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Best in Show

Best in Show

List Price: $19.97
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a hoot!
Review: Who ever wrote the movie must have attended or participated in a dog show. I've done both. Granted everything presented was a "little over the top" but there were bits of real life interwined. I have young children and I would have felt uncomfortable viewing (or trying to explain) some of the scenes shown in the movie. I just watch the DVD late at night when the kiddies are in bed. One of my all time favorite movies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply Excellent!!!!!!
Review: Since seeing "Waiting for Guffman" and missing a major portion of the Second City Comedy Troupe, i.e., Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, I have enjoyed Christorpher Guest and his troupe of actors attack certain American institutions via the "mockumentary" format.

'Best In Show: is hands down the very best of Mr. Guests's mockumentaries to date. When you consider that the majority of the film is improvisational, with the characters given a basic structure from which to work and then allowed to "go where their creativity takes them" you get a real appreciation of just what a good ensemble cast can capture/create.

This particular outing takes on the world of dog shows and follows the exploits of various dog owners to the Best In Show finals. It is a stitch! There is something here for everybody. Of course the standout is Fred Willard as an obnoxious commentator who really deserved winning the Oscar for supporting actor for which he was nominated. The character study of each dog owner of course sheds infinite light into why they are so obsessed with their dog receiving the top award.

The improvisation is top-notch but I would expect nothing less. Catherine O'Hara is generally flawless and here she does not disappoint. She is in RARE form! She and Eugene Levy play off each other quite well. Other cast members that I have seen in "Waiting for Guffman" as well as "A Mighty Wind" continue to be consistently creative and funny and I welcome their efforts. While "Waiting for Guffman" and "A Mighty Wind" pale in comparison, they too reveal flashes of the genius of Mr. Guest and company.

A must for your DVD collection and it gets funnier each time you watch. Just don't watch with serious dog owners or they may be somehwat insulted becasue Best In Show while empathizing with its subject matter, does not take it as seriously as some obviously do!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This movie left me with a question....
Review: ... how is it possible that beings from the same planet and species as me found this even remotely funny?
Dogs are funny and I love them. The people who own them and show them in this movie are, frankly, pathetic. Are their annoying, shallow lives entertaining to viewers of this movie? I dn't get it, and I don't want to.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Huh???
Review: I guess I just don't get it. I didn't find this movie that great. The best part is Eugene Levy's two left feet. It might be a decent rental but don't forget to return it because it is not worth the late fees!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's funny because it's true!
Review: OK, Political correctness aside, this movie hits the mark on a lot of levels. People who are too obsessive with their pets (come on we all know at least one or two of them) are the targets here, not the animals themselves. The owners portrayed in "Best of Show" rank up there with Trekkies, horse owners, comic book guys and other "cults" of people, whose lives are lived vicariously through animals or other forms of escape from reality. Guest and the surrounding cast do an excellent job on the character portrayals.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Some pets deserve a little more respect than others.
Review: I already knew going in that I like folk music a lot more than dog shows, anniversary pageants, or heavy metal music, which explains why "A Mighty Wind" remains my favorite of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, but "Best in Show" certainly has its moments. Dog shows are a great target for satirical skewering simply because you do not have to go too far to accomplish the task since the dogs we see posing and prancing are not like the dogs the rest of us know in the real world. But the dogs are the innocents in this tale, even if they are exposed to the sight of their masters making love. It is the owners who are invited to humiliate themselves simply by being themselves.

The focus point of "Best in Show" is the Mayflower Kennel Club's dog show in the city of Brotherly Love. The script is by Guest and Eugene Levy, but the idea of a scripted film is a misnomer since what is really at play are the improvisational techniques of Second City more than the crafted skits of Saturday Night Live. In the grand plan of such mockumentaries we follow the paths of several dogs and their owners, most of whom will indeed be up for the grand prize:

Harlan Pepper (Guest) and his bloodhound, Hubert (Ch. Quiet Creek's Stand By Me); Gerry (Levy) and Cookie Fleck (Catharine O'Hara) and their Norwich terrier, Winky (Can. Ch. Urchin's Bryllo); the catalog loving Meg (Parker Posey) and Michael Hitchcock (Hamilton Swan) and their sleek but troubled weimaraner, Beatrice (Can. Ch. Arokat's Echobar Take Me Dancing); Scott Donlon (John Michael Higgins) and Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean), a happy gay couple raising twin Shih Tzus, Miss Agnes (Can. Ch. Raptures Classic) and Tyrone (Can. Ch. Symarun's Red Hot Kisses); and airhead Sherri Ann Ward Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) married to a geriatric millionaire who has hired the lesbian dominatrix Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch) to train a two-time defending champion Rhapsody in White (Brocade Exclamation Ca. Ch. Exxel Dezi Duz It With Pizaz), the Standard Poodle.

The actual dog show is pretty much done straight in terms of what we see out on the floor (seeing Don S. Davis as the Best in Show judge was a treat). The characters might run their dogs around in their own manners, some with more flare than others (i.e., Higgins), but the dogs are trying their best. The same can be said for genial Buck Laughlin (Fred Willard), who is providing commentary on the dog show for the folks watching at home on television. Buck's comments have as little to do with what is actually going on as possible, while commentator Trevor Beckwith (Jim Piddock) tries to bear the errant slings and arrows coming out of Buck's mouth as he steals the last half of the movie.

The climax of the dog show is one of the subtlest jokes in "Best in Show," but if you think about America's affection for the underdog in sporting competitions, even those involving actual dogs, you will get the point. This is perhaps the most subtle of the Guest mockumentaries, which may or may not be saying something. Whether it becomes a personal favorite is going to depend on your affection for dogs as much as it does on your affection for the usual stable of players that Guest has once again rounded up for the festivities.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must have for dog lovers
Review: If you are a dog owner you will enjoy it even more. Mostly because you will able to relate to way the people interact with their dogs. Of course that is the focus of the movie, too make fun of the crazy dog owners in this world. It is none stop laughter. Two thumbs up...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tufnell and St Hubbins reunited
Review: It's terrific to see Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, the "fire and ice" song-writing combination of Nigel Tufnell and David St Hubbins from This is Spinal Tap, reunited, albeit as unrelated characters. Indeed, Guest's character, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of nuts and a hankering to learn more ventriloquism, isn't a million miles removed from the great Tap Guitarist.

I don't think Best In Show quite attains Spinal Tap's giddy heights, but it will give you plenty of belly laughs, and there are some very Tapular moments - My favourite: the couple that first saw each other in Starbucks... *different* Starbucks, across the street from each other!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious!!!
Review: I loved this movie. The cast was phenomenal and I laughed so hard during most of the movie that my mouth hurt from smiling. Christopher Guest has done it again! Catherine O'Hara is wonderful and Eugene Levy has unbeatable comic genius! Rent or buy it today!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: painful
Review: Dog shows have got to be funny, right? I mean, endless fodder, yes? Not if they're "Best in Show". I was ready to laugh - all of my friends seem to love this movie - but all I could think when watching it was "please kill me". Terrible acting from people who try waaay too hard to convey how quirky they must be. You can't force humor, people. I will avoid every movie that is ever compared favorably to this one. May I never have to see another movie as bad as this in my life, unless I'm being punished for something.


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