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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
BE afraid, be VERY afraid...................., November 30, 2005
Let my preface my review by saying that I actually do remember watching this as a wee lad back in 1978 and loving it. Specifically, I remember that Han was trying to get Chewie home for Xmas (well, Life Day - what ever the hell that is) and that Chewie's tree-house dwelling family were "captured" by storm troopers. I also remember all the major characters being in it (except of course Governor Tarkin and Ben Kenobi who bought the farm in the movie). Call it selective memory, but I LUCKILY didn't remember anything beyond this! Seeing that I have/had found childhood memories of this special, I was curious to see how it would play almost 30 years later. Boy, was I surprised...
It starts off OK. Our heroes, Han & Chewie are in the Falcon fleeing 2 imperial star destroyers (déjà vu?). The cockpit is the cheaped out TV version and actual movie footage of the space ships are used but no big deal. At this point, I'm just amazed that Harrison Ford agreed to this! Obviously, Stardom had not hit yet. And then Boo-yah! They jump to hyper space and all is well. Then the open credits role and announces the cast and "special guests": Bea Arthur (what?), Harvey Corman (are you serious?), Art Carney (Norton in a galaxy far far away?), Dianne Carroll (who?) and the Jefferson Starship (no!!!!!!!!). At this point, I'm thinking so far so good - maybe it won't be as bad as they say it is...............WRONG.
Back from commercial break, we go to the first scene at Chewie's tree house. We are introduced to Chewie's family, wife = Mala, his cute yet annoying as hell son Lumpy (very creative name!) and lumpy's perverted grandpa Itchy (OK, heads need to roll for this!). Now begins the 15 plus minutes of pure torture - grunting wookies playing house! Just when you think it can't get any worse Lumpy The Whiney goes for an electronic gadget. Now we have to suffer through 10 minutes of Circus Solei type non-sense with jesters, jugglers and dancers. BIZARRO WORLD times 100! Note: whenever one of Chewie's family members go for an electronic gadget or gizmo, prepare to suffer. Also note: have the remote ready to fast forward through the things that are so bad, you will get nightmares if you watch them. Worth noting is the fact that after viewing this part of the show I got up and made myself a nice bourbon on the rocks. Take that for what it's worth...............
After the viewer survives what just happened, I believe we are introduced the Art Carney the Space Trader. I think he sells a nail clipper or something to a grumpy Imperial Officer. It seems "Norton" is close to Chewie's family but more importantly, plays the comic relief role in the special. He pops up a few more times in the next hour plus and frankly, he annoyed me the least out of all the Special Guests. Call me crazy, but I kind of liked Art Carney in this role! He was given crap to work with and gave 110% effort. I loved the beer gut and the bi-focals too! CLASSIC.
Next we go back to more annoying Wookie shenanigans. This time Itchy, who obviously got hit with the ugly stick, heads for an electronic gadget. NOOOO!!!!!!!! This is where it gets really interesting. Itchy attaches himself to this dream machine where your imagination runs wild. In comes the sensual Diane Carroll as what I can only describe as a call girl in space. It's borderline pornographic here. Itchy is making noises that one should not hear on Network Television! Soft core wookie porn is not my thing. I actually got a kick out this part until she started to sing a never -ending song. Time to hit the fast forward button again........................
I think at this point Chewie's family gets a video call from Princess Leia and C3p0 looking for Han & Chewie. Relatively speaking, not a horrible scene really but Carrie Fisher has a mischievous look in here eyes (i.e coked off her gord no doubt).
Next, Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 check in via video to check on Han & Chewie's progress. SHOCKING MOMENT! Mark Hamill is almost unrecognizable! I'm guessing that this is one of his first appearances after that horrific car crash. His eyes look weird and small and his nose, well rumor had it that he actually lost his nose in that accident (although never really confirmed). Very disheartening actually. He appears to be on pain killers or something too. And the make-up - it's caked on big time covering huge scars I suppose. So sad but interesting to see none the less.
OK, let's talk about Harvey Corman, funny man from the Carol Burnett show. Not funny whatsoever. In fact, every second of time he got was annoying and pointless. He gets the award for "#1 Show Wrecker" along with whoever wrote the crappy story! Save yourself and fast forward thru every scene he is in! Trust me............
I think at this point in the show, two imperial storm troopers and an imperial general come a knocking looking for rebels and what not. They start harassing the wookies and trashing the place. They even trash poor little Lumpy's room to bits (even his new toy!). For some reason the scene where the stormtrooper trashed lumpy's room and toys sticks with me to this day. This is probably where my feelings for the Empire went from dislike to hate. Kudos to the guy that played the imperial general, he did a good job portraying a bad guy. I was hoping he would order the storm troopers to shoot either Lumpy or Itchy (or both).
Finally, we get something cool. The cartoon that features our heroes and BOBA FETT. You think that Boba may be a nice guy after all but in the end, we find out what side he is really on. Pretty cool. Probably the best part of the special next to seeing Luke, Leia and Han act like idiots.
Next we go to Tatooine and the bar in Mos Eisley! SO COOL. All of the original characters are there: wolf-man dude , hammer head, the white bear thingee with one tooth, the dude that didn't like Luke, the band, the vampire guy etc etc. In comes Bea Arthur as the bartender. Real corny and stuff but when her ex-boyfriend, Harvey Corman the space alien, comes in you get the worst bit of television in the history of television. FAST FORWARD NOW! Corman leaves and you think the worst is over. Wrong again! Bea Arthur has to sing and dnace around with the alines. WHY GOD, WHY? Cut 10-15 minutes out of this scene and just have Bea offering a free last round of drinks and we are good to go.
To make a long review short, Han & Chewie show up and save the day. Han throws a storm trooper out of the tree house and all is well. Han and Chewie embrace (real big hug - very curious???) and we get on with the queer Life Day celebration. Anyway, we now have out heroes (han, leia, luke, R2, 3PO and Chewie back together again and here is when the show really shines. The whole Life Day celebration is friggin ridiculous but the best part is when Princess Leia sings the Life Day song to the theme of Star Wars. HILARIOUS & CLASSIC TV MOMENT!
In conclusion, there' so much wrong with this special that I really could go on for hours about it. It easily could have been cut down to 30 minutes (by cutting an hour plus of needless crap) and been a good little show for kids. Really, the writers should be tarred and feathered for this pathetic effort. Also, Lucas needs to take some blame here. It's his franchise - He let them use his stars, his characters, clips from his movie, theme music from his movie, sound effects from his movie etc. Without a doubt, Lucas learned his lesson after this fiasco. Oh, I forgot to mention Jefferson Starship because they suck and I fast forwarded thru that part..............
Was it worth seeing? Hell ya. At least for nostalgia purposes. Now I know why Lucas wants to find and destroy every copy of this show!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Never Say "Never"..., May 7, 2006
When the "classic" versions of the original Star Wars trilogy were remastered and released on VHS and laserdisc back in 1995, the advertising tagline was "The Original...One Last Time." Following the 1997 theatrical release of the "Special Edition" versions of the original trilogy, and their subsequent appearance on VHS and DVD, a small but annoyingly persistant and vocal legion of Star Wars fans has demanded that George Lucas rerelease the original cuts of the films on DVD, something that up until last Thursday (May 4th), Lucasfilm spokespeople insisted was NEVER going to happen.
Hmm...it makes one now question the credibility of similar proclaimations that have been repeatedly made about the "Star Wars Holiday Special".
It's fascinating how a tiny handful of Betamax and VHS recorders back in 1978 apparently managed to capture a television special that has never again been officially screened within the United States. Are these the most duplicated home video recordings of all time? Probably. Considering the technical limitations inherent in a 30 year old home video master, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of suprisingly good quality versions of this program floating around. An official "Star Wars Holiday Special" release, however, would put this entire subindustry out of business.
It's fashionable to bash the the "SWHS", although it's not that much worse (and a lot more interesting) than a lot of other prime-time network TV schlock that has passed for high art over the years. Sometimes not-so-great movies can make wonderful DVD's--a case in point, Image Entertainment's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" DVD which features an astonishingly outstanding print of the original feature and a fascinating 2-hour documentary about the film and about Ed Wood, the man who directed it.
Will the "Holiday Special" ever be officially released on DVD in George Lucas's lifetime? Well...for whatever reason, he's letting us once again see that sorry-looking blob underneath Luke's landspeeder. And again, more importantly, Lucas apparently has reconsidered his hardline "one last time" stance on the DVD release of the classic original Star Wars trilogy. Who knows what else he might change his mind about releasing?
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Oh, it's special, alright, June 21, 2006
Among STAR WARS fans, nothing brings forth such a grimace as placing these five words in a single sentence: THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL. Still, it's a sort of legend amongst fans. It's become one of the most sought-after DVDs around, showing up only as bootlegs because George Lucas has famously stated, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every bootlegged copy of that program and smash it." Lucas also attempted to purchase every master copy of the program, to make sure it would never be broadcast again. This was not just the move of a filmmaker who feared the destruction of his work's reputation. It was the move of a concerned humanitarian, fearing for the health of all humankind. You see, I have seen many terrible films, but out of all of them, THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL takes the cake as the all-time worst.
The premise, or what little of it there is, involves Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) attempting to return to Chewie's home planet for "Life Day". Life Day appears to be the wookie form of Christmas, though it closer resembles Hanukkah, as - at the end of the movie - Chewbacca and his family don huge red robes, travel to some misty place in the stars, and hold up shining orbs.
Unfortunately for the viewer, Chewie and Han do not return home until about fifteen minutes before the end of the movie. For the rest of the film, we are subjected to numerous forms of torture. During the first thirty minutes of the film, we are left with Chewbacca's family (doting mother Malla, cantankerous old grandfather Itchy, and troublesome child Lumpy), the members of which proceed to growl and grumble in their native tongue. Diahann Carroll shows up as a hologram which flirts with Itchy, much to his apparent pleasure. Jefferson Starship appears to perform their song "Light The Sky On Fire" as a bewildered Imperial trooper watches. Art Carney makes some jokes which, I suppose, some three-year-olds may find humorous, had they the courage to sit through forty minutes of this. Beatrice Arthur plays a bartender at the Mos Eisley Cantina who decides to sing with the alien drunks. Harvey Korman also appears as a frighteningly eccentric four-armed chef, who teaches Malla - yes, the wookie - how to cook "Bantha Surprise". Of course, THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL also has its good moments.
Oh, wait - no it doesn't.
If the show did have a good moment, it would be a cartoon made by the animators who would later produce the 80's cartoons DROIDS and EWOKS. This short cartoon is worth nothing because it introduced one of the most popular characters of the STAR WARS universe - Boba Fett. It's a very interesting segment indeed, and the only thing which makes this pile of Bantha poodoo worth watching.
At times, THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL is laughably bad, but for the most part, it's just horrifying. How could anything this bad EVER be shown on television? How could anything this bad come from the STAR WARS universe? How could anything this bad EXIST? Friends, I have seen MANOS, THE HANDS OF FATE - often cited as the worst movie ever made - and THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL makes MANOS look like CASABLANCA. There is an absolutely absurb script, filled with terrible dialogue. The acting is atrocious. Carrie Fisher sings a song about the joys of "Life Day" to the tune of the STAR WARS theme.
Need I say more?
Having heard so much about this TV-movie atrocity over the years, I found it to be quite an ... INTERESTING experience to finally see it. I would recommend that every STAR WARS diehard give it a watch, as it is an important (and notorious) part of the series' history. Anyone else would be insane to come within a mile of it. I'm glad that Uncle George didn't destroy every copy of this - but I certainly sympathize with him.
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