For Love of the Game (HD DVD)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brian Wortz on January 28th, 2008
Ahh..Baseball and Kevin Costner. Goes together like chocolate and peanut butter, but not quite as tasty or always as enjoyable. Still, Costner has carved a nice niche for himself playing baseball players (four times by my count) with enough heart and sentiment to give even haters of America’s pastime a little American spirit. This time around Sam (Spider-man/Evil Dead) Raimi directs For Love of the Game with Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, and Jena Malone co-staring. Costner plays an almost-washed-up pitcher for my local boys the Detroit Tigers. While not completely a sports film, and a bit more heavy on the romance, the Tigers haven’t looked as clear as they do on this HD DVD since last I’ve seen them in person.
Costner plays Billy Chapel, a fictional pitcher, who has just been dumped by his girl (Preston) and has heard that he’s up for trade as well due to his lackluster performance. He uses what could be his last game with the Tigers to reflect through a series of flashbacks about what has brought his life to this point which in turn will lead him to decisions about his life. Here the film often moves away from strickly baseball and focuses more on the romance between Preston and himself. It’s really a mid-life crisis film under the guise of a sports movie.
Where the film succeeds is the great performances by the cast. Costner and Preston (while neither are particularly favorites of mine) are both exceptionally strong. Also John C. Reilly is excellent as catcher “Gus” who helps Costner keep his head in the game despite distractions from his personal life.
It’s really nice to see Costner in an intimate film such as this after so many failed attempts at epics [see Postman, Waterworld, Dances With Wolves(sorry I thought it was overrated)] and he plays the everyman who just happens to be a pro baseball player convincingly enough to keep interest through the long run-time. Like those films I just mentioned above, this is a long one too (almost 2.5 hours), or at least it feels extremely long due to the slow pace. To me, that was really the shortcoming of the picture. While moving slowly did help add some depth and “character moments”, it was a slow picture, no other way to put it. I have to think that Raimi had his hand heavily involved in bringing out the heart in these performances. Fortunately the performances carried the plot, and it didn’t hurt that it was great to look at and hear on this HD DVD either.
Video
I’ve seen enough catalog pictures at this point in the life of high definition that I can’t help but be a bit hesitant about what to expect quality wise, but sports-fans, this is a winner. The 1080p/VC-1 transfer presented here is easily one of the best I’ve seen on a Universal catalog film. Of course it may have to do with the fact that this film is not as old as some others, but I hope it has more to do with Universal getting their act together for their catalog films (especially since Universal is really the studio carrying HD DVD with ANY catalog pictures at this point in time).
Colors are rich and vibrant. The baseball field is beautiful with nice saturation. Also excellent was I saw no evidence of edge enhancement. Blacks were consistently dark with no artifacts. Really a great looking transfer.
Audio
The audio here is phenomenal. The Dolby 5.1 TrueHD track should please audiophiles with a nice surround mix and excellent fidelity. I loved the rear channels with the crowd in the background, and the LFE usage was nice too during a few of the more thunderous scenes. But, this is a quieter film mostly and dialog was crisp and clear. I really enjoyed the soundtrack throughout and it kept me engaged in the film despite some of the slower moments. No complaints here.
Extras
There are a few standard features such as a behind-the-scenes featurette and some throwaway deleted scenes. Nothing worthwhile there. The only thing I did enjoy was there was a quiz called “On the Mound” and once you pass it you are given a short film about Babe Ruth. All extras are in standard definition. Kind of disappointing overall.
Overall
I hadn’t seen this film prior to this HD DVD release, and despite it’s slow plotline, the fine performances by the cast, and the fantastic picture and sound (don’t even need to qualify it as a catalog film in this case) were enough to keep me engrossed. If you are looking for a purely baseball film, this may not be exactly what you are expecting. This isn’t Field of Dreams or Bull Durham, but as a drama/love story, it mostly works. Fans of the film should pick this up. Everyone else, even give it a rent.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
[...] Brian Wortz wrote a fantastic post today on “For Love of the Game (HD DVD)”Here’s ONLY a quick extractCostner plays an almost-washed-up pitcher for my local boys the Detroit Tigers. While not completely a sports film, and a bit more heavy on the romance, the Tigers haven’t looked as clear as they do on this HD DVD since last I’ve seen … [...]