Bring it on

I’ve been putting off writing this review. I really can’t give away too much of what Chris Rock says for fear of ruining anything. (Aside from which, his delivery in this presentation is much better than I could ever hope for here.) Bring the Pain is a special that Chris Rock did for HBO back in 1996.

You may have seen him from Saturday Night Live or from several movies like Lethal Weapon 4. He was also on In Living Color just before it was canceled. There’s an interview included on the DVD where Nelson George is interviewing Chris Rock. Chris Rock explains that after doing SNL and other things up to that point, his popularity was fading. He needed something to bring him back into the public’s attention and this was it.

I have to say that I’m glad that he was given the opportunity. Yes, there are a lot of four-letter words in this routine and he does use them in other things. However, he’s funny. Here, he talks about relationships, such how women can have platonic friends but men can’t. There’s also some stuff on politics, like how someone could lose to Marion Barry when it was know that he used drugs. As I said, I don’t want to give away too much.

There are a few extras, such as the interview I mentioned. The interview doesn’t reveal any major revelations, but is worth watching. It deals mostly with the Bring the Pain special and what it was like doing it. There’s also the video for No Sex in the Champagne Room, which I very much recommend watching. I thought that was very funny. The only other thing is a Bad Phone Sex animation, which I didn’t really like that much.

This is not something for children to watch, and it’s not just the cursing. Anyone that knows what tossed salad is knows that I speak the truth on this one. I didn’t really find the cursing to be offensive, mostly because I didn’t feel that it had any real shock value. It was more a part of the routine than anything else. The DVD gets four stars in my opinion. I’d definitely recommend this DVD to friends.