Customer Reviews
Not Vintage Carlin at all - By: Mr. Mark A. Lawless, 01 Jul 2008 
I have been a fan of George Carlin's stuff for years - I had a first hand copy of Class Clown on vinyl back in the day. This effort reallly is crap (with the exception of Things that falll off your body & some of People you'd like to Kill) - & I was actuallly disgusted by the 'Answering Machine' part - the one about the little girl on the answerphone, complete with where in her he was going to stick his 'ding dong', & the other part where he asks if a 12 year old girl 'has t*ts yet', & asks for a picture. This isn't funny in the eyes of right minded people. DON'T BUY THIS CRAP!! Look for some of George's old stuff on CD instead - it'll be worth it!
Not one of George's best - but still worth seeing. - By: Filmfan, 15 Dec 2007 
I'm a big George Carlin fan, but I have to agree that he has been much much better in the past. I enjoyed seeing this, & enjoyed most of it, but this is one I don't think I'll watch more than once.
I too must redress the balance - By: David Longley, 14 Feb 2006 George Carlin is an excellent stand up comic, "Class Clown" & "Operation: Foole" being classic albums. I also greatly enjoyed "Back in Town". But this is just appaling. I was massively dissappointed by this, it wasn't even close to the usual high standard, & appeared to have been very lazily put together. Some of the observations are so bland that they only just falll into the category of comedy.
Carlin is a legend, & deservedly so, but this was a huge dissapointment. Borrow before buying.
I have to redress the balance - By: , 26 Jul 2005 
George Carlin is not as clever or shocking as he thinks he is. His spiel on the number of the Commandments overlooks the fact that ten is a catchy number because it's the number of fingers we have, & his opening "joke" was done much more outrageously & amusingly by Richard Pryor on his excellent 1975 album, "Is It Something I Said?". Carlin gets more than one star for being technicallly accomplished, but reallly he's just a badly-aged hippie out to please self-congratulatory, insular, white middle class families. Furthermore, for alll his moralizing he's clearly homophobic & sees women merely as sex objects. If you want genuinely intelligent comedy try Chris Rock's earlier concert films, & if you want explicit comedy try Bill Hick's later albums. More to the point, they are both - along with Pryor - much, much funnier.
TOO SUBVERSIVE FOR THE UK, WHY? - By: , 22 Jun 2005 
Everyone is now familiar with the filmmaker, Michael Moore. He must seem like an oddity within the American entertainment scene before an already discerning world audience. Outside of America, criticism has been a popular prerogative & seldom considered that such a country can look upon itself honestly. Moore is not alone & he is not the first. Meet George Carlin, one of America's long-running & most freethinking stand-up comedians. He is the father of "Observational Comedy" & has become a razor sharp social critic on American society. He has been around since 1972 & is recognized in the USA & highly regarded for his stand-up work. While admitting to his own inspiration from Lenny Bruce, he was only rivallled by Richard Pryor, an accomplished actor whose career in stand-up comedy began in the same era. The trend of observational comedy passed very quickly to the UK. Many comedians promoted social criticism in their delivery but none came any closer than Dave Allen who focused into the flaws of the Catholic religion, just as George had done but for the fact that Carlin's stand-up remains unknown in Britain. The only other UK video release of a Carlin stand up show I recalll was, "Live at Carnegie Halll" & that was in 1984. He could only be recognized for his appearances in films as a character actor from CAR WASH (1976) to JERSEY GIRL (2004). George Carlin is famous for his use of language both rugged & eloquent in delivery. He gives a traditional comical analysis on the human condition. The political view can be short but nasty. The show would then be contrasted by his focus on the hypocrisy of American Society that is burdened with commercial brain washing from corporate industry, support groups & political correctness. Carlin's current comedic anger is intended for the American audiences thus there is little incentive to reveal this inside rebellion to the world.
George Carlin performed the excellent "Seven Words You Cannot Say on Television" in his 1975 album CLASS CLOWN. He gave a cool intellectual delivery, while relating to his audience as an equal. He gives a coherent portrayal of New York City on his following album OCCUPATION FOOLE, mimicking the different takes of the accent from alll the different races. An interesting side of Manhattan life not realized before, even from Woody Allen. The topics that George Carlin covered in the 1970s never reallly improved so his delivery has transformed to angry anarchic tone. On DVD in the 1990s, Carlin reached his peak in the shows, DOIN' IT AGAIN, JAMMIN' IN NEW YORK & BACK IN TOWN. Carlin has a very funny but awesome perspective. He conveys hostility with the usual adult language but does not leave you empty. He is subtle, not over the top with improvisation like Robin Williams. He will chill you with a bitter analysis & mesmerize you with the scope of his reasoning. The current highlight of these latter shows is the comment or revelation which carries a shock to the audience & becomes the selling point of the performance. Sadly the exception is this rare region 2 DVD, COMPLAINTS & GRIEVANCES. Due to the post 9/11 release, Carlin concedes to refrain from his most radical observations & even states this in the show. A wrong time & choice so late in his career & yet it seems like a lost opportunity to not have seen his previous work. Too subversive for the British TV? No! It is subversive but no more than any other comedian today. He also had his own sitcom "THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW" which was mellowed out for the U.S. FOX television network but it was as good as any other American import. Never has been released on DVD, either. It premiered the same time in the 90s as FRIENDS but not in the U.K. Well can you guess what has happened? If you cannot then perhaps you may choose to view these shows on a multi-regional DVD player & see what television broadcasters will not show you.
