Search - The 2002 Olympic Games - Olympic Highlights on DVD

A complete disappointment

Garrett | CA United States | 05/02/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Each event is glossed over so quickly that if you blink you'll miss it. The best parts of the opening and closing ceremonies (such as the T-Rex's) are omitted. I wanted to throw it in the trash seconds after I started watching it. (The commentator's narration is particularly grating.)If you'd like a DVD with good coverage of figure skating, get the "Salt Lake 2002 Figure Skating the Competition/the Exhibition" two DVD set (oddly enough, also produced by NBC). This set, while not perfect, includes the entire routines--complete with original music, commentary, and audience reaction. It truly recaptures the magic of the moment."

16 Days in 90 Minutes

Garrett | 04/14/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This could have been a pleasant enough souvenir of the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is not surprising that each sport is given a miniscule amount of time, with only a few seconds each devoted to the opening and closing ceremonies. It is not surprising that, whenever possible, the producers acted as if only Americans were competing in each sport. What IS surprising is that the producers chose to underscore almost every second of the documentary (even the figure skating!) with cheesy synthesizer music. Go ahead and get it, but be forewarned. And the bonus footage IS well-done."

Best (but only) Video Scrapbook Available

Garrett | 11/06/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A moving tribute to the games; however, I would have liked to see more event footage rather than just event highlights and those sappy human interest stories. Costas's voice is fine as narrarator (he's got my vote for the sequel too, if he wants the job). If NBC heeds the call for a follow up ("More Olympic Highlights" or "v2002.2") it would be great to see:
-more behind the scenes footage (perhaps never before aired).
-what it was like to be there: to obtain tickets and to attend an event (including traffic, bus rides, and security).
-scenes from the olympic village (athletes quarters), and olympic square/medals ceremonies (downtown).
-clips from Jay Leno's hysterical late night coverage (including "Ross the Intern's" live reports).
-medal award ceremony pagentry, awards, and concerts.
-and full coverage of sporting events including opening and closing ceremonies (even if it requires a boxed set)."

Don't bother

cnyadan | Bavaria, Germany | 08/03/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Luckily, my experience with this product was borrowing it from a library; had I purchased it, I would have considered it quite a waste of money.Although I am not a sport fanatic, there has always been something special about the Olympics in my mind, whether winter or summer. Therefore, when I saw this in the library, I thought it might be interesting to see some of the best of Salt Lake City. Well, first off, I was sorely disappointed with the point of view taken for this project. If an American was a contender and did not win, it was played out as a huge tragedy, rather than (surprise!) somebody from another country being extremely talented. Of course, this is an American DVD about an Olympics that took place in America, but that doesn't mean that the Americans should win in every sport. Secondly, this DVD only touches the very surface of the sports of the Olympic games. To anybody who has a deep love of any of the sports, seeing 5 minutes of that sport isn't going to make the price of the DVD worth it. This DVD also 'makes nice' with some of the controversies that occurred. Of course, because the scandal with the judging of the pairs figure skating was such a big deal, and because it resulted in a second set of gold medals being awarded in that event, this was mentioned. However, I was hoping to get some clarification of what happened to Spain with at least one of the skiing events (I think they had a medal revoked), but as far as I saw, there was no mention of this whatsoever. Not that I'm a huge figure-skating fan, but one of the things that sticks out in my mind is how incredibly Alexei Yagudin skated, and how the rivalry between him and Yevgenii Plushenko was so heated. In this trite overview, more time was spent introducing the American men's skaters, reducing the clip of Yagudin's performance to a few seconds (with some dumb fill-in music in the background) and no picture of Plushenko at all. I think they would have been better off going all out, and making this into a disc set, where one could watch more of the sports, or taking some of the most popular sports (such as figure skating) and release the video of the competitions as individual DVDs."