More fun than 56 shots of peach schnapps!
Publisher: MTV Home Video
Tue, 14 June 2005
by: Fazz
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Viva La Bam! Oh how I’d lusted after seeing this show. After an agonizing wait in which our very own Gimmick had this DVD on order for some months, it finally arrived. Only to be followed a week later by yet another copy for our viewing pleasure. Well, it all worked out in the end…
Viva La Bam is the latest brainchild from MTV and CKY/Jackass star Bam Margera. He brings back the characters we all love, such as Ryan Dunn, Brandon DiCamillo, Raab Himself, Jenn Rivell, Rake Yohn, Phil, April and the legendary Don Vito. Also along for the ride are Tony Hawk, Compton-ass Terry, Bucky Lasek, The Bloodhound Gang and Australia’s own Jason Ellis. This DVD set includes 2 disks. One with all eight uncensored episodes from season 1, and another with all the bonus crap, such as some hilarious video clips and outtakes from various episodes. Essentially what Viva La Bam is all about is as follows: Bam Margera, skateboarder extraordinaire, lives in a large house with his parents April and Phil. With the help of his friends and cohorts he constantly rains hell on his family and loved ones, making the neighborhood and the entire town of Westchester, PA, a terribly irritating or amusing place to live, depending on how you view such activities.
Episode #1: Phil’s Hell Day/Bam’s Skate Park
The first episode on this disk is in my opinion, one of the funniest. Bam and his pals’ plans are to get Phil to flip out by playing a series of immature pranks on him. These include: Ironing hamburger motifs on all Phil’s clothes, installing a fire pole in the bedroom, secretly installing a remote-controlled hydraulic suspension system in Phil’s van and eventually wrecking Phil’s beloved 1994 Chevrolet van completely.
The second part of this episode involves Bam sending his parents to Atlantic City for the weekend. While away, Bam recruits his good friend Tim Glomb to convert the entire bottom floor of the house into a skatepark. Tony Hawk and gang rock up to make a party out of the occasion and Phil and April return with hilarious results.
Episode #2: Don’t Feed Phil!
This is another classic episode. Bam’s dad Phil is one big guy. Bam has taken it upon himself to get every restaurant and café in town to refuse Phil service for 24 hours. The fridge and cupboards are chained closed and it’s up to Brandon, Dunn and Raab to make sure Phil can’t eat for 24 hours. To make matters worse, Bam has had giant billboards and posters placed all over town so everyone knows about it. He even recruits the local radio station to post warnings on air!!! Later in the evening, Bam and gang head into Philadelphia to see Scandinavian act Turbonegro. While under the not-so-watchful eye of Don Vito, the pair decides to order a pizza from out of town. Word reaches Bam in Philly and he brings the entire Turbonegro gig back to his place for an all-night rock-fest.
Episode #3: Family Reunion
It’s time for the Margera family reunion. Bam decides a nice quiet dinner would be unbearably boring, so his good pal Compton-ass Terry flies in from LA for the occasion. Terry is landed with the mission of getting Phil some “Bling”, while Bam picks up his grandparents, Mum-mum and Pop-pop to come to the celebration. Tim Glomb is in charge of turning the entire house into a castle, including a moat and draw-bridge front door. Raab, Rake and Brandon return with all the supplies and the Margera family are treated to a feast that none of them (especially Mum-mum) is likely to forget anytime soon.
Episode #4: Viva Las Vegas
Phil and April want to renew their wedding vows. What better place to do it than Las Vegas? The guys have also decided that Raab needs a wife, so they take it upon themselves to secure him a Russian mail-order bride. The whole gang flies off to Las Vegas for the celebrations. Upon arrival, Don Vito finds out he has to do several things he’ll regret while in Vegas. He gets a tattoo, gets kicked out of the casino after losing all his money, and several other outrageous scenarios. He also gets stuck in a converted utility-closet of a room, all the while complaining that he can’t get a chick in there. Don Vito? Get a chick? Now we’re stretching the bounds of reality.
Surely enough April and Phil renew their vows, Raab marries the Russian Mrs. Himself and the whole gang party all night long.
Episode #5: Paint Phil Blue & Other Stories
It’s a 3-day weekend… and you know what that means? FUN. That’s right. While Raab and Dunn go out partying with Don Vito, Bam and the gang take it upon themselves to dig a 30-foot tunnel with a hastily created trapdoor into Don Vito’s bedroom. When the hapless trio returns home Vito goes to bed, but is awakened by a sneaky surprise early the next morning from beneath his floorboards.
The following day Bam finds out that Phil’s favorite color is blue. During the night, Bam and Dunn proceed to paint every possible surface in the kitchen blue, including all the food and utensils!!! All the while, April’s beloved car has been “borrowed” by Dunn and the gang. They decide it’s rather boring and make moves to trick it out. Bam coaxes Phil and Don Vito into a custom-built booth with a rather alluring hoagie, where instead of money, the guys pelt all manner of disgusting material into the room through air-hoses.
Episode #6: Very Merry Margera Christmas
This is gonna be the best Christmas ever!!!
Its Christmas time and Bam wants to do something special for the family. Let’s turn the bottom floor into an ice-skating rink? You guessed right. And for April’s pleasure, Bam gets some figure skaters in from all over to skate around and look puurty in between games of ice-hockey. While this is going on inside, Bam decides the house needs to stand out at this most joyous time of the year, and comes up with the idea of having so many Christmas lights that you can see the house from space! With the help of Tim Glomb and the gang, they set to work making sure that it will be the best Christmas ever.
Episode #7: April’s Revenge
It’s a lovely day to go boating. The whole family hops on a boat and head out to a tiny island in the middle of the river. April senses that the guys will do everything they can to strand herself, Phil and Vito out there, so they sneak off and hijack the boat, instead stranding the entire crew on a deserted island. To make matters worse, the island is located a mere several hundred meters from 3-Mile Island nuclear power plant. Well, what are they to do? Make the most of it of course. Glomb arrives with materials to make a skate ramp and huts, and the whole gang parties on while Bam comes up with an ingenious plan to get revenge on April from stranding them all out there.
Episode #8: Scavenger Hunt
This would have to be one of my favorite episodes from this 1st season. Bam and his friends get it into their heads that buying old cars from the wrecking yard and having a scavenger hunt might be a great idea. They paint up the cars with their various team names, call their good friends the Bloodhound Gang, Tony Hawk and Jason Ellis along for the ride, and have to tear around all over Westchester doing increasingly ridiculous and disgusting tasks in order to get points, and, eventually win the competition. What do you get if you win? There is an old piano in the Margera’s garage, and whoever wins gets to do whatever they want with it.
Bonus Material:
This set contains a 2nd disk containing all sort of outtakes and junk from the episodes. It has extended versions of some of the episodes, and plenty of extra stomach-churning footage from the scavenger hunt episode. This disk also includes video clips from Clutch and Turbonegro. Included on the main disk is also a full-featured commentary, but if you’re like me and can’t be bothered listening to what the director thought of a certain shot while he was taking a dump the day after a curry, then you’ll just skip right on past.
If you’re a Bam fan and don’t own this totally excellent 2-disk set, then slap yourself immediately. After dozens of viewings I still laugh my arse off at this stuff. Call me immature, but I love it.
Viva La Bam Season 1: You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even crap your pants. It’s definitely a must-own for any Bam fan, or fan of stupid hijinx.
by: Fazz
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