Customer Reviews

Fatboy Slim: The Greatest Hits, Why Make Videos

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There's a good argument that suggests Norman Cook's been off the boil in the production department since the late 1990s, but it's hard to fault his canny choice of video producers over the years. While early copies of his current career-salvaging hits package Why Try Harder? featured a handy bonus disc compendium of 10 of his finest creations, Why Make Videos? expands the collection with a DVD that includes a few additional rarities from the Fatboy vaults.
Obvious highlights include Spike Jonze's masterful productions for Praise You (featuring Jonze himself dancing up a storm in a cinema lobby) and Weapon Of Choice (featuring Hollywood nutbag Christopher Walken dancing up a storm in a hotel lobby - is there a pattern emerging here?), but similarly impressive are Hammer & Tongs' evolutionary countdown Right Here Right Now, Traktor's Caribbean dancerama Ya Mama and the bizarre kitten world of The Joker.
You'll rarely see ol' Norman pop up in these creations (aside from a painting on a wall here, a brief background perusal there), yet that's what makes many of these clips so visually arresting. Each music director is given ample room to let their imaginations run wild, ensuring that the numerous MTV Video Awards won by these clips are well deserved.
Aside from the 16 regular promos presented on this disc, there's also a documentary and some live footage, although among the `unreleased' videos is footage already available on the Director's Series - Spike Jonze DVD.
Yes, Palookaville was lame, but check out this charismatic visual collection for a reminder that Fatboy Slim is still a funky soul brother.

it is interesting - but....it would appear little effort has been put in to make this a must-get DVD. The video is as per original ie not digitally enhanced and the audio is AC3-2 channel. Having put up with that - you have to then accept that there is no 'play all' option for the videos. After each vidoe finishes, you are directed back to the menu screen to choose the next video. This is all far too manual and very annoying. Surely a little bit more effort could be put into this DVD to make it worthwhile.

I always knew I would buy this DVD when it finally came out, but its so much more than I was expecting. I'm a pretty big fan and many things were still new to me! Lots of extras too! And where else can you get these videos? Two videos on this were voted greatest video of all time by vh1 and mtv. And its historical...although I was a little disappointed they didn't get spike jonze on the documentary, over all I was very impressed with it. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE!

WHERE THA HECK IS THA "PLAY ALL" OPTION ON THIS THING??? I was enjoying the first video until i realized it wouldn't automatically segway into the next video! And the picture quality on some of the videos is appalling.

Other than those problems, you still get great music, some great videos, and some good extras at a good price. Just don't expect to be playing this disc in the background at your next party or get-together(unless you plan on just sitting there with the remote ready to switch to the next video).

I am very disappointed in the "quality" of the DVD. I can't think of any reason why Weapon Of Choice couldn't have been better quality, and even the menus look poor. The videos are pretty much the same as watching a standard YouTube video - or for instance, I could have taped Weapon Of Choice off broadcast TV on my old VCR and gotten a better copy than this.

I keep finding myself putting this DVD back in over and over just to watch one of the funny and inspiring videos in this collection. Granted, several of them aren't worth the time wasted to watch to begin with (just to hear the music, which was the initial purpose of his videos IIRC), but several of them are just too good to watch once. Ones that come to mind are Ya Mama (for a GREAT laugh every time), Weapon of Choice, Demons, and Slash Dot Dash (need a wake up call?). Each are very well made and go with the music beautifully. I constantly come back to these videos more than ANY OTHER VIDEO I've ever seen.

Others, like Praise You, The Joker, Gangster Trippin', and borderline "That Old Pair of Jeans" took a great song and glued an awkward, goofy music "video" onto it. Praise You was almost embarassing. The Joker... well, contest winner, okay, that's acceptable. But Gangster Trippin'? Watch it once, okay, that's all you need. "That old pair of jeans" is a great song with great juggling (AMAZING, I might add), but what's the association?

Hey, there's more on this DVD than just the videos though. There's a documentary on the videos, which is an entertaining insight into the making of the videos, as well as a sneak peek into what Fatboy Slim does for a living - putting on HUGE shows. Quite the awesome sight for those of us not lucky enough to be able to see one in person. ;-)

It's still a great DVD despite its shortcomings. If you get the "Greatest Hits: Why Try Harder?" CD, get this DVD. And vice versa. They go great together!

Christopher Walken video is ok as well as 'Praise Me'.
That's about it.