The SmarK DVD Rant for There’s Something (More) About Mary
– There are times when I wonder if the Farrelly Brothers are somehow incapable of making a bad movie. That’s pretty high praise for a couple of gross-out artists doing screwball comedies, but taking a look at their body work, there isn’t a clunker in the bunch — Dumb and Dumber, the criminally underappreciated Kingpin, Me Myself & Irene and the hilarious Shallow Hal. Cinema is their canvas, and bad taste is their palette.
In 1998, coming off the crushing defeat of Kingpin, I don’t think anyone expected that a movie with cult favorite Ben Stiller and washed-up Matt Dillon as the stars would set off a pop culture phenomenon. But there’s just something about Mary
Released in the summer of 1998, this was never a movie that rushed to the top of the box office and crushed the competition — it pretty much started at 10,000,000 and just hung on with that same total for another three months until it was sitting at a domestic gross of $175,000,000 and the Farrelly Brothers were laughing to the bank. Word of mouth turned this thing from just another light summer comedy into a bombshell on the box office.
The DVD was originally released in 1999 with a director’s commentary and nothing else, and I’m at a loss as to why Fox decided to double-dip this one now, but boy did they ever give you your money’s worth this time around.
The Film:
I believe I’ve made my disdain for romantic-comedies well known in the past. Well, this movie is the opposite — a comedic-romance.
The Farrelly Brothers have a special gift for not only doing what countless other “spoof” directors can do — silly sight gags and gross-out humor — but also a real heart to the movies, so that they actually make you care about the characters before they humiliate and torture them in every way possible. Compare to say, Scary Movie, which was funny, but I didn’t remember a single character when I left the theater. With this movie and their other movies, you come out of it intimately remembering Mary (the fox), Pat (the mook) and Ted (the bleeder) because they take the time (sometimes too much time, but we’ll get to that later) developing them as people. And then mutilating them.
The plot is this: In 1985, loser Ted Strohman, 16 years old and with a mouth full of braces, falls in love with wicked awesome superbabe Mary, and after rescuing her retarded brother Warren from bullies, gets unexpectedly asked to the prom by her. This sets off the first of the numerous explosively funny sequences in the movie, as the unique architecture of the house and some unfortunately-situated birds lead Mary to think Ted was peeping on her while in the bathroom. Ted’s panicked reaction results in the most painful of all male mishaps, which by now I’m sure you know about either from seeing the movie or watching the commercials. There’s a brilliant bit of comedy in there, too, as various characters enter the bathroom and talk about what they see, until you think that there’s no way they’re ever going to SHOW the, uh, affected area, at which point they do. And the anticipation makes it all the funnier (“How did you get the franks above the beans?”) I would also be remiss in not stopping to mention the awesome, show-stealing performance of Keith David as Mary’s father here, as he is unfortunately left behind by the plot to open a can of whoop-ass off-screen instead.
From there the story jumps ahead 13 years, as Ted goes into therapy (with a decidedly unprofessional therapist) and reminisces with friend Dom about the girl who got away. Dom encourages him to go after her, and gives him the name of a PI who works for his insurance company — Pat Healy, a mook if there ever was one. Using listening devices for exactly the opposite of their intended use, Pat learns all the right things to say to woo Mary for himself (“But the thing is really love is working with retards. There’s this one kid, Mongo “) and pretty soon there’s a whole assortment of weirdos all chasing after Mary for themselves.
But plot in a movie like this is entirely secondary, and rightly so. In fact, they spend almost too much time worrying about plot and characterization, leaving the movie clocking in at a lengthy 2 hours. The real star of this movie is the Farrelly Brothers determination to offend everyone on the face of the earth while making them laugh at the same time. You all know about the “hair gel” gag, which in any other movie would have ruined the careers of both Stiller and Diaz, and the man v. dog fight scene that’s right out of the WWE, but there’s so many more little sequences that often get lost in discussion of the big ones. Magda’s makeout session with the dog, the mindgames between Norm and Healy (admittedly a pretty even playing field), and W. Earl Brown’s amazing performance as Warren. It’s a movie where can you can watch multiple times (like I have) and find new nuances in the humor to laugh at each time.
There are flaws, of course. The movie is too long by about half an hour. The new DVD, featuring the extended edition, only makes that worse by adding in a pointless subplot about Sully, Healy’s cokehead cop friend, that doesn’t add anything to the story. The “gay bathhouse of the highway” sequence with Harland Williams and 7-Minute Abs, while hilarious, is also unnecessary and probably would have been better served in the deleted scenes section of a DVD. And I didn’t buy Chris Elliot as the person he was supposed to be.
But that’s all minor, because this is, simply put, one of the funniest movies EVER, on par with Airplane and the Naked Gun, and it also holds up as a movie without the gags, which is a rare feat indeed. More than just gross-out humor (although it’s very gross) and more heartfelt than its R-rating would imply (although it’s VERY adult-oriented, with tons of swearing, more than I remembered, and jokes that will raise more questions with kids than parents will be comfortable with), this is simply a great movie, period.
Now, when’s the movie about the conjoined twins coming out
The Video:
Doesn’t look terribly different than the original DVD release in 1999, but it’s pretty nice nonetheless. It’s available in either 1.85:1 widescreen or pan-and-scam editions. I didn’t notice any flaws in the video and the bright colors of Miami are all well-represented here. I don’t think it’s a redo, but it apparently didn’t need one anyway.
The Audio:
It’s in Dolby 5.1, but all the audio is from the center channel anyway. The surrounds weren’t really used, nor were they needed in the first place. Dialogue is crisp and clear anyway.
The Extras:
Whee, doggie! Now you’re talking special features!
On the first disc, you get
– As noted, the movie is featured in either the theatrical or extended editions, as the new version adds 15 minutes of footage into the movie, and most of it sucks. I liked the original better.
– Audio commentary over the extended version by Peter & Bobby Farrelly, which is the same one from the original disc. BUT, they also did a commentary on their COMMENTARY (honest!) that features “bonus” commentary where they make more up-to-date comments on the movie. Now that’s a unique feature.
– Audio commentary on the theatrical edition from the writers. This is new, although I had already watched the movie twice and didn’t feel like listening to it.
– The alternate “claymation” title sequence, with commentary from P&B.
Then, on the second disc, you get a BUTTLOAD of stuff
– “Getting Behind Mary”, a 45-minute featurette showing P&B working with the actors and how seriously the actors take comedy. Basically footage from alternate takes and rehearsal sessions shows how certain scenes and gags evolved from script to shooting. Great stuff.
– “Backstory: Something About Mary”, a half-hour making-of show from AMC, which I assume is a channel in the US, which is really interesting and details how the script was optioned in 1988 and was left to die for 10 years.
– “Comedy Central Reel Comedy: There’s Something About Mary”. Another making-of show to hype the movie, hosted by Harland Williams.
– Interviews with Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliot, Harland Williams, W. Earl Brown and Jonathan Richman. All of them are really funny and informative. Lee Evans is oddly missing from the whole set of features.
– Footage from the “Best Fight” award presentation in 1999 for the MTV Movie Awards, which brings on the ILM skit about Puffy the Dog. Ben Stiller is always gold in those things.
– “Behind the Zipper”, a silly featurette, hosted by Magda, about the phenomenon of zippers and penises.
– “Puffy, Boobs and Balls”, a featurette about the makeup of the movie that doubles as an interview with Lynn Shaye, aka Magda.
– “Marketing Mary”, which has the trailer and a million different TV spots, all of which are totally different and thus a refreshing change from the repetitive nature of these sorts of extras.
– “Around the World With Mary”, which as the final scene with 8 different language options.
– “Buttercup” karaoke video.
– “Every Day Should Be a Holiday” music video, by the Dandy Warhols.
WHEW. It took me close to 3 hours to watch everything on the second disc, which is a nice chunk of stuff for a movie I enjoy so much. The only thing this disc is possibly lacking is a DTS soundtrack, but it wouldn’t really make use of it anyway. Other than that, this is a slam-bang home-run special edition that has to be considered the definitive one. I hope.
The Ratings:
The Film: ****
The Video: ****1/2
The Audio: **
The Extras: *****
