Without a doubt, Adam Sandler is one of the most successful people to "graduate" from Saturday Night Live. He's gone on to star in hit movies like "Billy Madison," "Happy Gilmore," "The Water Boy" and "Little Nicky" (oops...that one bombed). Sandler created many popular characters on the show; Cajun Man and Opera Man being two fan favorites.
I always cringe when I read "Best Of..." because those are some pretty strong words, and are very objective. Were these skits picked by Adam Sandler, the fans, the producers of the show, or are they just a bunch of random skits tossed together on a DVD? Whatever the case, most of them are very funny, and accurately represent the 4 years he spent on the show. It was also cleverly edited so the DVD flows from one skit to the next, appearing to be one whole Adam Sandler show that lasts 1:13. Sandler is joined by the regular cast of the show, and special guests Alec Baldwin, Shannon Doherty, Courtney Cox, Kirstie Ally, Jon Lovitz, Glenn Close, David Duchovny and Michael Keaton.
Video
Well, not much to complain about here. For the most part, Saturday Night Live is shot on video in front of a studio audience. Every once and awhile there will be a filmed piece, usually a commercial for a fake product (a beer commercial on this DVD). The master tapes must be in excellent condition, because I can't find a fault in them at all. In fact, the only fault in the video is some minor edge enhancement found in some scenes. This is a great looking DVD.
Audio
With the show being shot live, on stage, expectations for the audio have to be lowered somewhat. We get a 2.0 Dolby Stereo mix on this release, and while the dialog and music are clean, it's not all that exciting. The center channel is obviously dominant, with the other speakers providing a sound effect here and there, or music and the laughing of the crowd. There aren't any subtitles on this release, but it's closed captioned.
Photo Gallery (0:46)
A handful of animated photos are displayed. I think the "Special Features" should have been named "Photo Gallery" since I thought this was an animated intro to the special features section, but then I was kicked back to the main screen.
Summary
Fans might be saying to themselves, "but I already have this DVD" and you'd be correct for the most part; this DVD was released back in 1999, although this one has been changed slightly. They've added the photo gallery, and the menus might be different (I've never seen the first release). For Sandler fans who don't own the first disc, you should pick this up.
