In Tommy Boy, little Tommy has finally graduated from college after a full seven years, and while he didn't come out of it with a doctorate or anything, he is definitely proud of his diploma (no matter how long it took him). When he comes back to his hometown, he finds that his father's factory, Callahan Auto Parts, is one of the few places left in the town still open, and one of the few things keeping the town itself alive. Upon arriving back home, he is immediatly greeted by life-long friend Richard (Spade) and his father (played by Brian Dennehy). He is granted a managing position in the factory and is supposed to one day take over the factory (much like his father before him).
His dad also introduces him to his step-mom to be, Beverly (Bo Derek), and his step-brother to be, Paul (Rob Lowe). When Mr. Callahan has a heart attack and dies shortly after his wedding, the whole town mourns, and when a deal involving new state-of-the-art brake pads falls through because of that death, it looks like Callahan Auto Parts might have to be sold to the leading competitor, Zalinsky (Dan Aykroyd). But Tommy claims he can still sell the half million units of brake pads to keep the company afloat, so he and Richard take to the road soliciting all of their current clients in the hopes of selling enough products to keep the company (and town) from folding.
What Tommy doesn't realize is that his new step-mother and step-brother are plotting against his efforts in an attempt to make a large cash windfall off of the sale. Needless to say, Farley and Spade's antics while on the road is a considerable portion of the movie. Not only do we see a lot of them in various clients' offices, but the two also have to deal with each other and their distinct differences all the time.
The Holy Schnike Edition is the same one that was released on DVD several years back, including all of the special features.These features include several really good featurettes. "Behind the Laughter" talks about the trouble creating the script and working around Spade's and Farley's SNL schedule and working with the different actors. It's a fairly lengthy featurette that really has a lot of information for anyone wanting to see what all went into trying to get this movie off of the ground. "Growing up Farley" introduces us to the Chris' two brothers as they share stories about their childhood, and "Just the Two of Us" talks about the chemistry between Farley and Spade and how the two actors compliment each other comedically.
While I really enjoy Tommy Boy, and it's great to see it again, I find it really odd to see this release. Not only does it not offer anything new, but it seems like it would make more sense to re-release this film on Blu-ray in a year or so to celebrate it's 15th anniversary. Instead we get a disc that, quite frankly, feels several years out-of-date and whose special features haven't even been upscaled (it's a bit annoying to have so much black area on my screen while watching these special features). Like I said, Tommy Boy is one of my favorite Farley flicks, but I'm just not sure this release is worth the extra bucks for the Blu-ray version.
