Tommy Boy – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Dec 17, 2008, 16:10 GMT

The boys are back and they\'re bigger than ever in the gut busting, all-new Holy Schnike Edition! Crack-up comedians Chris Farley and David Spade star as two ne\'er-do-well traveling salesmen who hit the road in order to save the family business in this "infectiously funny"*, larger than life movie. ...more

A high school and college favorite for me, 1995's 'Tommy Boy' may not be the most subtle comedy ever but it's a consistently humorous ride with great rapport between Chris Farley and David Spade and Farley's best film in his unfortunately short film career. 

Essentially Chris Farley's first lead role in a pic after smaller roles in other films centered around his SNL buds - 'Wayne's World' and 'Airheads' - Farley makes an endearing lead and his man-child routine is nicely paired with David Spade's dry, sardonic humor.

His blustery fat schtick was, of course, in sad contradiction with his drug-abusing, self-hating lifestyle which cut short his life in 1997 (eerily following the pattern of his idol John Belushi). 

But we'll always have this oft-quoted minor classic to remember which also started the career of director Peter Segal whose last five films including 'Get Smart' and 'The Longest Yard' have grossed over 100 million. 

A road trip movie at heart, the film follows Tommy Callahan (Farley), a daddy's boy who graduated college in a speedy seven years to return home to work for his dad, Tom Callahan Sr. (Brian Dennehy), and his auto part business with his dad's intention to eventually hand over the business. 

Tom Sr. also introduces his son to new fiancée Beverly (Bo Derek) but when Tom Sr. drops dead at the wedding, his death leaves the family company in jeopardy with Tommy and smarmy sort-of childhood friend Richard (David Spade) having to hit the road and sell enough brake pads to keep the bank from closing on the loan.

All the while, Beverly and her "son" (Rob Lowe) seemed to have ulterior motives all along with their eyes on big Tom's money.

I imagine viewers just discovering the film may not understand all the hub-bub as it's quaint and low-key in a lot of ways - comedies a la 'Tropic Thunder' seem to have a lot more to prove these days - and plays almost Capra-lite with it's small town, family business driven plot but for people in high school and college when the film came out, there was a year there where you couldn't go a day without hearing a quote from the film.

'Fat guy in a little suit', 'Are you talking?', 'Shut up Richard', 'Richard, who's your favorite little rascal? Alfalfa?... Or is it SPANKY?' and on and on. Almost every scene has at least one choice nugget of dialogue to giggle at and while chubby guy humor can get a little tiring, no one did it better than Farley be it his little suit bit, dropping a hotel blanket to reveal unfortunately small underwear or the requisite tight clothes change scene in an airplane bathroom.

A 1080p AVC 1.85:1 encode, the film is thirteen years old now but looks great in high-def despite the meager budget and color palette. No real grain or artifacts to speak of, detail and clarity are as good as to be expected for the source. The film itself will never qualify for demo material but I can't imagine the film looking much better than this. The Dolby TrueHD track is also as good as it can probably get for a comedy without much pounding audio.

All special features have been carried over from the 2005 'Holy Schnike' edition and presented in standard def except for the trailer. First up is an audio commentary from director Peter Segal, Four featurettes: 'Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter', 'Stories from the Side of the Road', 'Just the Two of Us' and 'Growing up Farley' which Farley's two brothers share some crazy stories of growing up with Chris, and a bounty of Deleted, Extended and Alternate Scenes. A lot of good improv stuff from Farley here.

We also get storyboard comparisons, 19 TV Spots, a Photo Gallery, a Gag Reel and the films theatrical trailer to finish things off. 

Almost a decade and a half later, the film still holds up as a great display of Farley's charms and is probably the best cinematic work of both Farley and Spade (sorry 'Joe Dirt' fans...). The BD specs are quite good and while there's no new special features for this 'Holy Schnike' BD edition, there's still a lot here. An easy recommend for fans of the film and Farley. 

Tommy Boy [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.