Best in Show
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Actor: Bob Balaban, Carrie Aizley, Jay Brazeau, Jehshua Barnes, Lewis ArquetteBrand: Warner Brothers
Primary Contributor: Jennifer Coolidge
Primary Contributor: Levy, Eugene
Primary Contributor: O'Hara, Catherine
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-05-15
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of Best in Show
DVD Review: Absolutely hilarious
Summary: 5 Stars
Apparently there are some people who have a negative impression of this film. Fine, but its not a slapstick comedy with goofy jokes. It is satirical and the humor is dry. All of the characters are stereotyped which makes this film so funny. Its not about the dogs, its about the characters who own them. I believe that if you do not think this film is funny then you either are comedically impaired, or lacking some IQ points. DVD Review: Unwatchable
Summary: 1 Stars
This movie might have been funny if the characters were likable or interesting. They aren't. Not everyone finds off-color humor hilarious, believe it or not.DVD Review: Get your busy bee in gear and buy this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
"Best in Show" is the best of the excellent four Christopher Guest improv movies. I suppose you could trace the origin of this run back to "This is Spinal Tap". If you are not familiar with "Waiting For Guffman", "A Mighty Wind", and "Four Your Consideration", "Best in Show" is the place to start.
Comedy that is smart, funny, and so perfectly performed by a true ensemble cast has to be in everyone's collection. BUY THIS MOVIE!
DVD Review: If you like the Westminster Dog show and off-color humor, you'll like this movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
"Best in Show" is a usually-funny unscripted parody of the renowned Westminster Kennel Club dog show and the obsessed dog-show handlers and owners of the dog-show world. Director/writer/actor Christopher Guest and Writer/actor Eugene Levy, wrote a detailed plot outline. But they left the dialogue for the actors to improv. If you haven't been to a dog show nor have seen Westminster on TV, you only have an endless string of off-color jokes to keep you entertained. But if you've observed the dog-show culture, even briefly, the movie's parody of Westminster and the crazed dog-show humans it attracts becomes even funnier.
The movie has the feel of Westminster down to the green carpet, and benching area where people obsess over every detail of their dog's appearance. Just as Westminster has its official hotel, the pet-friendly, New York Hotel Martinique, "Best in Show" has its official pet-friendly hotel too, complete with a utility closet full of Nature's Miracle and other dog-leavings clean-up products.
But what makes the movie truly funny are the parodies of the types of people often found entering dog shows. The funniest IMO was the gay couple who show up for a 2-day stay at the hotel loaded with kimonos and facial mud, and who even hung artwork on the walls. The majorly annoying neurotic Yuppie couple with the neurotic Weimaraner was also funny, particularly if you've had the misfortune of meeting somebody like that. The interplay between the Norwich Terrier owner who kept running into ex-boyfriends and the reaction of her nerdy husband, played by Eugene Levy was also quite amusing.
Unfortunately, although I thought Christopher Guest's bloodhound was adorable and had a lot of personality, I thought his "hillbilly schtick" every time he opened his mouth was rather boring. Although he had IMO the funniest character in his first mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap," I found his character in this movie to be the least interesting. (Just focus on his bloodhound who is full of personality if you're bored in those sections.)
Overall, I liked this movie. If you like dog shows and don't mind low brow campy humor, you'll probably like it too.
~Groovy Vegan (My Welsh Terrier's biological dad competed with Bill Cosby's Welsh Terrier in a dog show.)
DVD Review: This movie is based on a different worldview, but it is well done.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is unquestionably PG-13. I found this movie a bit too vulgar in many places. But that does not change the fact that this was a very funny movie, and very well done.
There are deleted scenes included after the VHS version of this product. Those scenes weren't at all bad -- some of them were deleted because the movie went a different direction with a couple of the aftermath stories, while others would have just made the movie longer. The deletion of the scenes shows that they made the movie just the correct length and knew when to stop. Other movies went on to a part of boredom, and this movie did not.
I am doing research on dog shows for a novel I'm writing. "Best In Show" is not making fun of dog shows but rather having fun with them. From the audience's point of view, the stars are the dogs. With the exception of Beatrice the Weimaraner, the dogs didn't really contribute to the movie. In the movie, the focus was on the characters.
A couple of reviews say people take dog shows too seriously, and some do but for others it's an enjoyable hobby. For example, I went to an agility show and it seems to be where people and dogs can have fun together. The conformity part, which is where this movie focuses (there are also obedience trials and herding as well as agility, and the same dog may compete in several of these events), is more of the beauty pagaent, but the reality is it is a group of animal lovers. Some are as quirky as the characters in the movie, but not all.
One strength was the low key approach to the movie. John Michael Higgins and Fred Willard have stand out performances, but they would be best described as "flamboyant" rather than over the top. While there is some suspension of disbelief in this movie (e.g. Eugene Levy's character having two left feet), the characters are all realistic and not removed from real life. My hunch is that if a viewer is rooting for a certain character it is a subjective choice, and a different viewer may identify just as strongly with a different character. There are no antagonists. The only character I was hoping wouldn't win were the two-time defending champion, just because they were the two-time defending champion (I have the same view in sports as well).
The casting is perfect. There are hints of improv in here. It doesn't have a completely unscripted feeling but there are parts where I have a hunch that an actor has his own script but does not know (or at least does not expect) what another actor will say. My favorite joke is that the Yuppie couple met at Starbucks -- not the same Starbucks: they saw each other in different Starbucks across the street from each other. (I also liked the "Phantom Hill" joke in the extra scenes.)
I've never watched the Spinal Tap movie (or Guffman) but I saw the TV special. Christopher Guest and Michael McKean (one of my favorite comic actors) were in the TV version. I think I caught a Spinal Tap allusion when the hotel manager was talking about a rock band staying there.
The quality of the artmanship earned this movie the five stars I'm giving it. I was embarrassed and disgusted with parts of this movie, because of my world view. Likewise, I would not recommend that children see this movie. What is needed is a straight PG (if not G) rated movie on dog shows so that children can enjoy the story as well.
Description of Best in Show
A blue ribbon look at dog show participants and the pooches who love them. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 02/03/2004 Starring: Christopher Guest Catherine Ohara Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Christopher GuestChristopher Guest, the man behind Waiting for Guffman, turns his comic eye on another little world that takes itself a bit too seriously: the world of competitive dog shows. Best in Show follows a clutch of dog owners as they prepare and preen their dogs to win a national competition. They include the yuppie pair (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) who fear they've traumatized their Weimaraner by having sex in front of him; a suburban husband and wife (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) with a terrier and a long history of previous lovers on the wife's part; the Southern owner of a bloodhound (Guest himself) with aspirations as a ventriloquist; and many more. Following the same "mockumentary" format of Spinal Tap and Guffman, Best in Show takes in some of the dog show officials, the manager of a nearby hotel that allows dogs to stay there, and the commentators of the competition (a particularly knockout comic turn by Fred Willard as an oafish announcer). The movie manages to paint an affectionate portrait of its quirky characters without ever losing sight of the ridiculousness of their obsessive world. Almost all of the scenes were created through improvisation. While lacking the overall focus of a written script, Best in Show captures hilarious and absurd aspects of human behavior that could never be written down. The movie's success is a testament to both the talent of the actors and Guest's discerning eye. --Bret Fetzer
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