|
Past DVD Hardware / Software News |
|
|
|
|
Behind the Music That Sucks: Hip Hop
|
|
|
|
DVD Comedy
|
|
Written by Paul Lingas
|
|
Tuesday, 20 January 2004
|
 |
|
title:
|
Heavy Presents: Behind the Music That Sucks |
|
|
studio:
|
Redline Entertainment |
| MPAA rating: |
Not Rated |
| release year: |
2003 |
| film rating: |
Two Stars |
| sound/picture: |
One Star |
| reviewed by: |
Paul Lingas |
Heavy.com presents us with a sometimes very funny parody of VH1’s
Behind the Music series with this look at hip-hop. Each segment is
around five minutes in length and gives a made-up and unceremoniously
scathing portrayal of each artist. The artists parodied on this edition
are Puff Daddy, Dr. Dre, Will Smith, Eminem, Tupac, LL Cool J, Kid
Rock, Limp Bizkit and Insane Clown Posse. The animation is very
simplistic and essentially is comprised of a single photographed
cut-out of each celebrity’s head stuck onto a poorly animated body.
In the case of Dr. Dre, his head is stuck onto Charlie Brown’s body and
the entire segment takes place in a crude recreation of the Peanuts
world (Snoop Dogg of course has his head morphed onto Snoopy’s beagle
body). Puff Daddy is shown to be a crack- and money-loving thug, Will
Smith is likened to Forrest Gump and Kid Rock gets blown off into space
where he lands on the Planet of the Apes. At his trial, he tries to
prove to Dr. Zaius that he is indeed the missing link, but the simian
jury finds that he is too stupid for this to be the case. Kid Rock
spends a lot of time flipping everyone off and getting pounded on the
head.
Needless to say, this is a highly irreverent look at these artists, and
the people at Heavy.com try as hard as they can to make each of the
performers seem as ridiculous as possible. Whether it be suggesting
that Eminem has essentially bought the love of his daughter and
neglected her mother, or showing the transformation of New Kids On the
Block into Insane Clown Posse, these spoofs capture all of the
seriousness that makes “Behind the Music” such a popular program and
twists it into something very amusing. Thankfully, each one of the
segments is very short, preserving the novelty of the approach for each
segment and sparing us when the segments simply aren’t funny.
 The
entire DVD program is only 50 minutes long, and because there are no
extra features, this is a straightforward attempt to get these short,
animated parodies out to the public in an easily accessible form. The
animation itself is poor at best, done in a sort of inside-the-garage,
“South Park” style. The voice impersonations are never close to the
actual sounds of the people being parodied, but that isn’t the point.
The goal, which is to ridicule these musicians’ lives and music, is
attained. Each segment ends with some variation on the following
sentence, “And so [fill in the artist] proved once again just why he
will always suck a**.” The narration is done very close to the vest,
which is part of what makes it sound like Behind the Music. The
seriousness of the narration juxtaposed with the sheer ridiculousness
of what is being said is largely why some of these parodies are so
successful.
The only sort of bonus clip is a short
animated episode of “Munchyman and Fatty,” which shows us the pot
smoking-adventures of two young men in the inner city. There isn’t much
of a plot, but there are some amusing moments and the animation style
harkens back to the Fat Albert cartoons.
In the end, this is a somewhat amusing collection of profane and
obnoxious slams against hip-hop artists, though some are much better
than others. Those who don’t like these people will get a kick out of
the spoof segments but little more, and as for fans of these artists, I
think they might enjoy them just a little bit, too.
| more details |
|
sound format:
|
Stereo |
|
aspect ratio(s):
|
1.33:1 (Full-Screen) |
| special features: |
“Muchyman and Fatty” cartoon |
| comments: |
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
| |
|
| reference system |
| DVD player: |
Panasonic DVD-XP50 |
| receiver: |
Denon AVR-3802 |
| main speakers: |
Polk RT 600i |
| center speaker: |
Polk CS 400i |
| rear speakers: |
Polk S4 |
| monitor: |
43” Sony KP-43HT20 |
|
|
|
|
Sign up for our weekly e-mail newsletters |
|
|
|
