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The Movie:
In a time where independent films seem to be rarely breaking out into commercial success, Christopher Guest's "Best In Show" was a remarkable success last year, raking in about 18 million dollars at the box office. The success of "Show" also helped reel in new fans of Guest's "Waiting for Guffman", a 1997 independent feature that has been gaining an increasingly bigger cult fanbase since it was released into art-house theaters.
Guest stars as Corky St. Clair, an experienced director of off-off-off Broadway productions who starts up his own theater group in the small town of Blane, Mo. The town wants to put up a 150th Anniversary party, including the theatrical pageant "Red, White and Blaine", staged by St. Clair and a group of townsfolk including the town's dentist (Eugene Levy), travel agents (Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara), a Dairy Queen worker (Parker Posey) and others. Corky is quite pleased with his new group and things appear to be going even better when he finds out that Mr. Guffman, a big-time talent scout, could sweep in and take their little production to Broadway.
Or, maybe not. Like most amateur productions, the actors are a rather unsuccessful bunch, but at least they enjoy what they're doing and give it their all. Similar to how Guest parodied dog owners in "Show", this film accurately goes at the small-town productions, but also has affection for the characters and their efforts even though they think that they're much better than they are. Guest's style of improv also shows through well here, too. Actors take pauses, think of what they're going to say, and have realistic reactions. Like "Show", if you weren't already familiar with the actors, you'd think that it was an actual documentary.
"Guffman" already has a pretty large following behind it and fans will be happy to find that Warner Brothers has given the film the same fine special edition treatment that Guest's "Show" received.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Waiting For Guffman" is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Originally filmed (like "Best In Show") in not only a documentary style, but 16mm, the picture presents the kind of picture quality that one might expect from a small, independent production. Yet, for a 16mm film, the picture quality remains suprisingly decent; sharpness and detail are respectable - if not remarkable - and the picture looks consistent and never soft.
But some problems do pop up throughout the movie. Although grain remains light and print flaws are very minor, there are a couple of noticable instances of edge enhancement. No pixelation was spotted though, and the picture remains mostly crisp and clear. Colors look fairly natural though, although a little bit on the subdued and flat side. Overall, Warner presents a nice looking transfer of low-budget material.
SOUND: "Waiting For Guffman" is presented in Dolby 2.0, although essentially this is a dialogue-driven, mono-ish presentation that really doesn't provide anything in the way of active or dynamic sound, nor do I think anyone is expecting much from the audio side of a production like this one. Audio quality fared passibly well throughout the movie as dialogue sounded clear and natural.
MENUS:: Basic, non-animated menus with a few images from the film as backgrounds.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: Famed comedians and "Guffman" co-writers Eugene Levy and Christopher Guest suprised many when they provided a rather subdued and only occasionally funny commentary for their "Best In Show". "Guffman" unfortunately continues along with the same tone as that commentary. I will say though, that the two are quite informative as they chat about stories from the production and working on the low-budget film with the cast of talented actors. Occasionally, this commentary proves to be a worthwhile listen, but there's some noticable pauses of silence and the problem is that the film's audio is not placed under the commentary - so silence on the commentary is literally silence.
Deleted Scenes: The DVD of "Show" provided a wealth of deleted footage, as does "Guffman" as it becomes apparent a lot of footage ended up on the cutting room floor. The best of it seems to be available here, as a few of the 14 deleted scenes are as funny as anything in the picture itself. Optional commentary from Guest is available.
Also: Behind-the-scenes text, trailer, cast/crew bios.
Final Thoughts: "Guffman" fans will be pleased to find that Warner Brothers has provided an excellent DVD with audio/video quality that's as good as can be expected from the low-budget production, along with some decent extras. Whether or not you've already seen it, the "Guffman" DVD is recommended - especially at the DVD's low retail price.
Film Grade
The Film *** 1/2
DVD Grades
Video 86/B = (344/400 possible points)
Audio: 83/B = (332/400 possible points)
Extras: 83/B = (249/300 possible points)
Menus: 70/C- = (140/200 possible points)
Value: 86/B = (255/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1320/1600
DVD GRADE:B/82%
FILM GRADE: *** 1/2
DVD GRADE: B
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