Best in Show

Rating:
Summary: This show was a real dog
Review: While "Best in Show" is considered a comedy, I'd rate it more of a tragedy, because it spoofs the lives of people who really need to get a life. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that there are so many people whose total identities are wrapped up in dogs (or any other pet) and sex. I thought the profusion of sexual humor reminded me of the boy's locker room in junior high.

Based on the recommendations of several friends, we rented this show for family viewing, but once we realized the humor was never going to get out of the gutter, we shut it off. I finished this dog later, by myself, just to satisfy my curiosity. I will grant that there are some hilarious chuckles in this show, but it still saddens me that it reflects the empty lives of a great many people.

Next time I want to see the "best in show," I'll go to a 4H dog show, where kids are learning how to handle animals without pretension.

Rating:
Summary: great movie, disappointing DVD
Review: I don't want to say anything about the movie, because we all know it's hilarious yet not as hilarious as waiting for guffman. I simply want to tell you the DVD was disappointing. The deleted scenes are good, but the audio commentary on the movie and the deleted scenes was pretty thin, and often uninteresting. Still worth the price for the movie, but don't expect much else.

Rating:
Summary: I Give It 5 Dog Biscuits!!
Review: I don't even remember if this movie made it to the theaters in my town. This is the kind of small gem that slips past critics and moviegoers and either finds an audience in the video market, or passes away into obscurity. Those viewers who enjoyed the improvisational comedy of Christopher Guest's previous efforts (This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman) will love Best In Show. It features a wonderful cast that includes Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins, the flambouyantly gay owners of a prize winning shih tzu, a yuppie couple (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) whose Weimaraner is as neurotic as they are, Christopher Guest as the proud owner of a Bloodhound named Hubert who also fancies himself a ventriloquist, and Catherine O'Hara as a former nympho who keeps running into old boyfriends (she's had hundreds of them), much to the chagrin of geeky husband Eugene Levy. They are all competing for Best In Show at the prestigious Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Their ridiculous and outrageous behavior is captured in a documentary style. Fred Willard chews the scenery hilariously as a commentator who seems to know nothing about dogs or anything else for that matter. Don't let this one pass you by, it's well worth the price. The DVD also comes with some very funny deleted scenes and a commentary by Guest and Levy.

Rating:
Summary: Ch. Major Disappointment CD, CDX, UDX
Review: The most disappointing movie I've seen in a long time. I had high hopes based on the hype, my past involvement with "Dog Show People" and the fact that I've been accused more than once of having a warped sense of humor. There are a few really funny scenes (Fred Willard is great) but for the most part the movie is a WAY overdone caricature of a subject that doesn't need much (any?) excess to be it funny. The kids walked out, the wife fell asleep. I hung in there till the end, mainly to try to satisfy my curiosity about why this movie got good reviews, but never figured it out. In a last desparate attempt, I even watched the deleted scenes - but they were no better, no worse, no funnier than the rest of the film.

Rating:
Summary: A Charming Flick
Review: I loved this DVD! There's a ton of extra stuff, many deleted scenes that enhance the overall feel of the movie. Eugene Levy wrote a great screenplay, exposing many people to the dog show world. The movie is full of laughs, always poking fun at the competitive world of dog showing. There's lots of candid humor, from the commentators to Harlan Pepper, the "hick-like" owner of a Bloodhound, to a preppy couple whose Weimeraner won't cooperate with them since it saw them having sex. (I just about rolled off my chair at that part!)

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoyed "Jim's Dad" in American Pie. Eugene Levy's character, Gerald Fleck is highly entertaining, having been born *literally* with two left feet. Two paws up :)

Rating:
Summary: Great Human Tricks
Review: Run, don't walk, to get BEST IN SHOW. Other than tagging it a mockumentary, in the terminology inspired by this film's creator's earlier work THIS IS SPINAL TAP, or, as others have called it, a dogumentary, it defies categorization. That alone is an extravagance in this era of haute conformity. Essentially, Christopher Guest takes a sharply satirical yet ultimately not unkind look at the human behavior behind the Olympics of the dog show circuit. Christopher Guest must have watched the Westminster Show and has wondered, as I have, about Joe Garagiola (spelling?) as co-anchor. Fred Willard does a wonderful send up. This film features a dream ensemble of characters and actors. The combination of writing and improvisation is seamless. The dogs are treated with respect--there are no gags at their expense. BEST IN SHOW is a pleasant reminder that there are writers and actors out there who work hard in the industry, who are genuinely creative, who don't go for the mega salaries and aren't afraid to try something new.

Rating:
Summary: Viewers: Do NOT attempt "The Standing Cow" at home.
Review: With the release of "Best In Show", it's official. Director Christopher Guest is now the Master Of The Mockumentary. A dynamite cast, featuring Guest and most of his "Waiting For Guffman" ensemble (along with some notable "Spinal Tap" alums) pulls off one of the most subtle and brilliant satires in recent memory. The film is quite reminiscent of the (real) documentary (and cult favorite) "Gates Of Heaven", which was, on the surface, about the workings of a pet cemetary, but ultimately told us more about the dysfunctional pet owners. Uniformly good acting makes it difficult to single out performances, but a cameo by underrated Larry Miller as a manic-depressive police negotiator ("They ALWAYS jump.") is priceless and deserves an honorable mention. Guest and his troupe are a certifiable national treasure. (Warning: you will never again be able to watch the Westminster Dog Show with a straight face!)

Rating:
Summary: Best in show review
Review: This movie is just plain hilarious. Everyone out there must see it. This is improvisational acting at its' best. A must see.

Rating:
Summary: Dog, Hubby and I Loved It & Watched It en famille
Review: Are we as besotted with our dog as these folks? Close, I must admit. Inbetween laughing ourselves silly, I felt a slight nudge of discomfort over being not that far removed from these characters. Fortunately, we have a mutt so we can't enter a dog show which is the focus of this film. Dog shows: what a world! It's hard to say who is funniest, everyone involved is so hilarious, from the owners to the people who run the show to the media and so on down the line. The dog owners are quirky characters to a person. There are married couples, a gay couple, a lesbian couple and, of course, one from each couple is assigned to show the dog in the ring. Plus they all stay in the same hotel which allows dogs due to the annual show. There's also a dog shrink with the dog owners and the dog seeing him. We actually knew a psychologist for people who shared space with a dog shrink so this is true to home as well. There is an announcer from the media who is Mr. Obnoxious who will say absolutely anything no matter how insulting or inappropriate. Fred Willard, who played him, almost walked away with the movie in that role. Although this is a spoof of a documentary I think you could actually fool some people into thinking it was a real documentary. I enjoyed this as much as Errol Morris's "Gates of Heaven," a real documentary about pet cemetaries and the owners of the deceased pets. That is a huge compliment because Morris's work is brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing at best . . ..
Review: Only through sheer determination did I watch through the mock documentary parts of this film. I noticed that another reviewer stated that these parts were totally unscripted. So that explains why they weren't funny. Speaking as a person who likes documentaries and dog shows, this was [not good at all]. There were a few funny moments surrounded by much drivel that may as well have been unscripted also. This movie is simply not as it was advertised.