Review: Finally forced myself to rent this sucker, sit down and watch it. In the end I was taught the same lesson I have learned time and time again. No one knows anything and you should never listen to critics, especially one who writes for DVDwolf.com. Make your own decisions. You hate Tom Green, fair enough. You hate his film, fair enough. However, after watching Shallow Hal this weekend in theatres at least Tom Green showed some daring and while a lot of his jokes fell flat this is not the worst movie of the year...Shallow Hal has gone far beyond any other this year to earn that title so far.

I had read reports on this film regarding it's gross out humour and over the top scenarios and honestly feel that if you know Tom Green then this flick is nothing unexpected. As for the 'birthing sequence', my friend and I had joked many times about the same idea of biting through the umbilical cord when his son was born...difference was Tom put it on film.

I can see not liking this film, there is a lot to dislike. However, it is not the end of civilization, it is not a car crash, it is coherent and it does have some solid laughs in it. Just not enough to sustain the mere inkling of a full film. I will give it this though, while it may not have entertained me throughout, it never bored and was always walking that dangerous edge of comedy...just seems some people feel Tom had walked way over the line after the first ten minutes.

If forced, as we are starting to be here at the Wolf to give a numerical recommendation...I'd say 5 out of 5 for trying but a 2.5 for the final result.

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Copyright© Written By: Rob Paul
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The DVD Review:

Well, the DVD has been announced and it looks like there will be a commentary by Tom Green...maybe, if someone subdues him, he can explain what his thinking was.

November 2001 - Finally watched the movie as you can see from the review above...but now it's onto the DVD. This is a pretty packed little disc and who knows, after the critical bombardment and the fact that it essentially earned it's money back (just), they may have loaded it up just to make the sales.

First thing I look for in a disc...the re-watchable factor. If I can't watch the movie more than once...it's gone. No chance of making it on my shelf. I have to be honest, I watched this flick three times essentially. Once to see it, the other two times with all the commentaries and I skipped through it a fourth time to check out the World Premiere Audio Track to hear the audience reactions to some of the more 'daring' scenes.

Four times in one weekend...admittedly that is my job here but still...I couldn't bother going through The Animal so many times.

The Tom Green commentary was extremely hit and miss. Sometimes it could be very interesting and other times, as Tom was quite aware, he was being very annoying and off-kilter. However, if that's what makes you mad then why did you even want the disc or care...that's his shtick.

The other commentaries from cast members are less annoying and while not more enlightening, praise Tom quite a lot for at least his nerve and guts to stay true to his vision, no matter how bloody or sickening.

The featurette was a short waste of time and typical promotional film material.

The deleted scenes, like the movie, are uneven and bizarre but show that there was a mind to this film. One that had its eye on pacing and saw that some scenes were dragging the flick down so out they went. So much for the suggestion that the film was made in a weekend.

What I really loved though was the idea of having an isolated audio track of the World Premiere. To be able to hear Tom's die hard fans see their 'hero' in action and listen to their applause, horror and laughs of disgust at all the right moments. I haven't ever seen this feature on another disc before and loved it. Sure, it wouldn't fit, oh, say, Schindler's List but here it was a welcome addition.

Other features included the typical TV commercials and theatrical trailer...if you missed them they are worth the time as they are unique from the film and were an example of advertising a film when everyone knows the odds are against you.

EASTER EGG ALERT: Another nice touch was Tom's adding of a clip of him on the Mike Bullard show after one of the deleted sequences. Just watch the deleted clip and then it goes right into a snippet of Tom giving his pal Mike a dead raccoon on air. What it doesn't show is that during this bit Mike had to walk off camera and throw up.