Customer Reviews

Sunday Morning Shootout: Best of Season One

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Let me start by telling those unfamiliar with the series about its tone: Peter Bart and Peter Guber are interested in what makes Hollywood tick. They are not interested in the tabloid side of Hollywood stars' lives, they want to know why and how their guests make movies. Don't mistake this for a technical view of Hollywood, because even though it does look at the business and art side much more than what you get in Newsweek or even Entertainment Weekly, it is very accessible for non-film buffs...in fact, people who are inspiring film buffs must start here!

Now as to what this contains. Each disc has five or six complete episodes. An episode starts out with Guber and Bart discussing some topic (for example, "Are blockbusters crowding out Oscar-worthy films?" or "Do film critics really matter?" or "Do actors make good directors?"). These discussions are lively and animated with the Peters' wearing their passions on their sleeves and both sides not only represented but articulated well. The second half of the approximately 30-min show is an interview with the featured guest which tends to focus not only on their work and how they perform their craft, but also the guests' input on topics that are critical to the movie business today.

The Cons: The only cons are technical. Not only is there not a "Play All" button on the main menu (something I thought would be standard on all TV show DVD sets from now on), when you choose an episode you are required to scroll down to the "Play Episode" button. The plus side of all this is that each show is nicely chopped up into logical and easily accessible chapters for those who just want to hear the conversion on "Do movie trailers misrepresent movies?" or just want to skip to the interview of Mel Gibson.

This is an incredible set...I can't wait until they release Season 2! I'm tempted to list highlights, but you can look at the list of guests below and see quality of talent that is contained in this set. If you're still not sure whether or not this is for you, check out the show, it's still on AMC (on Sunday Mornings, obviously).

Disc One
THE TRIPLE THREAT (Actor/Director/Producer)
Danny DeVito
Kevin Costner
Sylvester Stallone
Clint Eastwood
Mel Gibson
Kevin Spacey & Mike Burns

Disc Two
THE DIRECTORS
Ron Howard & Brian Grazer
Edward Zwick
Brett Ratner & Pierce Brosnan
Kevin Smith
Garry Marshall, Matthew Perry, Jonathan Lynn
Wayans Brothers

Disc Three
THE NEW BREED OF LEADING MEN
Edward Norton & Tom Rothman
Samuel L. Jackson
Robert Downey Jr.
Jack Black
Jim Caviezel & Rowdy Herrington
Andy Garcia

Disc Four
WOMEN IN FILM
Laura Linney
Charlize Theron
Sherry Lansing
Nancy Meyers, Barry Levinson, Chris Weitz
Stacey Sher, Paula Weinstein, Lucy Fisher

Disc Five
EXECUTIVE SHUFFLE (Revenge of the Hollywood Suits)
Bernie Brillstein
Cuba Gooding Jr & Joe Roth
Anthony Minghella & John Calley
Peter Jackson & Bob Shaye
Art Linson, Cassian Elwes, Mark Gill
Harvey Weinstein

Disc Six
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO...
Dustin Hoffman
Anthony Hopkins
Ben Kinsley
Adrien Brody
Denzel Washington

This show is a great relief from the usual stupid chitchat talk shows. Here there is genuinely intelligent discussion, and argument, on both the art and business of making movies. This is especially true of these first episodes, more so, that is, than the current shows being aired. I particularly find it interesting and bizarre to watch Peter Gruber's combative blindness to everything except profit. It was just grotesque watching him browbeat Laura Linney until finally she became so desperately conciliatory that she said she too wanted the money, though really, obviously, she is an actress because she loves the art of it. My only objection is that the DVD is the 'best of' and not the complete series. Laura Linney was on the show twice that first season. I would love to have seen what she had to say the second time around. And if they made a better job of her makeup.

Peter Guber sounds like a fool who only cares about money and Bart sounds just like a snob. Their show is no different then the yellow journalism that is Entertainment this week.