Director
Bill Couturié
Cast
George Clooney
Pierce Brosnan
Danny DeVito
Morgan Freeman
Jodie Foster
Francis Ford Coppola
DVD Release Date: November 14, 2006
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 80 Minutes
The Movie
I’m one of those people who never likes to read what any movie critics have to say. Odd coming from someone who reviews DVD’s and gives you my thoughts and such, but I’m serious. If a movie comes out to bad reviews, I don’t ever think to myself, “Hmm I guess I shouldn’t see that movie because it got only a four from so-and-so.” If I see a trailer and think to myself that a movie looks good, you can guarantee I’ll go see it.
Now mind you, I will read the critic’s reviews after I’ve seen a film. And I’ll read online reviews from viewers like yourself to get an idea if what I thought of a film is like what othe’s think. Sure it’s interesting to get the thoughts of everyone else, but what about those that were in the movie you watched? Did they think their movie sucked? Did they have enough faith in themselves to think it could be a blockbuster?
Now that intrigues the hell out of me. And that is what BOFFO! gives you.
The film does not take you on a chronological journey through the history of film from past to present. It takes some actors, directors, and producers and has them give their thoughts on the films they helped create. Then it takes other actors, directors, and producers and has them give their thoughts on the films of their peers.
It really is great to see actors saying what they truly feel about the movies they make. You’re not going to get the hard-sell here trying to get you go run to the theatre or go buy the DVD to make them money and make their films a success. These celebrities discuss how good some films they didn’t star in were, and then will actually rip apart some films they were in calling them total “flops.”
One of the great things BOFFO! does is take films from every genre available and give them a little screen time. Sure you can go out to the store and pick up a DVD copy of Ocean’s Eleven or Cast Away, but this documentary actually has clips from Howard The Duck. Ok yeah so that movie was horribly written, directed, and acted”¦but I love seeing it again.
BOFFO! takes you through an entire process without ever actually telling you that they are giving you an outline on how to make a feature film. You will learn how things begin, how risky things in the business can be, and how money also makes the film world go round. But perhaps the most important thing that you can take from this film is that in Hollywood”¦nobody knows anything.
The Video
The documentary is shown in 16:9 Letterbox and looks fine. For a documentary that is virtually all interviews, there isn’t much to expect here in how it looks. But one thing I noticed is that the interviews actually look better then the movie clips. The clips are somewhat dull, a bit grainy, and don’t look very sharp at all.
The Audio
Heard in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound, it sounds just fine too. Again, it’s not much more then interviews. The movie clips sound great of course, but it’s not like we are getting enough to say the sound needs to be much more then “alright” to sound good while people are talking.
Special Features
Not a one.
The Inside Pulse
For a documentary on what those actually in the business of making films think of the work they do, then BOFFO! does a fantastic job. A huge array of different actors from every movie genre give us their thoughts on every movie from JAWS to Pulp Fiction to Driving Miss Daisy, and it’s really interesting to see what they think of each othe’s performances. And I’ve just got to say that George Clooney is one funny sunuva bitch. Problem is that once the movie is over, that’s it for the lack of extras really hurts a very good film.
