Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6558 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-04-03
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1

Synopsis
Bang Bang - It's Reeves and Mortimer continues the anarchic and surreal blend of offbeat comedy that has made the duo so popular. The series is arguably a continuation of The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, although a number of new characters were added. There's also a spoof fly-on-the-wall documentary about Baron's Night Club – a clear precursor to Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights . The high-voiced Stott brothers--who appeared in Vic Reeves Big Night Out --return to terrorise celebrities. The show capitalised on the duo's success with the spoof game show Shooting Stars and brought in a darker edge to their humour.

Customer Reviews

At last!
Finally this classic one off series arrives on DVD. I dont know that many people who actually caught this first time around, but I remember being in tears of laughter at the surreal antics - the slapstic fights, the insane clowns who conduct their bizarre interviews each week, the Office-style "Club" documentary, and the Fun duo. The series includes cameos from Matt Lucas, Charlie Higson, David Walliams, and a few other such star names.

Some of this will go straight over your head, but I can guarentee that if you appreciate things like Shooting Stars, Bottom, Little Britain and Monty Python then you will love this.

A words of warning however - the sketch with the 2 guys in the car trying to open the door against various inanimate objects is surreal to the point of being disturbing..

Difficult 3rd Lp from Vic & Bob....
Where do you go when you've changed the face of British comedy? Given that around the same time Vic & Bob were branching into more mainstream shows like Shooting Stars and Families at War, and with The League of Gentlemen on the horizon perhaps they felt this should be a vehicle to be self indulgent and make comedy just for themselves. For them that meant showing their darker side. In pop music terms, 'Bang Bang' is their 'Kid A', or 'White Album'.

The basic format stays the same, V&B behind a desk introducing sketches (albeit with strange, blurred figures writhing ominously inside). The humour is closer to that of their black comedy series 'Catterick' (indeed many characters from this series are recycled in that show).
As such the belly-laugh count is far shorter than normal here. Some sketches fall way short of the mark or outstay their welcome, possibly deliberately. If you grew bored of watching them hit each other with frying pans in 'The Smell of..." the joke is stretched beyond breaking point here.

There is still some great material here though, Tom Fun and Kinky John are inspired creations, great cameos from Les Dennis, Matt Lucas and David Walliams, and great to see Mulligan & O'hare and The Stotts from the earlier series.

Although not up to the standard of Big Night Out, Shooting Stars or 'The Smell Of..", its still enjoyable and intriguing, and will remain fascinating viewing to students of Vic & Bob or 90s comedy in general in the future. Not the place to start for beginners. Check out the earlier, funnier stuff first.

Not a Bang but a Whimper
Vic and Bob's third BBC series Bang Bang largely misfired. There were some great sketches here, but the whole thing felt slightly forced. The opening songs were poor and badly sung, nowhere near the giddy heights of gems like "Loose Muesli" or "Cool Cool Air." And when Vic and Bob sat down at their desk in a large, empty studio, the viewer gets the feeling that the duo are running out of ideas- so they hit each other with frying pans. Again, and again, and again. The sketches were too long, and at times, it felt like Vic and Bob were trying to do something that couldnt be done with a comedy sketch show. The brilliant Tom Fun was as much poignant as it was funny, while The Club felt like a programme-within-a-programme, not so much comedy as an idea for an oddball docu-drama.

Nonetheless, there were some great moments here- the highlight being America's Most Incredible Vegetable, with Vic and Bob at their insane best as a couple of (Geordie?) hicks with Tourette's (!) ("You betta go down the railway station, and talk with Mr...Mrs Howson, SHE"LL EVEN TALK TO YA REAL DIRTY LIKE! ") Mulligan and O'Hare's rendition of The Tamperer is hysterical, and Police, Camera, Accident with Neil Sedaka is another highlight, as is Tom Fun, who is one of Vic's great creations, although as I say it's as though Vic and Bob are aiming at something different from sketch-show comedy. The Club is the same- Kinky John is another uniquely surreal character- but it doesn't always feel like comedy: its more like Vic and Bob are aiming towards something else, like Catterick.

Watching it again ten years later I find it just as disappointing as it was when it first broadcast. And the best sketches are all on youtube, so there's not much reason to buy it. The Smell DVD is not only much funnier, but far more inventive and spontaneous, so its not really recommended except to die-hard fans of Vic and Bob.