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saturday night live the best of phil hartman | Year: 2004 Classification: Television Starts Out Good But Falters At The End For 8 years, Pil Hartman kept America laughing as one of (if not the ) most versatile castmembers on "Saturday Night Live". Judging by his long line of work, it would be hard to find just 20 sketches that would qualify as his best. In 1998, shortly after he was murdered by his wife Brynne, Lorne Michaels and Company came up with "Saturday Night Live: The Best Of Phil Hartman", which was soon released on dvd. The results were okay at best. The first half is hilarious. "The Sinatra Group" is my favorite, especiially the Sinead O'Connor (Jan Hooks) jokes. Also worth a view are "Clinton At McDonald's" and "Discover The World Of Science With Peter Graves", in which Hartman plays the screen veteran as a bumbling idiot (so gold is long and thin like, say, Kareem Abdul Jabaar?). Best of all, there's a montage of his impressions. So many people watch him for his Bill Clinton that they forget his repitoire ranged from Ted Kennedy to Burt Reynolds to Jesus. After the "All Drug Olympics" sketch, the dvd falters a bit, but enjoys a resurgance of hilarity with "Cooking With The Anal Retentive Chef". But skecthes like "Robot Repair" and "On Broadway With Brenda Krouse" just weren't as good as I expected. The final sketch is "Love Is A Dream", a short film with an ending that will leave you misty - eyed. Overall, not a bad set, but it could have been a better sketch. For instance, where was the sketch where he's Frank Sinatra and he's recording his "Duets" album and he doesn't like his partners? 3 1/2 Stars; Could've Been Better When Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife, he left behind something that nobody could take from him - his legacy. As possibly "Saturday Night Live's" most versatile star, he was a major influence on later, equally great castmembers Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond (who is the only castmmebrs whose Bill Clinton impersonation matched up to Hartman). As always, when he died, Lorne and company decided it was time to put together a tribute show as they did for Chris Farley. The resulting "The Best Of Phil Hartman" was mixed at best. The first half is hilarious. Here, he gest to show up his versatillity in such roles as Frank Sinatra ("The Sinatra Group"), Bill Clinton ("Clinton At McDonald's"), Peter Graves ("Discover The World Of Science"), Phil Donahue ("Donahue"), and "Barbara Bush (don't know name of sketch, but features Nancy Reagan (Jan Hooks) trying to take back the White House). Also, there's a great montage of his impressions. He became so well known for playing Bill Clinton, people forget that his repetoire included Ted Kennedy, Andy Griffith, Telly Savalas, Michael Caine and even Jesus. Also, there's his infamous "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" and one, the "Weekend Update' "All Drug Olympics". But after this, the dvd falters. While "Cooking With The Anal Retentive Chef" "Succinctly Speaking", and the touching closer "Love Is A Dream" are worth viewing, the second montage (don't know what it's about), "On Broadway", "Ann Boleyn" and "Robot Repair" rank among the worst "SNL" skecthes ever. Is this dvd worth viewing? Yes. But is it perfect? By all means, no. How could it have been better? First, they could've taken out the entire second half (with the eexception of "Anal Retentive Chef", "Succinctly Speaking", and "Love Is A Dream") and replaced it with the "Sinatra Duets" sketch, another Clinton one, and a montage of his voiceovers. I think Phil Hartman deserves a best - of, volume 2. Should have been better... I read all the reviews of this, and i found the one extremely negative one and figured it was just some moron that didn't know what he was talking about. After buying this and watching it, i realized that he was way closer to the truth than any of the other reviewers. This dvd contains about 4 funny sketches, tops. I remember phil hartman being way funnier than he is portrayed on this dvd, and i have a theory as to why this one stinks as bad as it does.<BR>-Phil Hartman is an extremely funny and talented actor, but for some reason he was written in as a funny "side guy" in a lot of sketches, and the ones where he is the main character, he is usually doing an impression of someone or it is just plain boring, for whatever reason. Therefore, to see Phil Hartman in his top form, you would be better off buying Adam Sandler's, Mike Myers', or Chris Farley's dvds, because theirs probably have all the sketches in which we remember Phil Hartman being so funny. The only sketches left by the time they got around to making Hartman's dvd were the ones we would have been better off forgetting. The only things worth watching on this dvd are "cooking with the anal retentive chef" and "the all drug olympics," which is about 10 seconds long. I hate to write a review like this because i really loved phil hartman, but it is a shame that i would rather watch the "bad" ones on the will ferrell dvd than the "good" ones on this dvd. Sorry. Buy Saturday Night Live The Best Of Phil Hartman at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Saturday Night Live The Best Of Phil Hartman Search with the Priority Search Engine on Saturday Night Live The Best Of Phil Hartman This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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