Movies: DVD Reviews

The late, irate Bill Hicks: gone but not forgiving

'Bill Hicks Live'
(Rykodisc, $19.95)
(program)
(DVD format and extras)

Bill Hicks was dead for three years before I had even heard of him, felled by pancreatic cancer 10 years ago at age 32, just as his comedy career was getting serious traction. Fortunately, Rykodisc has kept his CD catalog in print posthumously and now it has put together what must be the definitive Hicks DVD.

Hicks' stand-up wasn't comedy so much as bloodletting, and these three live performances still can shock 13 years later. Wait -- weren't the early '90s kinder and gentler? Not for Bill Hicks. His material was all about stripping his audiences -- and colleagues -- of their palliative delusions, and he had no patience for, well, almost anything. He was brutal, but he was also a kind of humanist, albeit a dark and confrontational one.

On two Judas Priest fans committing suicide: "Two less gas station attendants in the world."

On fundamentalists: "You ever notice how people who believe in creationism look really unevolved?"

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourselves."

And, not to put too fine a point on it: "I don't mean to sound cold or cruel or vicious, but I am, so that's the way it comes out."

"Live" contains "Relentless," the show from the Montreal Comedy Festival regarded as Hicks' breakout, but "Revelations," 75 minutes from London, is every bit as great, as are some 30 minutes from the Old Vic in Chicago. Be advised Hicks constantly fiddled with his material, and some bits are repeated here. The guy was incapable of getting onstage and not talking about smoking, drugs and sex.

Finally, there's "It's Just a Ride: The Bill Hicks Documentary," which includes interviews with Jay Leno, David Letterman, Hicks' parents (dad didn't get why he used the "F" word so much and wondered why his boy wasn't more like Bob Hope) and co-conspirators from high-school days in Houston.

'Elf'
(New Line home entertainment, $29.95)
(movie)
(DVD format and extras)

A startling revelation for comedy fans is made on the new "Infinifilm Edition" of last year's holiday hit "Elf." Will Ferrell, fearless comedian and "Saturday Night Live," vet, when left to his own devices on the commentary track, is kind of boring. He makes a few half-hearted stabs at humor, but without the elf costume, the pratfalls and curly hair? Boring!

To be fair, Ferrell has insisted as much in interviews, and the two-disc DVD set has so much packed into it, that the actor/comedian can be forgiven for dialing it down a few notches while not on screen.

The cheery family-appropriate comedy works best when Ferrell plays up the absurdity of naively sweet Buddy, a 30-year-old human who was raised by Santa's elves and travels to Manhattan to meet his biological father, a gruff James Caan. Director Jon Favreau takes a break from presiding over chit-chat on IFC network's "Dinner for Five" to bring us this surprisingly assured holiday treat that spares us the treacle and delivers plenty of laughs.

In a separate commentary track that outshines Ferrell's, Favreau describes his desire to make a nostalgic film that eschewed computer-animation effects for stop-motion and forced perspective techniques, which work wonderfully in the film's early North Pole scenes.

The two discs come packaged with optional on-screen facts about the film, extensive behind-the-scenes footage from the writing stage to post-production, interviews and several documentaries on subjects including extreme Christmas house decorations and one on working Santas. There's also a trove of features for kids, including holiday carol karaoke, some enjoyable DVD games, a read-along short story and some DVD-ROM features like a storybook creator.
-- Omar L. Gallaga

'Bridget Jones's Diary'
(Miramax Collector's Series, $19.99)
(movie)
(DVD format and extras)

Almost a decade has passed since Bridget Jones -- the diary-keeping singleton in her 30s searching for love and clean underwear in London -- first appeared in newspaper columns by Helen Fielding. We all know about the salute to singledom that followed, with Bridget, Ally McBeal and Carrie Bradshaw leading the way. It's a phenomenon nicely packaged in the Miramax Collector's Series DVD of "Bridget Jones's Diary."

Like Bridget, the DVD is a little bit of a mess, tries too hard to be clever and tends toward the sentimental. But it's also a celebration of singlehood, imperfections and friendships.

Among the special features is a commentary by first-time director Sharon Maguire, a friend of Fielding's who partly inspired Bridget's friend Sharon ("Shazzer"). Given this connection, we hope for lots of juicy, insidery nuggets as she talks us through the movie, but, alas, that's not to be. A self-described sentimentalist, Maguire talks to us more as one of Bridget's pals than as a director, so we get oohing and ahhing over Colin Firth and Hugh Grant ('He's very sexy, isn't he?").

Maguire, who says she ate lots of "chocolate fingers" during her three years of work on the film, doesn't give a lot of insight, but she can tell a good story, such as how she had to bring granny panties to explain what they are to male crew members.

Other features include "The Young and the Mateless," billed as a guide to being single; a look at the "Bridget Phenomenon" through the eyes of the film's cast; a behind-the-scenes featurette; and deleted scenes, only one of which -- a montage of Bridget playing hard to get to the tune of "Ice, Ice Baby" -- should have made the movie.

The meat of the specials features is the inclusion of Fielding's Bridget newspaper columns, which show Bridget in her original glory. Even if you've read the books and watched every second of the DVD, the columns are essential Bridget, who embodies "the gap between how women think they're expected to be and how they really are," as Fielding succinctly puts it.

The craze brought on by Bridget, Carrie and Ally might have simmered down, but the validation they helped bring to thirtysomething singletons everywhere is still important. And if we ever need a reminder, we still have Bridget.
-- Kathy Blackwell