Saturday Night Live: 25 Years Of Laughs | Dan Aykroyd, Alec Baldwin

Saturday Night Live: 25 Years Of Laughs | Dan Aykroyd, Alec Baldwin | Excellent Collection

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Saturday Night Liv...

	Saturday Night Live: 25 Years Of Laughs Dan Aykroyd, Alec Baldwin NBC Home Video, 1999 average customer review:based on 36 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Like many of the clips that make up the bulk of its content, the Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary special suffers from that malady specific to almost every SNL sketch: it starts out brilliantly, loses steam about halfway through, then slowly but gamely limps to the finish line with occasional spurts of humor. This special (which actually marks the show's 24th anniversary, but never you mind about those small details!) gathered almost all of the Saturday Night Live alumni--well, the funny ones, anyway--for a celebration of the show's entrenchment in the cultural landscape. It's basically an occasion to show a lot of clips, ranging in time from the Coneheads to Mary Katherine Gallagher, put together in a sprightly, rapid-pace manner and interspersed with occasional live audience-interaction bits. An hysterically funny Bill Murray kicks things off as a lounge singer at an Indian reservation casino who hobnobs with the celebrity audience members; Tom Hanks, a fave guest host, offers up a lively Q&A session (with a dryly funny Christopher Walken, among others); and Billy Crystal revives his Fernando persona to great effect. Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, and Steve Martin provide the best cast tribute, warmly remembering John Belushi while wryly offering up memorabilia for online auction, and Jan Hooks introduces a heartfelt short film featuring her and the late Phil Hartman. Other cast members, with the notable absence of Eddie Murphy and the surprise appearance of Norm MacDonald, pop up for various intros of clips--some are funny (Dennis Miller), some are not (Adam Sandler), some are obviously uncomfortable (David Spade), but at about the halfway mark it all starts to wear on you, like most tribute shows. Still, the stable of classic skits (including a surprisingly strong showing from the current cast) make this worth sticking around for. And at least this time, unlike during the live broadcasts, you can fast-forward through the unfunny parts. --Mark Englehart

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Classic.... Just classic!

I haven't seen anything this funny in a long time. There doesn't seem to be anyone in Hollywood (who's funny) that isn't on this DVD. The old (Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain, The Blues Brothers, etc.) and the newer (Mike Meyers, Chris Rock, Will Farrell, etc.). Some of the best SNL ever and the DVD has got to be over 3 hours long. I really enjoyed this and will watch it many times with my friends and family. You get your money's worth here, and more.

Excellent Collection

SNL- 25th Anniversary really shows the best of the best. Running about 2 hours and 40 minutes long, you get the history of the show for sure. The musical guests were excellent, and the tributes to the ones that have sadly passed on were touching and times very sad especially when Jon Lovitz can barely speak when having to give an intro to the memory of Phil Hartman because he is literally holding back tears.

This is a loving tribute to the first 25 years of SNL and I really do pray that it will go on for 25 more, and I really do think it will

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vintage snl for baby boomers

all the classics, really laugh out loud. some skits seem flat now. but others, while outdated ,give
nice feeling of nostalgia. also some favorites are deceased now and that
makes it more a treasure. ck

great nostalgia

I only started watching SNL in early 2001 after moving to the US from Britain, and hadn't heard much of it before then apart from knowing that was where the Blues Brothers movie etc had originated. I soon became an avid watcher, partly because of a teeny weeny crush on Tina Fey but also because I loved Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon, amd later on, Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler.

I bought this DVD because I was keen to have a look for myself at some of the older stuff that other SNL fans were in raptures about. I have to say some of it was a bit dated, somewhat inevitably, but a lot of it was still very funny. I guess the people putting it together avoided topical political stuff, which quickly dates, although some of the stuff like impressions of various presidents holds up well.

On a slightly macabre level, I loved the opportunity to watch people who have since died, particularly the outstandingly charismatic performers such as John Belushi and Chris Farley. In fact, the funniest thing on the whole show for me was Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney - funny and sweet all at the same time!

The show is put together pretty smoothly, with current performers coming out and introducing each set of skits, which fits well with the DVD format since I can skip easily to the bits I regularly rewatch - I do think it could have been divided into shorter sections though. The introductions were quite variable in quality as other reviewers have pointed out, I was hoping for better things from Chris Rock and Adam Sandler for example. I was also a bit disappointed with the musical guests - it's a shame the Beastie Boys didn't get to play for real, and the Eurythimcs got too long, good though they were. I suppose the music had to a mix of up tempo and relaxing stuff to fit the mood of the show.

I really enjoyed the special features like the interviews with former cast members and with Lorne Michaels, and I loved watching all the stars turn up in their tuxedos and dresses - there was such a sense of anticipation beforehand! The atmosphere was clearly very convivial among the audience, one could tell that former anxieties and tensions were put aside for the evening and former cast members and writers were all very much aware that the show was much bigger than they ever were.

I really recommend this DVD for fans of SNL. Its the kind of show that you can dip into here and there according to your mood. Buy it and enjoy!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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