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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Full Frame
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Additional footage - 1 Hour of extra Interviews

The Dream with Roy and H.G.

Warner Vision/Warner Vision . R4 . COLOR . 432 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
Contract

For two weeks in September 2000 there were two champion athletes who became household names right throughout Australia. Ian Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Keiren Perkins and even Tatiana Grigorieva were all out-shined and out-performed by the sheer brilliance of H.G. Nelson and rampaging Roy Slaven. For the duration of the best Olympic games of all time these two leading sports commentators put on a show that not only proved to the world that we really could host the best games, but we could also have a bloody lot of fun while doing it!

The premise of the show was simple. After a long day's viewing of the Olympic games people could clamber around their telly sets, sit down and watch a comical and generally hilarious retake and commentary of the day's events. Every night of the Olympics we could watch a quick summary of the day's affairs, chuckle away as Roy and H.G. interviewed the athletes, and then split our sides in fits of laughter as the boys took their own spin on events such as Greco-Roman Wrestling, Diving, Synchronised Sinking – I mean swimming and of course, everyone’s favourite, the Gymnastics.

There is a whopping seven hours of footage on this two disc collection and I guarantee there will be very few moments if not none at all where you won’t be grinning from ear hole to ear hole as Roy and H.G. take their satirical and hilarious look at the world's greatest sporting event. The DVD is basically the same collection of ‘best of’ footage that was strung together on VHS last year, but this time its been given the DVD treatment and has a whole new swag of extended interviews that they just couldn’t fit onto the VHS release.

‘The Dream’ was simply magic television because Roy and H.G. dared to do something new. I don’t think you could name two other sporting commentators that would be willing to take on the IOC, SOCOG, the Americans, the Kiwis and Dick Pound all at once! It is impossible to list all the highlights of this disc, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.

  Video
Contract

The video detail is superb. It is sharp and clean and the colours are rich and vibrant. The aspect ratio of the presentation is fullscreen 1.33:1 and is not widescreen enhanced. This is of course how it was recorded and it's been transferred without alteration.

Film artefacts are very rare, however the transfer does suffer from edge enhancement as well as the occasional compression glitch. There are a few occasions of macro blocking, but on the other hand this transfer is free of aliasing and has basically no grain problems.

Both discs are dual layered but have been done so well as to be almost undetectable. The first disc got away without my critical eye noticing anything, and I may have caught a glimpse of the layer change on the second disc, although I could be mistaken. Warner Vision may have been so sneaky as to place the layer change between the feature and the extra interviews. Either way it has been a faultless integration onto a dual layered disc, which I’m sure would impress Fatso greatly.

Overall ‘The Dream’ has been transferred quite well, the coverage of the events themselves, as I’m sure we can all remember, was fantastic and results in a brilliant looking DVD. It therefore goes without saying that this release makes the two VHS tapes released around this time last year look about as ordinary as the New Zealand medal tally.

  Audio
Contract

The audio on this disc has been transferred to this format the best it can. Although it is only Dolby Digital 2.0, it is about all you can expect from a television talk show like this. The audio on these two discs is far superior to the VHS versions, but still has a few minor faults.

There are no audio sync problems, and the dialogue is almost always clear and easy to understand. This was a live to air program, and as such The Dream unfortunately suffers from the occasional microphone problem. Luckily enough Roy and H.G. make good humour of these minor glitches but the down side is that occasionally you will get a couple of really nasty clicks and pops. This is of course a problem with the source material, and with the absence of this minor complaint the audio transfer itself has come out sounding great.

  Extras
Contract

The extras on this disc are a reasonable addition, with the inclusion of all the extended athlete interviews that were cut from the main feature. There are twenty additional complete interviews spread over the two discs, running for a combined total of over two and a half hours of extra running time. This is a lot of bonus footage and includes some quality gut-cracking laughs.

Perhaps I am being greedy, but I was hoping for some more extras, even if they had to be recorded now, a year after the big event. As some consolation we do have a few brief introductions to the main feature on both discs as well as for the interviews on the second disc. These were recorded recently and for example explain why you should burn your old VHS copies of The Dream and stick to the DVD.

A less then worthwhile extra for this disc-set is a shameless plug for Samsung which consists of an extended television advertisement that is played by default at the load up on both discs. This is a somewhat annoying bit of product placement, however if this was the sort of sponsorship deal that was required to get this onto DVD (rumour had it that there was a big and expensive fight over the rights to the Olympic footage) then I can almost swallow it. Unlike what some other reviews have stated I had no problem with the UOP lock and can simply bypass this bit of advertising by pressing the menu button, making it no more annoying then a simple click on the remote.

To make up for this however are some stunning animated menus that look and sound great. How could anyone not love Fatso?

  Overall  
Contract

Overall ‘The Dream’ is some classic sporting footage that will be loved by Roy and H.G. fans and sports buffs alike. If you want a souvenir of the Olympic games then this DVD is a gold medal performance. The Dream makes the opening ceremony look ‘pretty bloody cod average’.

This two disc set contains all the great moments from the Sydney Olympic Games, including such great athletic feats as Eric Moussambani’s Equatorial Guinea national record swim and the gold-medal dive-off between Syd, Olly, Dickhead and The Battlers Prince (a.k.a. everybody's favourite ‘Fatso – the Big Arsed wombat’). This is a must buy set if you love your VHS copy, and is an equally essential purchase for those who want to re-live those great times of September 2000. So in the words of the great Billie Jean King “I don’t like them, I love them”. Rush out and pick this one up, its worth every penny of it.


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      And I quote...
    "If you want a souvenir of the Olympic games then this DVD is a gold medal performance. ’The Dream’ makes the opening ceremony look ‘pretty bloody cod average’."
    - Nathan Clark
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-636
    • TV:
          LG 80cm
    • Speakers:
          Pioneer
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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