Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) is an artist that has been active in the UK for some time now but he didn't really hit the big time until the mid 90s when his album "Better Living Through Chemistry" was released. Those of you who know his work undoubtedly listen to it entirely on the dance floor because after all, that's what Cook does best; make people dance. Heck, his tunes (Weapon of Choice in particular) even got Christopher Walken to strut his stuff in front of the camera.

In that particular video Walken is sitting in a hotel lobby looking quite solemn. Once the music starts he gets his groove on and makes the lobby his personal dance floor. I have to admit that when I sat down to watch The Greatest Hits: Why Make Videos it was the first time I saw the video for "Weapon of Choice" and I have to say, it was infectious. Seeing Walken dance around mirrored the catchy nature of the music and after a time I felt myself almost (just almost) feeling the urge to get up and shake it myself.

I do have to admit that I am only a light listener of Fatboy Slim's music. I know the staples such as "Praise You" and "The Rockafeller Skank" but to be honest, aside from what I've caught on the radio I haven't gone out of my way to hear to the rest of his albums. I recognize the talent and I appreciate the music but for whatever reason I just hadn't checked out more of his stuff until The Greatest Hits: Why Make Videos fell into my lap.

The set up of this release is quite simple really. It's a presentation of the best of Fatboy Slim's songs all with their corresponding music videos. I personally love collections of music videos because I long for the days when MTV and VH1 actually played the ones I wanted to see. That being said in order to get into the stuff on this DVD you need to be a fan of the artist, or at least have an open mind. Music, like beauty, is in the ear of the listener. Whether or not something is worth checking out entirely depends on your appreciation of the subject matter. With that in mind and my limited knowledge of Fatboy Slim's recordings I can honestly say that I walked away from this disc with a positive impression. Much like Christopher Walken in "Weapon of Choice" I found myself enjoying practically every song and video.

As is the case with any album I found some stuff that I loved and some stuff that I didn't. On the plus side I really enjoyed "Praise You", "Rockafeller Skank", and "Wonderful Night" because of the songs and videos paired up with them. Other material like "Slash Dot Dash" and "Push the Tempo" made better videos than songs in my opinion, but then again I'm not into that whole dance-type thing.

There are a few videos that need to be pointed out because of the sheer impression that they leave. I particularly loved "That Old Pair of Jeans" and though the song wasn't the greatest and the guy in the video was only juggling, once the two got together things clicked. "The Joker" was fun, in a creepy-cute kind of way. If you haven't seen it before you should be warned that it's basically a bunch of kittens walking around in costumes with Fatboy Slim's rendition of "The Joker" playing in the background. "Don't Let The Man Get You Down" was another example of a video that was better than the song. It follows the life of a racist named Don who goes through his existence with "long haired freaky people need not apply" repeating itself throughout the whole thing. There's even a cameo by Paris Hilton towards the end as Don gets what's coming to him (and no it's not herpes).

Overall this is a great DVD for fans of Fatboy Slim. There are sixteen videos that you've probably seen before and four "rare and unseen" videos as well. That's a lot of music for your dollar, though personally I found the content here to be 50/50. I loved roughly half of this disc but didn't bother to go back to the other portion once I sat through it the first time.

The quality of this release varies with each video. Some feature a very nice transfer with crisp imagery and sharp colors. Unfortunately just about every video here is riddled with grain, dirt, and easily visible compression artifacts. This could have something to do with the manner in which they were filmed but it could also be a side effect of having the material crammed onto the disc with little to not touch up.

The sound quality on The Greatest Hits: Why Make Videos is decent but truly nothing to get too excited about. I was hoping for a booming 5.1 track to go along with the videos but instead the experience was more subdued. I didn't encounter technical snafus of any kind though, so in that department things seem to be well. The presentation here is solid enough for what it's worth but nowhere near as strong as it could have been.

Apart from the regular and unseen videos there is a documentary included on the disc where Cook and most of the directors discuss various videos and the inspiration they found for each. The feature runs at about twenty three minutes and covers a decent amount of the content from "Weapon of Choice" and "Praise You" to "Slash Dot Dash" and "Gangster Trippin". The only other supplemental bit comes in the form of Are We Having Fun Yet which is a five minute video showcasing one of Cook's concerts.

As far as music DVDs go, Fatboy Slim's The Greatest Hits: Why Make Videos is a decent release. The twenty music videos found on the disc and the light bonus content will definitely be enough to make fans happy. I wish the aesthetic presentation of the videos was touched up a bit but when it comes to a compilation like this I guess you take what you can get.

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