French & Saunders: At the Movies (1994)

Ab Fab creators Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders star in this highlights program of the best skits and spoofs from their fourth season. Includes send-ups of Alien, Misery, Silence of the Lambs, stuffy costume dramas, and of course the royals.

Ab-Fab? Not quite this time, Honey!

Ok, humor is a very subjective thing. It is definitely a case of one man's trash being another man's treasure. Therefore, if you disagree with me on this one, I'm fully OK with that.

However, I couldn't wait until this movie was over! In no other film in recent memory can I remember wanting so much to fall asleep during it. I finally had to turn it off after about an hour a half of hoping (in vain) that it would get better.

Now, that's just my opinion of this particular work. You may feel free to take it or leave it. I promise not to be offended if "F&S At the Movies" had you rolling on the floor in laughter. (I may not let you pick out my next movie, but I won't be offended! LOL) British humor is kind of a "take it or leave it" kind of thing to the American mind in my experience. Much of British humor has me in stitches.

I rented this because I enjoyed F&S's work on the Ab-Fab shows. However, I think much of this film seems quite tailored to British culture, and many of the jokes will be lost on an American unless they happen to be a committed, dedicated and motivated Anglophile. A large amount of this movie is spoofing a number of American movies though, so it's not ALL going to be alien to the average American.

For the record, I'm not slamming French and Saunders in general. I do think that they are talented, and as I mentioned before, I have enjoyed Ab-Fab. It's just that the specific content of the sketches in this movie did not resonate with my "funny bone." Here and there were found some isolated jokes that were funny to me. However, it was tedious wading through the rest of it to get to these islands of humor.

On the positive side, what I did see of this movie did not contain anything offensive and was not excessively immoral. April 25, 2008

F&S At The Movies.

When they are funny no one does it better. But when they aren't, well, I never even watched thru to the end. October 27, 2005

THE FUNNIEST

This is the best French and Saunders DVD out there. I laughed none stop for nearly two hours. Their movie parodies are the best out there. Highly recommend it. November 16, 2003

Dated but still hillarious

This DVD is wonderful. It has all the sketches I remember from the early 90's plus a huge amount of bonus footage; Star Wars Movie sketches. Alot of the humor relates to British things like a sketch making fun of a famous tights (panty ho's) commerical. Or my personal favourite, House of Idiot.
Any one who remembers the "House of Eliott" will love this one. To top that off, three of the cast from House of Eliott make an appearance (Bea, Evy and Tilly)
I watched this with my little sister and she didn't get much of it at all as it's so dated and related to current events of the time it was made.
Still worth watching though!! April 2, 2003

Funny Entertainment Spoof by Talented Duo

"French and Saunders" are Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, two incredibly talented British comedic actresses/writers. This collection of spoofs and skits comes courtesy of the BBC.

While featuring several movie spoofs ("Misery", "Silence of the Lambs", "Thelma and Louise", etc) that is not the only genre lampooned by these gifted writers/actors.

In addition to films, they also try their hand at spoofing music videos (their take on Guns-n-Roses "November Rain", with Jennifer Saunders taking on the Axl role and Dawn French that of Slash, is absolutely hysterical), fashion models, high-brow mini-series (Upstairs Downstairs), the Royals, etc.

Of the film spoofs, the "Thelma and Louise" and "Silence of the Lambs" parodies stands out, as does a priceless take on "Star Wars:Phantom Menace". The "Star Wars" spoof is part of the BONUS selections on this DVD.

With tongue firmly in cheek, these two woman break down the fourth wall barrier and often interact out of character with each other, with uproarius results.

Among other topics, they turn their sharp wit to comment on the obvious superiority of Princess Diana over Sarah Ferguson (the DVD is dated 1994, which explains why the "Star Wars" skit is considered BONUS material) and how supermodel Jerry Hall "has it all".

The skits and lampoons here are right on the money, with detailed sets reproductions and props (many an inside joke on props are peppered throughout). Details count with any parody and are much appreciated here - From the costumes, down to the uncanny reproduction of Sigourney Weaver's voice (as portrayed by Jennifer Saunders) in the "Aliens" parody.

Jennifer Saunders has a gift with voices. She does not impersonate so much as interpret nuance (as Clarice in "Silence of the Lambs" and as Ripley in "Aliens").

As for pure, comedy sketches? If anyone has ever been inundated with mail order catalogs, there is an absolutely laugh-out-loud skit which centers around two women who have obviously purchased every catalog item ever produced.

This is an excellent, funny collection and one that you'll enjoy watching and watching again. I think once you've experienced the comic talents of these two very funny women, you'll be looking for additional "French and Saunders" collections.

Note please that I believe this DVD contains different material than the VHS tape, as there is no spoof on "The Exorcist" as indicated in some of the other reviews.

A quick rundown of some topics covered : "Misery", commercial spoofs, "November Rain" music video, Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, Jackie and Joan Collins, "Aliens", "American Gladiators", The Mama's and the Papa's music video, "Silence of the Lambs", catalog fans, Jerry Hall, "Thelma and Louise", "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace".

For the inside-joke fan, watch for references of Dawn French and windows or panes of glass. March 13, 2003

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