The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 26, 2014

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 with a mission statement that described the organization’s function was “to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.” Over the ensuing 50 plus years since its founding, Amnesty International has been a tireless supporter of jailed dissidents, tortured political prisoners and other fighters of conscience around the globe. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 and somewhat lesser known but still prestigious United Nations Human Rights Prize the following year. While the public at large may know Amnesty International largely through mailings that appear periodically to request ponying up for membership, there has also been an ancillary effort to attract attention to the group’s work over the years courtesy of sporadic but by now long running benefit “concerts” that have fallen under the rubric The Secret Policeman’s Ball, even though at least some of these performances were not initially called by that name. The 2012 iteration of this tradition coincided (more or less, anyway) with the fiftieth anniversary of Amnesty International’s founding, and for the first time the performance was held outside of the United Kingdom. New York City’s massive Radio City Music Hall hosted the event, which despite not being held in England still featured a rather solid assortment of British talent, alongside some American stars of television and the movies. Much as might be expected with any potpourri like this, some acts land better than others of the performances featured on this new Blu-ray commemorating the evening. In fact, much of The Secret Policeman’s Ball U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall plays like any given Saturday Night Live episode, with about equal amounts of cleverness and ineptitude. This is probably no mere coincidence, given the number of SNL performers on hand for the Amnesty International gig.

That well known stand up comic Desmond Tutu starts the show out with one of several filmed segments which act as interstitials throughout the show. Tutu paraphrases the old maxim “dying is easy, comedy is hard” to explain why he never went into humor as a career, opting to spend his life actually helping people instead. Tutu’s understated opening contrasts rather markedly with Eddie Izzard’s stand up, a typically raucous and even sacrilegious affair where he spends quite a bit of time rather funnily sending up the fact that people still believe in God when historical epochs like Nazism and Hitler’s rise to power might suggest otherwise. A few of Izzard’s jokes just fall completely flat—mustering not even a passing titter in the huge live audience—but the bulk of his routine, while scabrous, is often laugh out loud hilarious.

The ping ponging which will become a hallmark of the evening is soon evident in the next act, billed as “Jon Stewart and Kim”, which features the Daily Show host with an actor portraying Kim Jong Un. The “joke” here is that Stewart expected to be sharing the stage with one Kim Kardashian. Even Jon seems to realize the bit is not going over all that well and is more than eager to bring it all to a close. Over and over again, the show will veer between quite effective stand up routines and less worthwhile bits that tend to go nowhere. For every blockbuster like the very funny young British comedian Jack Whitehall, there’s a completely boneheaded routine by the likes of Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen (playing bandmates who sing indecipherable lyrics--hilarious).

The vast majority of the talent on hand is British. Some of these, like the aforementioned Whitehall, hit it out of the ballpark, while others, perhaps surprisingly including the usually effervescent Russell Brand, seem somewhat out of their element. Brand’s first appearance is a kind of membership pitch which gets decidedly bizarre when he starts (jokingly) lambasting a woman in the audience who hasn’t joined Amnesty International and then drags her up onstage with him to make her the object of further ridicule. Brand’s later standup is marginally more effective. Both of these appearances feature a rather bizarre distraction of a huge looped chain hanging from Brand’s pants which encircles his crotch and threatens to do real damage when he moves manically around the stage.

There are a couple of at least faintly amusing bits, including a running gag featuring various members of Monty Python (John Cleese was one of the guiding lights behind the various Balls). “Running” gag is especially appropriate here since the recurrent joke has to do with legs (to say more would spoil the joke). There’s also a decently funny bit with Ben Stiller and David Walliams where they give American English and British English definitions for the same word. Among the better moments are a couple of interludes with heckling Muppets Statler and Waldorf who, in a topically wonderful bit, are informed that heckling has gone all “social media” with Twitter, leading to them going on a frantic search for cell phones and Twitter accounts.

But for every bit that lands, there is at least one that flops. John Oliver is typically ebullient but has a really lame “interview” with Bill Hader (playing Julian Assange). A weird skit featuring V for Vendetta Anonymous masks which has a supposed big reveal at the end, a reveal that just lies there gasping for breath with (again) barely a ripple from the audience. Maybe that old “not ready for prime time” phrase has something to do with that region of Manhattan. Could it be time to move the Ball back to the United Kingdom?

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a nicely sharp and decently detailed looking presentation that probably looks slightly better than the broadcast and (especially) streaming versions. Colors are accurate looking and nicely saturated (the gorgeous blues of the Radio City Music Hall curtains are really lush). This is not an overly sharp presentation, however, and in fact several midrange and wide shots are fairly soft looking. There are occasional but noticeable combing artifacts in fast motion like the strumming of guitars. Some of the pretaped elements actually are the sharpest looking (see the screenshots of Michael Palin and Desmond Tutu for good examples).

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall features a perfectly serviceable LPCM 2.0 track that delivers the routines and audience reaction with clarity and excellent fidelity. Some may have wished for a surround track for the musical elements (like Mumford & Sons), but by far the bulk of this show is nothing other than one or two people talking at a time, so this uncompressed track suffices just fine.

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080i; 8:11) features some interviews as well.

The Secret Policeman's Ball: U.S.A. at Radio City Music Hall Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

With such a storied cast of great comics, I perhaps had unreasonable expectations for this latest iteration of The Secret Policeman's Ball. Don't get me wrong—there is plenty to like here, just maybe not at the level curmudgeons (like I am) might expect. Things move along breezily enough, so, just like in any given Saturday Night Live episode, it doesn't take long for a lame segment to be replaced with something more winning. This Blu-ray features serviceable if not stellar video and audio and comes Recommended.