Rowan Atkinson Live!
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Movie Reviews of Rowan Atkinson Live!
Movie Review: Excellent 5-Star Performance, but A&E Still Hates the Hearing Impaired
Summary: 5 Stars
Absolutely brilliant performance by Atkinson; this is a fantastic DVD. As noted by other reviewers, it has a plethora of skits, including both US and UK sets. I was ecstatic to finally get the Devil sketch on DVD, having not seen it in years. (Had the VHS but lost it to Katrina.)
Now, a big knock against A&E, enough to give the release itself zero stars (I wish Amazon allowed for multiple ratings, so we could rate the performance separate from its media presentation). A&E apparently hates the hearing impaired. For years they have released countless shows on disc without any form of closed captioning or subtitles. What's mind boggling about that is, in many cases, the captioning is available to them, but they opt not to use it, instead "cleaning" the footage of such encoding. (In fact, A&E television programs are almost always captioned.) I can't fathom why, but it does result in lost sales.
I'm not deaf, but I do have a hearing problem. I overcome it with hearing aids and a good speaker system on my video, but I rarely buy A&E releases; I either rent them or wait for their appearance on TV. But I've bypassed buying scores of A&E releases -- everything from the entire release sets of Poirot to Jeeves & Wooster to Space: 1999 -- for lack of any form of captioning and/or subtitles.
FWIW, I have contacted A&E about it; the polite response was that the company did not feel their normal viewership/customer base needed captioning or subtitles to justify the additional cost.
Sorry for the rant. 5 stars to Mr. Atkinson and a superb performance; 0 to A&E for another shaft to the hearing impaired.
Movie Review: A good DVD version of Rowan Live
Summary: 5 Stars
If you have seen the VHS version of this live show, you will love the DVD version. Despite the fact that this DVD version divides up the sketches into what they call "the real live show" and "extra sketches," (which I don't really know whether they were really extra sketches or they considered them extra sketches, even though on the VHS version, they all just appear together) the materials are really good. I liked the fact that it has an introduction with Rowan and his obsession over an American tuna sandwich, it was classic. The picture is really clear, it has a menu, and some facts about Rowan on the dvd extras, no behind the scene stuff (although I would highly prefer one), and the sound is just right.
If you like Rowan, his live show, or even his straight-man Angus Deayton, I highly recommend this DVD to you, it's a great addition to your DVD collection. Well, I hope this review helps.
Movie Review: A cross between Bean and Blackadder
Summary: 5 Stars
In August of this year, I did another weeding out of my VHS tapes for things that I had on DVD, to narrow my vast collection of movies. I found my VHS copy of this and put it aside, because it was not easy to find, and was not available on DVD here yet. Ironically, I had just researched it shortly before that. Much to my surprise, only a few days later this was a suggested item on Amazon! At first I thought it was the VHS, and it made me upset that they would tease me like that. But, I was completely shocked to see that it was finally being released on DVD (at the same time, I found out that there was a second Mr Bean movie coming out)! This is a great collection of some of his best work. I'm a big fan of his, and recommend this to any other fans out there that are uncertain of this DVD.Movie Review: The Funniest Show I Have Ever Seen
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this show for the first on a Saturday night right after Saturday Night Live. The SNL had Pearl Jam as the musical guests and ran a week or two after Kurt Cobain had killed himself. I was so sad over that loss and then this came on. I laughed so hard. I quickly sought it out on video and saw for the first time the sketch about the rollcall at a high school. I couldn't believe that this man was using such vulgar and hilarious language. I have watched the show at least ten times and my affection for it has never diminished. Stand outs: No One Called Jones, With Friends Like These, and Pink Tights And Plenty of Props. I give copies of this show to people to see their reactions. If they don't think this is funny, then I find it hard to believe they would find anything humourous.Movie Review: A true delight!
Summary: 5 Stars
Having the good sense to catch Rowan on tv when Blackadder was running, i have been a fan ever since. When Mr. Bean was making the rounds on Public tv, i was rather prepared to expect Rowan to win me over again.
He did that in abundance, as again, he created another original idea and took it overboard. He won me over again.
This intimate and pleasing dvd shows Rowan from 1991, and his approach has not changed. A generous amount of material is displayed with such laid back restraint, i was overcome with laughter by the second skit.
I am glad that America appreciates Rowan's talent. He is superb with whatever is handed to him. Am hoping that more like this is released for us fans.