Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13379 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-28
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 150 minutes

Synopsis
Wherever he goes, Dennis Pennis (Paul Kaye) leaves a trail of embarrassment in his wake. From London to the Venice Film Festival and on to Hollywood, no-one is spared, no star is too big to escape verbal abuse. Victims include Steve Martin, Pierce Brosnan, Don Johnson, Jim Carrey, Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Sandra Bullock, Charlie Sheen, Cindy Crawford, Demi Moore and Arnold Schwarzennegger. If you're a star, beware! Pennis is out to get you. This release includes previously released Very Important Pennis, Anyone For Pennis? and RIP - Too Rude to Live.

Customer Reviews

Thoroughly worth purchasing
I found the whole DVD laugh out loud funny, with Kaye's sketches the highlight. His video diary is genius, when getting into a lift at the BBC, Pennis is kindly asked what floor he's going to by the man standing next to the buttons: "MIND YOUR OWN F***ING BUSINESS!" our hero replies. His camaraderie with fellow employees is also memorable. The only reason I don't give the full shot of five stars is the average quality of some of Pennis' quips to celebrities, to Ian Hislop: "Is that shirt a designer libel?"
Having said that, if Amazon keep this at £7, it is a must-buy for all comedy fans. Some of it is reminiscent of older styles, such as the Two Ronnies, when Pennis tries to pay for a kebab with donor cards, other parts are almost ahead of their times, Lucas and Walliams' characters, for example.
A lot of people arond my age (18) will have missed this first time around, but it is still relevant as a scathing attack on celebrity ego today ... plus it's a bloody funny show.

Good, but incomplete...
This DVD comprises three main parts: "Anyone for Pennis", "A Very Important Pennis" and Dennis Pennis RIP. "Anyone for Pennis" and "A Very Important Pennis" are the best parts of the collection, though the box is deceptive; they arn't complete as stated; a number of scenes have been omitted or changed. For example, if you remember the Robin Williams interview (in which Pennis remarked to Williams that he'd heard he'd been turned down to play the part of the wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood" 'On account of being too hairy', then you will be disappointed, since this is not on this DVD, along with several other omitted scenes.
"Dennis Pennis RIP" is also a disappointment. This is because it contains far fewer celebrity interviews than the other two programs (the interviews are the reason most, if not all people like Dennis Pennis), and instead, it features unfunny sketches performed with the likes of Matt Lucas and David Walliams, of whom both I dislike. The extras on the DVD are short and quite boring.
However, this DVD is still recommended for Pennis fans, since it's the most complete Pennis collection available.

The complete Dennis Pennis... on one DVD.
This superb collection takes in the original Sunday Show compilation, Anyone for Pennis, as well as the later spin-off, Very Important Pennis, and the video special, Dennis Pennis RIP. It's pretty much the only Pennis collection you'll ever need... giving us the complete run down of all of his classic celebrity-bating moments, from his inauspicious beginnings in 1995, right the way through to his more outlandish antics of 1996, and beyond that to 1997... the point when the character was unceremoniously axed from the BBC following his infamous "why aren't you funny anymore?" quip, to the actor, Steve Martin.

The first series, 'Anyone for...' seems fairly inoffensive ten years on, with Dennis sticking to home grown stars like Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, and generally - for the most part at least - going pretty easy on them (...especially if we compare some of the put downs here to the ones that would crop up in 'VIP'). There was also less reliance on comic-sketches to intersperse the celeb-based footage, so this was essentially Pennis mark. 1... before people started to get in on the joke. As with the other two series, 'Anyone For...' is great stuff; funny in the sense that we can't believe this guy would have the nerve to slag off these celebrities right to their pompous faces, but genuinely funny in the way that actual the gags are written and, of course, the dry and sarcastic manner in which Paul Kaye delivers them. The definite highlight from this series for me was the interaction between Dennis and Hugh Grant, with that great, cutting gab; "Hugh, I've often found your acting a little woody... I mean, how do you get yourself psyched up for a role? Do you go into the forest and stare at some trees?" to which Grant can only blather the F-word before slinking away.

'VIP' advances on the formula, offering a bigger budget... which means that Dennis can jet off to Venice and Cannes and offer his pearls of wisdom to the likes of Mel Gibson ("I hadn't had sex in a long time, I went to see Braveheart, and slept with the entire audience"), Tom Hanks ("Tom, you've made the ultimate space movie, man... completely lacking in atmosphere") and Kenneth Branaugh ("is this your first comedy since Frankenstein?"). There's also more gags and sketches, most of which have never been seen on TV, including Dennis' tour of London and his BBC video diary... both of which are hilarious, as is the insert of attorney Mike Strutter, who offers his advice on lawsuits, as well as relating some of his more recent legal victories ("this schmuck stays up late to watch a movie, the next morning, he oversleeps, arrives late for work and loses his job... I found out who produced the movie, I hit 'um, and I hit 'um f*cking hard!").

Strutter returns again for a more pivotal role in 'Dennis Pennis, RIP', in which he gives one of the most hilarious advertising pitches I've ever seen (novelty pipes, fake erections, on-the-spot suicide notes and a swear-censor are all up for grabs... the latter product is pitched with the classy line "as some of you may have noticed, I've got a f*cking filthy mouth!!"). There are also early appearances from Matt Lucas and David Walliams of Little Britain fame, becoming embroiled alongside Strutter in the downfall of Pennis (the whole programme is sort of like a self-referential take on the Dennis character being put to rest) alongside other Paul Kaye characters like Ken Toucan, the international goalie who is forced to take over Pennis' role (amusingly offering John Gielgud - or "Goalgood" - the chance to knock a plastic ball into a miniature net), Tony Cream, the upper-class protestor trying to bring Pennis down, popular contemporary composer Labien Quest (who appears in the spoof South Bank-style discussion programme, 'Artshole'), and the riotous "oh-ah" Bob Boonah, the American soccer pundit.

There's also more of Pennis' celebrity put-downs, for example, another encounter with Ken Branaugh ("I'd imagine you're no fun at picnics, man... you always take the biggest roles for yourself"), Michael Winner ("you deserve a knighthood... 'Michael Winner: O.B.E...S.E.') and a great quip shouted to Michael Jackson, that I probably won't get away with repeating here. In terms of content, there's certainly a lot here to enjoy, with 'Anyone For...' clocking it at about 40 minutes, whilst both VIP and RIP - what with their inter-cut sketches, etc - offer roughly an hour and half each of entertainment. As a result, this collection is great value for money, even if the extras are a little skimpy (the interview with Kaye in Leister Square is only five minutes long) and I seem to remember an interview with Sylvester Stallone and one interview with Adam West that were both shown when the programmes were first broadcast, yet both of them are missing here (...why?).

Pennis From Heaven is a great collection, offering us an example of true, anarchic, anti-establishment comedy, that has sort of been forgotten in these celebrity-worshiping times. The jokes, skits, word-play and situations are all fantastic, managing to appear both intelligent and low-brow without descending to the pits of desperation as mined by the overrated Bo' Selecta or similarly more successful - though certainly in debt to Pennis - shows, like Da Ali G Show and Trigger Happy TV. At a time when even the most half-witted of fools can become a celebrity for doing absolutely nothing, the lack of a Dennis Pennis-like figure to put them in their rightful place is a great shame... though one that is slightly alleviated by the appearance of this great DVD.