|
The Movie: Like "Jackass" crossed with "America's Funniest Home Videos", "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and "Fear Factor", "Most Extreme Challenge" is a delightfully bizarre creation: the series (which airs on Spike TV) takes an older Japanese game show ("Takeshi's Castle", from the early 90's) that put constestants into insane (and often painful) stunts and dubs it all - in wickedly funny fashion - into English. Hosts Kenny and Vic introduce both teams, who face off in different challenges, each more painful than the next (and many of them featuring mud in some fashion.) Any particularly nasty falls (and there are some that will make most viewers cringe) are replayed again and again and followed up in the "Most Painful Eliminations" section at the end of the episode. Some of the hilarious (and rather inspired) challenges include: "Rotating Surfboard of Death" (contestants try to stand on a surfboard that rotates over a giant mud pit, while having to jump over various obstacles), "Wall Bangers" (contestants try to jump through the correct door out of a series of doors, but if they guess wrong, they smack into a wall), "Get Hard" (players must crawl on all fours through cement towards a flag before they get stuck), "Log Drop" (try to cross a set of rolling logs...over a big mud pit), "Sinkers and Floaters" (trying to run across a set of rocks - some of which float and some of which sink - in the muddy water without slipping and falling in) and "Boulder Dash" (players try to make it up a path and narrowly avoid boulders rolling down towards them.) Season 1: 1 Meat Handlers and Cartoon Voice Actors (a.k.a. Network Boss) 2 Donors and Addicts 3 Cows and Cars 4 Cops and Cons 5 The Couples Show 6 Inventors and Ex-Child Actors 7 College Girls 8 Outdoorsmen and Educators 9 Circus and Airlines 10 Physical Fitness vs. Music Industry 11 Fashion vs. Religion 12 Adult Entertainment vs. Home Improvement 13 Gambling Industry vs. Medical Professionals The DVD VIDEO: "MXC" is presented by Magnolia Entertainment in the show's original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio. I'd guess that the image quality on this presentation is similar or equal to the original presentation. Sharpness and detail are still often quite good, although occasional scenes look a tad softer than the rest. Aside from some slight artifacting and a couple of moments of shimmering on occasion, the presentations looked crisp and clear. Colors remained bright and nicely saturated, with no smearing or other concerns. SOUND: The stereo soundtrack offers crisp music and presents the dubbed dialogue clearly. EXTRAS: Commentary from crew members/voice cast Victor Wilson, Christopher Darga, John Cervenka, Mary Sheer, Paul Abeyta, Peter Kaikko and Larry Strawther is included on episodes 1, 7 and 12. Also included in the set is an original episode of "Takeshi's Castle" (episode 93), the original sales presentation for "MXC" and "Kenny Blankenship's Most Painful Eliminations of the Season". It's especially fascinating to watch the original episode (which does offer subtitles) to see the original dialogue and humor (as well as the full credits sequence.) Final Thoughts: "MXC" not only offers some incredibly funny dubbing, but the various challenges are great fun to watch. The DVD set offers fine audio/video quality, as well as a nice set of supplements. Recommended. |