THE MOVIE

2 men, 2 dicks, 2 much spare time.

That’s how the packaging describes this documentary film. How would I describe it, well just like above I guess, it’s basically two guys (Simon Morley and David Friend) waving their dicks in the wind, and doing all sorts of tricks with their dicks, all around Australia.

You have to wonder whether these guys will be able to have children after performing tricks with their dicks such as The Wristwatch, The Hamburger, The Pelican, The Fruit Bat, The Wind Surfer, The Snail, The Loch Ness Monster, The Whipper Snipper, The Atomic Mushroom, The Bullfrog, The Wedding Ring, The Brain, The 3 Wood, The Baby Bird, The Parachute, The Eiffel Tower, The G-String, The No Dick, The Sea Anenome, The Hot Dog, The Bow Tie, The Skateboard, The Swollen Thumb and The Umbilical Cord.

This documentary follows these two guys as they tour the country in their trusty kombi van in 1998 performing their show Puppetry of the Penis. The show premiered at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and then headed up the east coast of Australia to Sydney, then Brisbane and later heading into the red centre and Darwin and finally to Perth. Actor Stephen Curry (The Castle) joins them on tour and you’ll also spot a number of other celebrities in this documentary including comedian Jimeoin, radio hosts Andrew Denton and Amanda Keller, as well as musician Paul Hester and actor Lisa Hensley. It is cut together with interviews of Simon Morley and David Friend after the tour and also features excerpts from the Martin Molloy radio show on the Fox FM network throughout. Tony Martin and Mick Molloy heavily promoted the Puppetry of the Penis tour and probably had a lot to do with the success of the tour. Mick Molloy directed and produced this documentary.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

This documentary has an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame (Pan and Scan), although this isn’t a major concern as I imagine the documentary was shot in this ratio. The majority of footage looks as though it’s been shot using a digital camcorder. Visual quality isn’t too bad, the picture for the most part is nice and crisp, with reasonable detail for the most part, night time shots are sometimes a little grainy though with reduced shadow detail. The transfer is free of film and MPEG artefacts. Colours are also very good, looking very natural with no visible signs of over saturation. This is only a single layer disc so there is no annoying layer change to worry about halfway through the documentary.

Audio:

This DVD has two soundtracks to choose from. Both are English Stereo 2.0 channel soundtracks. The main soundtrack does the job and that’s about it, don’t expect too much from it. Anyway, if you’re concentrating on the visuals, the soundtrack won’t matter too much anyway. Nonetheless dialogue is always clearly audibly and there aren’t any audio synch problems. Audio is also well integrated in scenes where Simon is shown talking on the phone and you can hear his voice as well as radio personalities Mick Molloy and Tony Martin talking on the Martin Molloy show. The second soundtrack is an audio commentary featuring Tony Martin and Mick Molloy (see below for more details).

THE EXTRAS

This DVD has an excellent fully animated menu with audio. However, instead of the standard chapter selection menu, this DVD has two selection menus. The first is called The Happy Trail which is kind of like a chapter selection menu, only not quite. It allows you to pick a city in Australia that was part of the Puppetry of the Penis tour, including Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin and Perth, amongst others. Then there is the Select a Trick menu which lets you choose a dick trick from the documentary, each trick runs for about 5 or 10 seconds before reverting to the menu.

Then there is a feature called the Random Dick Trick, as the name suggests, it randomly selects a dick trick from the documentary and plays the appropriate scene, like the Select a Trick feature, each trick runs for about 5 or 10 seconds.

The main menu also presents the opportunity to listen to the audio commentary soundtrack while viewing the documentary. The audio commentary features Tony Martin and Mick Molloy discussing certain aspects of the film in their usual style. It has its moments, and if you enjoyed these two when they were on radio, you’ll probably enjoy this commentary, it does have it’s awkward silences at times though. It must have been recorded relatively recently as there is a reference at the start to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Puppetry of the Penis Slide Show
Includes photos of dick tricks from the Puppetry of the Penis calendar, there are numerous black and photos of various dick tricks including The Wrist Watch, Uluru and The Hamburger. It also has a pretty groovy accompanying soundtrack with a nice amount of bass. It runs for around 2 minutes.

Bonus Tricks
This extra feature contains four bonus tricks including The Uluru Turtle, The Drive In, The Hairy Tongue and The Woman, each bonus trick runs for about 5 or 10 seconds and the bonus tricks are presented in a small window, not full screen.

Tackle Happy CD
Not all that much in here. It is just a promotional page for the CD soundtrack for this documentary.

Shonky Golf Preview
Several Mick Molloy shorts which look as though they may have been on his late night show. This feature is made up of several discrete comical skits, each running for a minute or so, selecting this feature plays a random skit.

DVD Credits
Like the New Line Cinema features on certain Village Roadshow discs. It has a weblink to Madman Entertainment.

SUMMARY

Tackle Happy, how can I describe it. Well it’s a visual experience, that’s for sure, something girls will find amusing, and some guys will try to emulate I’m sure. If you’re a fan of Tony Martin and Mick Molloy and their humour, then this DVD will probably appeal to you. If you’re offended by language or the sight of male genitalia, then this isn’t for you. A pretty good DVD overall with a reasonable visual transfer and acceptable audio. The menus are excellent though as are the extra features.