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List Price: $34.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 46828
Released: November 30, 1999 |
| Our Price: $12.99 |
| Used Price: $2.00 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Like many of the clips that make up the bulk of its content, the Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary special suffers from that malady specific to almost every SNL sketch: it starts out brilliantly, loses steam about halfway through, then slowly but gamely limps to the finish line with occasional spurts of humor. This special (which actually marks the show's 24th anniversary, but never you mind about those small details!) gathered almost all of the Saturday Night Live alumni--well, the funny ones, anyway--for a celebration of the show's entrenchment in the cultural landscape. It's basically an occasion to show a lot of clips, ranging in time from the Coneheads to Mary Katherine Gallagher, put together in a sprightly, rapid-pace manner and interspersed with occasional live audience-interaction bits. An hysterically funny Bill Murray kicks things off as a lounge singer at an Indian reservation casino who hobnobs with the celebrity audience members; Tom Hanks, a fave guest host, offers up a lively Q&A session (with a dryly funny Christopher Walken, among others); and Billy Crystal revives his Fernando persona to great effect. Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, and Steve Martin provide the best cast tribute, warmly remembering John Belushi while wryly offering up memorabilia for online auction, and Jan Hooks introduces a heartfelt short film featuring her and the late Phil Hartman. Other cast members, with the notable absence of Eddie Murphy and the surprise appearance of Norm MacDonald, pop up for various intros of clips--some are funny (Dennis Miller), some are not (Adam Sandler), some are obviously uncomfortable (David Spade), but at about the halfway mark it all starts to wear on you, like most tribute shows. Still, the stable of classic skits (including a surprisingly strong showing from the current cast) make this worth sticking around for. And at least this time, unlike during the live broadcasts, you can fast-forward through the unfunny parts. --Mark Englehart
Saturday Night Live - 25th Anniversary Reviews:
Not worth it, Buy the Best Of's 
2009-07-06 - This was an uneventful anniversary. If you were expecting an entertaining reunion or funny new material, forget it. SNL legend Bill Murray's opening of the show is very inspired and warm as he is joined by Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris, evoking the great spirit the show once had. But this is where the fun stops.
The rest of the show is just compilations cobbled together from most of the series. They're mostly punchlines without the set-up. So they're usually funny only if you've seen the actual sketches. And before each batch of clips you get a lot of 1 to 2 minute intros that aren't very funny.
The tributes to the deceased castmates are just ordinary sketches where they were particulary amusing. But they could have found more somber, funny and appropriate tributes to the likes of John Belushi, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley and Gilda Ratner.
Lorne Michaels made sure to showcase the revolutionary show's most popular sketches and alumni but deny us the groundbreaking or controversial moments. He also chose quantity over quality. Its just a fastpace flipbook of moments, nothing too reflective or entertaining.
Geat Comedy 
2009-03-20 - I loved seeing the 25th Anniversary DVD of Saturday Night Live. It has some of the funniest comedy on it. I particularly liked Alec Baldwins Mr. Schweaty.
vintage snl for baby boomers
2008-04-11 - all the classics, really laugh out loud. some skits seem flat now. but others, while outdated ,give
nice feeling of nostalgia. also some favorites are deceased now and that
makes it more a treasure. ck
Too much to cover in too short a time 
2007-03-20 - This DVD functions more or less as an advertisement for the other SNL DVDs that have been and continue to be marketed by NBC. The 25th anniversary special on this DVD lasts 2.5 hours, which sounds like a long time, but it's not long enough to do justice to the talent that appeared on the shows over such a long period of time. As uneven as the show was from week to week and year to year, there was still a lot of great material--far too much to cover in this format in any satisfying way. As a result, the clips that are shown are soundbites of soundbites--often, just enough to cover a famous quote ("wild an crazy guys," etc.) with a touch of lead-in. This may be enough to evoke a smile of nostalgia from someone who's seen the skits, but that's about it. When the skits were originally aired, they usually went on too long, but here the DVD's producers err by going way too far in the opposite direction. I'm not sure how you could do a worthwhile retrospective of 25 years worth of programming that would fit on one DVD, but if it can't be done... maybe one shouldn't do it.
The DVD comes with three "extras": an interview of Lorne Michaels by Tim Russert, which is mildly interesting; the "day-after" coverage of the 25th anniversary show by a heinous TV show I never heard of, "Access Hollywood"; and promotional TV coverage by some other NBC news show, which featured clips that mostly overlapped with the special included on the DVD. Again I ask: Why put this material on a DVD? The so-called extras bring nothing to an already lackluster party.
All in all, disappointing.
By the way, for those who care, the Beastie Boys don't actually perform a number on the DVD. They play a couple of measures of one of their own songs before getting interrupted by Elvis Costello, and then they end up playing back-up for him.
great nostalgia 
2006-04-27 - I only started watching SNL in early 2001 after moving to the US from Britain, and hadn't heard much of it before then apart from knowing that was where the Blues Brothers movie etc had originated. I soon became an avid watcher, partly because of a teeny weeny crush on Tina Fey but also because I loved Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon, amd later on, Rachel Dratch and Amy Poehler.
I bought this DVD because I was keen to have a look for myself at some of the older stuff that other SNL fans were in raptures about. I have to say some of it was a bit dated, somewhat inevitably, but a lot of it was still very funny. I guess the people putting it together avoided topical political stuff, which quickly dates, although some of the stuff like impressions of various presidents holds up well.
On a slightly macabre level, I loved the opportunity to watch people who have since died, particularly the outstandingly charismatic performers such as John Belushi and Chris Farley. In fact, the funniest thing on the whole show for me was Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney - funny and sweet all at the same time!
The show is put together pretty smoothly, with current performers coming out and introducing each set of skits, which fits well with the DVD format since I can skip easily to the bits I regularly rewatch - I do think it could have been divided into shorter sections though. The introductions were quite variable in quality as other reviewers have pointed out, I was hoping for better things from Chris Rock and Adam Sandler for example. I was also a bit disappointed with the musical guests - it's a shame the Beastie Boys didn't get to play for real, and the Eurythimcs got too long, good though they were. I suppose the music had to a mix of up tempo and relaxing stuff to fit the mood of the show.
I really enjoyed the special features like the interviews with former cast members and with Lorne Michaels, and I loved watching all the stars turn up in their tuxedos and dresses - there was such a sense of anticipation beforehand! The atmosphere was clearly very convivial among the audience, one could tell that former anxieties and tensions were put aside for the evening and former cast members and writers were all very much aware that the show was much bigger than they ever were.
I really recommend this DVD for fans of SNL. Its the kind of show that you can dip into here and there according to your mood. Buy it and enjoy!
