Holy Schnike!
Tommy is always a near failure. Having barely passed college, and life in general, he returns home to work for his father, Big Tom, in their auto part factory. Big Tom has aspirations of having one of the nicest brake divisions that the country has ever seen. Wanting to keep a struggling town in business, Big Tom talks the bank into giving his company the loan they need to make his aspiration a reality. Tommy, who gets hired in to help run the company (which he really can’t do) finds himself lost and confused, while being tortured by his accountant friend, Richard. In all of this madness, Tommy finds out that his father is going to get married and that the marriage is going to happen immediately. During the end of the reception, Big Tom suddenly up and dies, which leaves Tommy alone with a shady step-mother (she’s still hot) and a company’s future in doubt. Needing to pay the bank back for the money borrowed to build the brake pad division of the company, Tommy and Richard must sell brake pads so that they can keep the company which was put up for collateral. Will they save the company and the town? Or is Tommy’s history of screw-ups going to screw over the town? Only the movie will tell.
Okay, you know the formula. This movie, or at least the type of story, has been beaten to death over the years. You know the lovable loser is going to win, not to ruin it for you, and that the bad guys are going to lose. The loser will overcome incredible odds in incredible ways to find one way to win. It’s basically the formula for every 80s movie made. The difference in this one? The comedy team of Farley and Spade bring some very fun back-and-forth comedy to the movie. It truly makes it a funny, one-liner experience. That’s basically what moves the movie through the story so well. You’ve got jokes about maids, jokes about someone getting hit in the head with a piece of wood, just all sorts of humor to be had. In 1995, it was funny. In 2008, it is still funny. I honestly cannot say enough about how well these two worked off each other and how it’s just a terrible shame that Farley didn’t live to see his prime. Much like John Belushi, who was brilliant, it’s a tragedy to see such good talent (and a good person) pass before they truly lived.
Thankfully, Paramount preserves the best of Farley in this Blu-ray and it still carries tons of laughs (no pun intended).
Little movie on a Blu-ray…. Little movie on a Blu-ray….
There is always a concern for a movie that is a certain amount of years old when it gets transferred to Blu-ray HD. For Tommy Boy it went well, but not overly well. The HD transfer still maintains some film artifacts in the shot once-in-awhile. The picture looks good, much better than the Theatrical version or the DVD version, but you still see some artifacts show up in the shot here and there. It’s good, but I’ve seen better transfer. As for the audio, you get some good 5.1. Audio is rarely messed up on a Blu-ray and they pulled it off perfectly here. I think that it’s quite possibly overkill, but I’d rather have too much goodness than not enough. At least you’ll get to hear the boys sing in TrueHD.
Now, having given kudos to the picture and audio, here’s what you get with the special features:
– Commentary by Director Peter Segal
– Four Featurettes:
– Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter
– Stories from the Side of the Road
– Just the Two of U
– Growing Up Farley
– Six Deleted Scenes
– Six Alternate Takes
– 15 Extended Scenes
– Seven Storyboard Comparisons
– 19 Television Spots
– Gag Reel
– Photo Gallery
– Theatrical Trailer (HD)
These are a nice set of features. You get a lot of behind-the-scenes look with the featurettes and some detail about Farley (which is great). You also get some fantastic commentary from Peter Segal, who did well with this film. The deleted, alternate and extended scenes are good, not great (there’s a reason for cutting these or not including them). The Gag Reel is hilarious, it’s always fun to watch the actors have a good time, especially these actors. These are a great set of features for this film that’s now 13 years old.
With that said, if you own the 2005 version of the DVD, you get these features. This doesn’t make them any less interesting, just know that you get practically the same content. The Blu-ray is still worth it, though.
