the production of a Critic DVD. I would just like to make you aware of this as a testament to the fact that one person can make a difference. I could NOT be happier that I can now watch all 23 episodes whenever I want. No more staying up til 4 in the morning to catch them on comedy central. Kabong!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Amusing but severely dated
Review: There are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments in this great set, but a surprising number of the jokes are already dated. This show was always tied more to topical movies at the time, and that is why it seems to have gotten stale compared to Simpsons episodes, Family Guy, and Futurama. Most of the movie jokes and parodies rely on one having seen the movies, or being very familiar with their plotlines. Some celebrities are heavily parodied, and this can get a little repetitious. Marlon Brando seems to be a staple, Orson Welles shows up several times, and Dudley Moore's Arthur character is more pitiful than funny. There are some very good celebrity jokes, and others that just fill up time. Some episodes, like the one where his parents are marooned on a desert island, are very good; others are just filler. Jay's correspondent coverage of the First Gulf War is also a good episode. He ends up in a prison camp, sending a message by rat back to New York about his imprisonment. When his boss sorts the mail...bills...rat from Jay...which is then tossed into an inbox full of message-bearing rats, also from Jay. The difficulty with a current-event based show is that time marches on. Siskel and Ebert jokes are less amusing with Gene deceased, and the same goes for Dudley Moore. I realize that many of the parodies are based on deceased performers, but there's a difference when it's a contemporary performer. I guess if you're going to mock the dead, they should be good and dead, not fresh. Of course the New York skyline still has the World Trade Towers, as they were when the show was created. Extras are minimal. There is an option to "Play All" which is a great help. Fun to watch occasionally, but it's never going to get watched as much as Futurama, which also mocked current events from a perspective well in the future, when everybody is either dead or a head in a jar.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Cartoon Ever Made...Must Have...
Review: I believe this is the best cartoon ever made...Maybe not for the animation aspects, but for the fact that the comedy in it is the best I've ever seen. This show has the ability to kill you from laughing too hard. The writing is wonderful... They put the kind of jokes I would put in a show if it was me writing it...Clever..over-the-top...sometimes gross-out humor makes this DVD a must have......This shows a Classic already.
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