Best In Show (DVD)

Best in Show is a 2000 comic mockumentary directed by Christopher Guest of This Is Spinal Tap fame. The film, which was largely improvised in the Guest tradition, follows five colourful entrants in the 125th annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia as they look forward to the contest and bicker and fuss backstage in preparation before they compete with their dogs for real. Among the various characters taking part are aspiring ventriloquist and nut expert Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) with his Bloodhound Hubert and gossipy gay couple Scott Donlan (John Michael Higgins) and Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) with their Shih Tzu. Cash strapped couple Gerry ...  Read the complete review

If you've seen This is Spinal Tap and Waiting For Guffman then you'll know exactly what to expect from Best In Show. This is a spoof documentary set in the dog eat dog world of dog shows where the animals are the humans and not those with a snout and paws. We follow a group of competitors who are all going to compete in the Mayflower Kennel Club dog show and you could not meet a more varied bunch of people. There's the couple who are very modern and self obsessed. They treat their dog like a child. Harlan Pepper is a fly-fishing shop owner who is extremely lonely. Gerald Fleck and his wife Cookie who seems to have a chequered past with every guy in ...  Read the complete review

Anyone who has seen 'This is Spinal Tap' will probably need no more recommendation for 'Best in Show' than that it is a spoof documentary created by and starring the same core team, Christopher Guest and Michael McKean. This is a good thing, as otherwise this is an exceptionally hard flick to sell. 'Best in Show' is about, well, it's about (imagine that I'm whispering) dog shows. No, come back, you have to finish reading, I'm saving for the Stanley Kubrick box-set, I need the points. Written by Guest and Eugene Levy (Jim's Dad in the 'American Pie' movies, the best reason to see those films beyond my rather sad ...  Read the complete review

This is a dog lover’s dream of a comedy. No it’s not about the Spice Girls, but the eccentric world of Middle America canine pageants. It’s directed in style and by the guy who played guitar in the third funniest film ever in Spinal Tap, the rockumentry. Well it’s a dogumentry he gives us this time in this enjoyable funny well-crafted film. The fun starts for Tap fans as they try to spot Nigel (This one goes to eleven) Tuffnel in his new guise as he yet again acts and directs at what he knows best. There are few laugh aot loud belly laughs but the gentle humor sneaks up and grabs you culminating in the big dogshow in ...  Read the complete review

Best In Show follows in the line of mockumentaries that started with This Is Spinal Tap. this time it focuses on 5 sets of people all taking their dogs to compete in the Mayflower dog show. First we have Meg and Hamilton Swan (Parker Posey and Micheal Hitchcock) a pair of lawyers who are slightly infatuated with themselves. They think they have caused sever mental anguish on their dog becasue it saw them having sex in an un-comprimising position. All three of them are in therapy for it. The couple met when they kept having coffee at Starbucks, separate starbucks one on each side of the street. Also going to the show is Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) ...  Read the complete review