Ricky Gervais: Out Of England (HBO DVD)

 

Picture: C-     Sound: C-     Extras: D     Feature: B-

 

 

Ricky Gervais has got to be the biggest British star to be almost completely ignored by Hollywood.  The fact that such a brilliant man can only manage to get bit parts in Night at the Museum and Stardust is criminal.  And oh yeah, there was Ghost Town.  That movie came out last year and I’ve already forgotten it.

 

But Gervais’ two-stop US comedy tour Out of England shows us here in the colonies exactly why he deserves better roles.  The man is brilliant.  Better yet, let him write a starring vehicle for himself, team him up with director Edgar Wright, and you’re sitting on a goldmine.

 

Generally speaking, however, I have a bit of trouble with standup DVDs.  I just don’t think that I’ll ever watch them enough to really make them worth it.  While Gervais himself might actually be enough to overcome this prejudice of mine, the disc only includes one extra feature to support its case: a ten-minute interview with Gervais, intercut with clips from the routine.

 

The picture quality is a bit lacking, with some softness in the motion, probably due to compression.  The frame is in an anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 /16:9 aspect ratio.  The sound, in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, has a bit of reverb on it from the venue.  Possibly because the audio may have been recorded with a second microphone rather than just tapping into the house sound system.  Honestly though, neither the picture nor the sound quality are all that important for a standup routine so long as you can hear the jokes.

 

Gervais really is a brilliant comedian, so much so that he’s giving me a run for my money with my usual disdain for standup DVDs.  Let’s hope that he becomes more of a presence in the US and that we can do better than remaking his material like we did with The Office.

 

 

-   Matthew Carrick