On a recent episode of The Rosie O’Donnell Show, James Bass and Joey Fatone of ‘NSync chatted with the show’s host about Disney’s upcoming On the Line. In the film, Fatone plays Bass’s loveable farting friend. According to Fatone, additional farts were added in post-production due to the positive audience reaction to his initial fart. Rosie O’Donnell replied, “Everyone loves farts!” Thanks Rosie, but I’ll beg to differ. Fans of flatulence may react kindly to Disney’s offensive Corky Romano, which proudly celebrates the fart as a means of enacting familial revenge. Corky Romano (Chris Kattan) is an aspiring veterinarian forced to don F.B.I. garbs in order to destroy evidence that links his father, Pops Romano (Peter Falk), to a series of kidnappings and murders. Corky goes undercover, accidentally becomes an ace F.B.I. man and manages to fart on the faces of his oppressive brothers, latent homosexual Peter (Chris Penn) and illiterate Paulie (Peter Berg). The spiritless and uninspired Corky Romano is dead on arrival. Minus a mildly humorous cocaine-inspired scenario, the film doesn’t even have the benefit of being adapted from an SNL sketch. As speed-freak Kattan raises his buttocks in Penn and Berg’s direction, he forcefully releases the tiniest of farts. That sound, ladies and gentleman, is that of Kattan’s movie career smashing into a brick wall.
Image/Sound
Corky Romano looks especially crummy on DVD. Skin tones are on the pink side and whites are overexposed; much of cinematographer Steven Bernstein’s color palette looks unusually faded. Then again, Bernstein isn’t known for wielding a mean brush. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is perfectly serviceable. Though mostly dialogue-driven, Corky Romano is a fart-lover’s sonic fantasia. Though the film’s sound effects are elementary, the dynamic range on the disc is pleasant and never obtrusive.
Extras
No Corky Romano trailer on this DVD edition though there is one for Disney’s tragically underrated Bubble Boy. An all-access featurette purports to follow a sequence from shooting stage to completion and the effect is duller than dull. Also included here are two extended sequences though only one (“Corky Visits Skinheads”) does justice to Kattan’s usually giddy cocaine schtick.
Overall
Corky Romano gets a very limited DVD treatment. But, then again, do you know anyone eager to have it in their personal collection?
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