“If at first you don’t succeed, lower your standards.”
– Tommy Boy tagline
For Generation Xers and Millennials, Saturday Night Live had a pretty strong grip on our popular culture experience in the ‘90s. Through various cast members (original and continuing), theater-going audiences were treated to SNL-inspired films like Wayne’s World (1992) and Coneheads (1993), as well as cast member-driven films like Airheads (1994) and Billy Madison (1995). Across the four aforementioned films, and several others, is a singular consistent individual: Chris Farley. In parts big and small, Farley frequently took the spotlight for however brief a moment and it made sense to put him as lead of a feature. Before his passing in December of 1997, Farley and fellow SNL alum David Spade (The Emperor’s New Groove; Joe Dirt) would make two movies together — Tommy Boy (1995) and Black Sheep (1996) — which would capitalize on their odd couple energy via two similar road trip buddy comedies. For its 30th anniversary, Paramount Pictures is releasing Tommy Boy on 4K UHD Blu-ray for the very first time, the conversion supervised by the film’s director Peter Segal (50 First Dates; Get Smart) and the film accompanied by the previously available special features.
Fresh out of college, ne’er-do-well Thomas “Tommy” Callahan III (Farley) heads back to Sandusky, Ohio, to work for his father, Thomas “Big Tom” Callahan II (Brian Dennehy), at the family business while he figures out his next move. Upon coming home, however, Tommy learns that not only does his father want Tommy to take a larger role in the company, but that Big Tom is about to get remarried to the lovely Beverly (Bo Derek). But when tragedy befalls Big Tom after saying “I Do” and the already-precarious fate of the family business seem closer to disaster, Tommy hits the road with childhood “pal” Richard (Spade) to visit as many potential customers as possible and save the business.
With this being a 30th anniversary first-time 4K UHD edition, we’re going to start with the presentation before addressing anything else. Why? Because not every film requires a 4K UHD edition no matter how much we love a movie. So, while some 4K UHDs may surprise us (looking at you, Umbrella Entertainment’s Super Mario Bros. (1993)), others are just as good as the Blu-rays that preceded them (ex. Last Christmas (2019)).
Beginning with the technical, the bitrate for Tommy Boy starts low for the first 30 minutes of the film, hovering in the 40s Mbps, though occasionally jumping into the high 60s/low 70s and sometimes dropping into the 30s before settling into the 60s/70s for the remaining runtime. Keep in mind that the highest bitrate on a Blu-ray is 40 Mbps, meaning that much of the bitrate is roughly as good as the max output for a Blu-ray you may already own. Thankfully, even when the bitrate is low, the details and clarity are there, even in the first 30 minutes. It’s quite strange that, for a bit of the on-disc presentation, the bitrate is equivalent to the Blu-ray edition. One thing to be grateful for is that the 4K UHD edition is a two-disc release with all of the special features only on the Blu-ray disc, meaning that none of the disc space on the 4K UHD disc is taken up by the special features. This allows the 4K UHD disc to have all the space it needs to provide the best audio and video experience. There’s little about Tommy Boy on the whole that screams a necessity for a 4K UHD edition as there’s little that benefits from the increased dataspace afforded video and audio. It’s not like the colors are particularly vibrant or important to the narrative (ex. Full Metal Jacket (1987)) or where the sound design impacts the home viewing experience (ex. Twister (1996)), but the on-disc presentation is solid enough that if someone felt strongly about upgrading, they wouldn’t feel particularly disappointed.
As is becoming common, Tommy Boy is being offered in two physical editions: standard 4K UHD and limited edition steelbook. Paramount Pictures provided the steelbook edition for this home release review, so what follows will help give an idea of what to expect from that.
The steelbook possesses a minimal design with Farley and Spade on the front cover in column format, the infamous deer from their roadtrip making the third member on display, and Richard’s busted-up, smoking ride with the deer standing inside it depicted on the back over, and all with a metallic gold finish. On the inside should be a slip of paper with the digital code on the left and the two discs (4K UHD on top, Blu-ray on the bottom) on the right, a promo photo of Spade and Farley in the car across both sides of the inside cover. It’s all very simple, but those who know Tommy Boy and appreciate the chemistry of Farley/Spade will find it pleasant enough, I’m sure.
TOMMY BOY 4K UHD steelbook packshot. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Beyond the loss of Farley, what makes me sad watching Tommy Boy is how the narrative seems so implausible today. Not the part with a parent loving their kid and leaving them the family business to run in their passing, that’s pretty grounded. No, it’s the part where a company looks after its employees. That’s part of the turn in the script, part of the fly in the ointment, not just the Beverly/Paul Burns reveal, but that Don Aykroyd’s Ray Zalinsky was far more interested in the Callahan name than keeping the factories that employ the Callahan staff functioning. As a kid, that just seemed like the usual “they’re closing down the community center” bullshit, whereas now, we recognize that as the way that a capitalist society works: profit over all, employees are expendable, and any job that refers to its employees as “family” is obviously toxic. A place like Callahan’s only really exists in the fictional world of film and television, not because it’s a concept that can’t exist in the real world, but one that’s harder to live-by and still succeed when capitalism requires metaphorical meat for the grinder and the grinder on full speed. But that pill is much easier to swallow/ignore when you’ve got a physical comedian like Farley combating it and a little of that ole’ ‘90s slapstick zhuzhing it up.
Admittedly, Tommy Boy isn’t a favorite of the SNL catalogue (I prefer the comedy of Happy Gilmore or Airheads much more). It was always amusing to me as a kid, connecting to it more as a film that my middle brother would frequently quote. Typically, it would be Spade pretending to be a maid “want me to fluff your pillow?” or singing “fat man in a little coat” or one of the other little ditties Bonnie Turner (Wayne’s World; Coneheads) and Terry Turner (Wayne’s World; Coneheads) concocted for the script. Watching it now, being more aware of the skill on screen, more aware of pop culture jokes to understand some of the one-liners tossed around (referring to Beverly as a “10”), and generally more understanding of the tragedy surrounding Farley’s passing, the film resonates a little more. Moreso than the basically carbon copy of Black Sheep, Tommy Boy works because the rise of Tommy into the person Big Tom always believed he could be isn’t about changing who Tommy is, but giving him the confidence to emulate his father the way he always wanted to. His father loved him, encouraged him — sure, probably enabled him — but he didn’t put his son down. He tried to raise him up. It’s the kind of nepotism that audiences can get behind because who doesn’t want their child to succeed? Plus, by positioning Tommy as well-meaning, it makes his ne’er-do-well behavior charming and his uphill battle one we root for. There are certainly jokes that don’t work as well due to the use of slurs (one R-word) and the scene with Richard masturbating gives one a different kind of ick, but the way that Tommy then gives him a hard time (no pun intended) at least demonstrates that (a) the script knows that this was creepy behavior and that Tommy would never. Outside of these two things, Tommy Boy remains a solid time that fans from ‘95 can still enjoy today.
Tommy Boy 4K UHD Special Features:
- Tommy Boy: Behind the Laughter (featurette)
- Stories from the Side of the Road (featurette)
- Just the Two of Us (featurette)
- Growing Up Farley (featurette)
- Commentary by director Peter Segal
- Storyboard Comparisons
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Alternate Takes
- Gag Reel
- Photo Gallery
- TV Spots
- Theatrical Trailer
Available on 4K UHD, 4K UHD limited edition steelbook, and digital March 25th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Paramount Pictures Tommy Boy webpage.
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Categories: Home Release, Recommendation
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