EDtv - Collector's Edition

The latest TV fad in popular culture is 'real TV'. It seems people would rather see unfortunate mishaps, things that went wrong, keyhole antics or funniest home videos than to watched a rehearsed drama or sitcom. I fit into this category admittedly. I'd rather see what's really going on out in the world rather than be spoon fed what 'they' want me to believe.

True TV Producer, Cynthia Topping (Elle DeGeneres), has an idea for a new show and has convinced CEO Whitaker (Rob Reiner) that it just might work. The idea? to produce a new TV show whereby cameras will follow the life of a simple human being, day and night, to give their viewers a look into this persons world and hopefully provide some form of alternate entertainment.

The premise is simple and it just might work but how do they know who the right person is. Enter stage right, Ray Pekurney (Woody Harrelson) who does an on the spot audition in their local bar. He's not doing too well and pulls his brother in, Ed Pekurney (Matthew McConaughey), to verify his credibility but Ed's charm gets him the job over his brother. So begins the ratings game. From the first moment where Ed wakes up to a national audience, with his own Woody Harrelson, it seems that it's going to be a very long day but overnight ratings soar as the life of a 30 year old video store clerk turns into Americas highest rating soap opera.

How interesting can it get? Without going into the details of the plot let's just say that things you would normally keep in private, from people close to you, end up on national television. Not good if you're cheating on your girlfriend of cheating with your brothers girlfriend.

Very nice indeed. The video can sometimes throw you as we jump from film stock to video stock but you should appreciate the intent of the director in this instance and ignore any shortcomings that are inherent in the print and not the transfer itself.

This is one of those 'better' transfers from Universal along side Twister and Shakespeare in Love. The coloring of the film is very vibrant and rich throught the movie and accurately represent the colorful TV industry, with their huge TV walls and small editing booths. It's nice to see an accurate looking test pattern presented on a small TV within the movie.

Sharpness and detail is very good and gives depth to alot of the interior shots and exterior crowd scenes. Split across 2 layers with an anamorphic 1.85:1 aspct ratio really gives you a pristine transfer. The layer change is slightly unobtrusive. It's not bad as the scene is quiet and still but it does occur in the middle of an uncompleted scene.

Ed visits so many different places that produce so many different ambient environments and all are produce with surprising accuracy. In these scenes there is always rear speaker action and a wide dynamic range encompassing all manner of minute detail.

The musical soundtrack is an excellent mix of popular hits of late which fill the front sound stage with an excellent stereo image that often flows into the surrounds for a nicely encompassing experience.

Dialogue is always clear, it has to be to carry the movie along. There is nothing in the 5.1 soundtrack that overpowers the dialogue at any stage. I noticed NO audio synch problems at all.

Another packed dvd to place alongside your other collectors editions.

• 2 Audio Commentaries - The first is by director Ron Howard who gives us some excellent insight into the movie. He makes a point of noting out almost all the ad-libbed sections of the movie, and there are a fair few in there. He also gives us some technical insight into the various seemless scene transitions and other tidbits that you wouldn't normally notice. The second comes from the script writers Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. It's not a bad commentary but I felt a little bored throughout as they try to expand alot on the scenes that they added there own comical twist to. Granted, they are pretty good comedic scene writers but you can only take comedy to a certain point before you dull it out too much.
• Original Making of "Caught in the Camera's Eye" - Hmm, different to other makings of basically because it's more of a compilation of various press interviews intermingled with behind the scenes footage. Almost all the cast and crew are present on this and they each give their own insights into the movie, it's premise, how it relates to real life and how fame can make or break people.
• Deleted Scenes - 39 minutes of deleted scenes. They are not in final form so are missing key sound and visual effects and seem very dull in audio quality. Thank you for leaving these scenes out as they movie would have dragged on too much. Alot of build up scenes in here.
• Outtakes - Just over 7 minutes of some hilarious outtakes. I don't know if Woody can't remember his lines or simply likes to have fun with every scene he is in but he sure does get everyone laughing.
• Musical Highlights - A menu that highlights about 15 moments in the movie where you can jump straight to the selected song. A nice little feature that doesn't take up too much space at all.
• Production Notes - A text version of most of what was covered in the making of and the commentaries
• Theatrical Trailer - standard issue.
• Cast & Crew Biography/FIlmography - a very detailed looked at the cast and crew some of which have been in more than 50 movies each.

I didn't know Clint Howard was Ron Howards brother as they look totally different. You might not know who Clint is but if you've seen Far and Away, Austin Powers 1 & 2 and about 60 other movies then you'll know who he is.

I really enjoyed this movie. You could probably compare it to The Truman Show, which I didn't find as entertaining as critics made it out to be. The main differences are that Ed in Edtv knows he's being filmed from the outset and Edtv has a much lighter tone to it.

It's amazing to see just how fame can changes a persons life and just how easily it can be taken away from you. 15 minutes of fame is just that, no matter how long it actually feels like.