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Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Ryan
Pinkinston, Al Shearer, and Dax Shepherd
Feature length: 157 minutes
Extras: Commentary Featuring
Ashton Kutcher, Dax Shepard, and Co-Creator Jason Goldberg, Deleted Scenes,
Never-Before Seen Segments
Languages: English Stereo Sound
Subtitles: N/A
Packaging: Two Amaray Keep Cases
Within A Glossy Cardboard Slipcase
Sound: Stereo Sound
Year of Television Broadcast 2003/DVD
Release: 2004
Home Video Distributor: Paramount
Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
Remember when MTV actually focused
more on showing music videos? Well I do, but I have resigned myself to the fact
that MTV has becomes RTV as is the father of the pseudo reality TV programming
that has taken over the airwaves for the last few years. I can only imagine what
TV will be like in the future, but despite my complaining I will admit that I am
just as much of a viewer of reality TV as the next person and there were a few
MTV shows I remember watching and enjoying like “Tough Enough,” “The Original
Real World: New York,” and “Jackass.” However most of the reality shows
MTV puts out I end up watching when they come out on DVD and there are a few
liked on DVD too, such as “The Real World: Las Vegas,” which I found
surprisingly entertaining. “Punk’d” is a show I remember hearing about,
but I never caught a single episode until I watched the DVD set containing all 8
episodes of the show’s first season.
Ashton Kutcher and his crew of
fellow mischief-makers basically play pranks on celebrities for the most part
with hidden cameras running while the viewer is supposed to laugh. Some of these
pranks are quite funny such as when Jessica Alba is tormented by a naked
shopper, played by Dax Shepherd or watching Dax trying to convince Kelly
Osbourne she needs an image makeover complete with modeling the dress for her
himself in one of the more inspired moments from the series. Other funny moments
include the sensor joke where MTV personalities are forced to disrobe in order
to get past security with a metal detector. The show is very funny, especially
when one considers the straight faces being kept for those in on the gag and the
reaction of those who are not. Most of them appear to be good sports and even
maintain control in situations where I doubt I would be nearly as levelheaded.
The funniest and scariest thing about “Punk’d” is that as much as we all
would like to think we would be smart enough to recognize a scam when it is
occurring, I have no doubt that anyone can get “Punk’d” and I include
myself in this too. Another scary thing to take into account is that since
people tend to imitate what they see, I’m sure some viewers have gotten some
ideas from watching Kutcher and his crew at work and that could be dangerous.
Presented in the original (1.33:1)
broadcast aspect ratio with a clear English Stereo Soundtrack, “Punk’d”
looks and sounds fine on DVD though it is important to note that some of the
video quality changes from segment to segment and this is how the show was
presented and not a result of the DVD authoring so keep that in mind while you
watch it. Ashton Kutcher, Dax Shepard, and Co-Creator Jason Goldberg also take
turns participating in episode length commentaries. There is also a deleted
scene feature where whenever a helicopter icon appears at the bottom of the
screen, the viewer can press enter on their DVD player’s remote control and
see some additional footage, but ironically I found that the commentators
mention things that were edited out and would have been far more interesting and
funny to see that are never included in the deleted scenes. Unfortunately the
only way to view these deleted scenes is to activate this option before watching
the episodes. In addition one cannot enable or disable this feature and the
audio commentary track without going through the interactive menus to do so. The
episodes can be viewed individually or in a row on each disc respectively.
Two never before seen segments are
included on disc two with young Ryan Pinkston pretending to be the head of
MTV’s programming department (3:48) and Al Shearer starring as the titled
character in “Blind Tattoo” (3:13). Is it just me or if it were true that a
kid were in charge of MTV’s programming, would anyone really be surprised? I
think it would explain a lot. Some promos for other MTV titles available on DVD
from Paramount Home Entertainment include the two VMA highlight collections,
Cribs, Real World Hookups, Power Yoga, and more (4:19).
The menus feature some comments
from Kutcher as well and are easy to navigate. “Punk’d: The Complete First
Season: MTV’s DVD-Video Collection” box set is available now at retailers on
and offline from Paramount Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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