Best Of The Chris Rock Show 1 & 2
HBO Home Video
Cast: Chris Rock
Extras: Taxi Driver Confessions, Biography
Rating:
Comedy is king if you're Chris Rock. It's also a riot. "The Chris Rock Show" was a sketch-oriented HBO cable show performed live in New York City in 1997. Anything went; nothing was sacred. Dave Chapelle take notes. Chris Rock laughed and cursed, and poked fun at grass, cocaine, white women, black women, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Mike Tyson, P. Diddy, Al Sharpton, and Tupac Shakur.
Volume One features skits like "Damn Fools," the exploits of idiots (among those interviewed are decapitated heads and a sewer rat) while Volume Two provides, among others, "Halle Berry 911," with the Oscar-winner running over people in her SUV. This is some funny stuff.
Rock takes to the streets of Harlem, examining the influence of Tiger Woods in the ghetto. Blacks and whites are lampooned equally, without prejudice. In Rock's famous "man-on-the-street" series, he interviews the common man in South Carolina, proposing an alternative to the Confederate Flag. This is the deep South. Kinda ballsy.
In "Free Bobby Brown," Rock leads a candlelight vigil outside Bobby Brown's prison. And there's more! He exposes "Mr. Sweet Potato Head" and other racist toys, and he tours the "Make You Wait" hair salon. Finally, you get Rock's "Taxi Driver Confessions," in which the star is concealed in a wig and glasses, disguised as a New York cab driver. Rock picks up unsuspecting riders at 2:00 AM, and drives around, alternately sipping on a gin bottle and hitting a pipe. The reactions of his customers are priceless.
There are no extras for any of the discs, really, but you do get a bio, and 29 extra minutes of "Taxi Driver Confessions."
Both discs feature the original fullframe presentation of the show and comes with Dolby Stereo treatments. The video-taped programs are of good visual quality with strong colors and little bleeding. However, the taxi cab sequences are dark, murky, and poorly lit, due to the use of two small hidden cameras. The sound is so muffled, that I suspect that the microphone is lying on the floor.
The release also contains a very funny "Sex And The City" spoof as a hidden feature that you can find here.
Both "Best of the Chris Rock Show" and "Best of the Chris Rock Show Volume 2" have been released individually before, almost five years ago. If you've already got these discs, stop now. But if you don't have these, go get your credit card, close all the other windows, and move the mouse to the "Buy" button now! Order these discs by express mail! Life is full of trauma and tension. The cure for the common cold (and civilization) is Chris Rock. Born, raised and still iving in Brooklyn, Chris Rock is simply the funniest comic in America today. In March 2005, he hosted the Academy Awards show in Hollywood. On live-TV, in front of millions, he made fun of the richest, most famous black woman in the world. Her name is Oprah, and believe me, that was funny too.
