NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 27, 2021

It's a Tom Brady league and where he goes, conference title games and Super Bowl appearances and Lombardi Trophies are sure to follow. After two decades with the New England Patriots -- in which the team played in nine Super Bowls, winning six of them -- he traded Patriots red, white, and blue for Tampa Bay red, white, and...pewter? He traded New England snow for Florida coast sun and a brand new team hoping not just to make waves in the free agent market but make NFL history with a second Super Bowl title and a first playoff win since that victory over the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII. And who better to lead the team -- any team -- than the one they call the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time)? Brady's skills have not deteriorated with age. The QB, now approaching his mid-40s, hasn't lost a step or a spiral and his presence alone elevated the Bucs from a 7-9 team in 2019 to a contender for 2020.

Brady's first game as a Buc didn't produce the expected result. The team dropped the opener to Drew Brees (another over 40 QB and the game was the first ever matchup of starting quarterbacks over 40) and the Saints in New Orleans, 34-23, in a game in which a few Brady mental errors, and a couple of interceptions, led to a less-than-stellar debut. But the Bucs, and Brady, would rebound with three wins in a row, including in Brady's home debut at Raymond James Stadium, to begin the season 3-1. A week five loss to the Bears put the club at 3-2, but three straight wins would follow, including a decisive 38-10 win over the Packers, before losing again to the Saints in blowout fashion week nine. At 7-3 after week 10, the Bucs would drop two straight to the Rams and Chiefs, both by razor-thin 27-24 scores and both at home, heading into the late week 13 bye at 7-5. But that bye would prove vital. The Bucs wouldn't lose again, winning four straight to close the regular season at 11-5, the most Bucs regular season wins since 2005, and head into the playoffs as the NFC's fifth seed.

Due to playoff structuring and formatting, the 11-5 Bucs would actually be the lower seeded, and visiting, team in the first round playoff matchup against 7-9 Washington. Even on the road the Bucs were not overmatched by the higher seeded squad. The game would be close heading into the fourth quarter -- 18-16 Bucs -- and the game would remain close until the final tick with the Bucs securing a hard fought 31-23 win. In round two, the Bucs found themselves matched against division rival New Orleans. Brady and the Bucs lost the two regular season matches against the Saints -- that sloppy season opener and the week nine drubbing -- but the Bucs would be ready for Brees this time. The Saints would jump out to a 6-0 lead after the first quarter but the Bucs would take command from there, scoring 30 through the final three quarters and holding the Saints to a pair of touchdowns the rest of the way to secure the 30-20 win and a trip to the NFC title game. There, the Saints met the top seeded Green Bay Packers on the road. Brady and Bucs would take an early 7-0 lead and go into the half up 21-10. The Packers would fight and tighten the score to be down 28-23 heading into the fourth where both teams mustered but a field goal apiece. Final score: Bucs 31, Packers 26. In the Super Bowl, Brady would face off against the defending champion Chiefs. The game was almost never in question. The first quarter came to a close with the Bucs holding a slim 7-3 lead that ballooned to 21-6 at the half. The Buccaneer defense would hold the Chiefs to only three more points in the second half. Brady's offense would tack on 10 more for the resounding 31-9 victory.

Veteran fans familiar with the layout on previous Super Bowl champion recap videos will find this one all but identical to previous years. The film begins with a rather lengthy game-by-game regular season recap, though certainly these are glorified highlight reels of the 16 games rather than in-depth analyses. However, the historical significance of the Brady signing allows for a little more narrative leeway, particularly early on. The regular season does represent about half of the total runtime, though, which means the other half is dedicated to the playoff games with most time by minutes given to the Super Bowl game against the Chiefs. But even within the allotted time, the program does a masterful job of presenting not just the highlights but also the sights, sounds, greater atmosphere, emotion, and drama of the games with that unmistakable NFL Films style that's as visually pulse-pounding as it is narratively exciting and exacting.

NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The content has changed, but the video quality has not. A cut-and-paste from last year's Super Bowl disc video review would certainly suffice because this one is in pretty much all critical ways identical. It holds to the 1080i/1.78:1-framed presentation which is quite good in sum. The picture is crisp across the board, well detailed and sharp in all the right places with serious compression issues only where one would expect to find them, such as seen through online interviews and press conferences and such. But the bulk of the footage looks terrific, particularly all of the establishing shots that show in great detail stadium elements, jerseys, faces, and the like. In-game action is smooth and sharp, too, and ascends well beyond the far lower grade TV camera output. The quality here is great. Color output is jut as impressive. Where the TV broadcasts lack tonal crispness and depth, those qualities are here in abundance. The red Bucs jerseys and logos leap off the screen and the green turf appears far more realistically colored than seen on TV broadcasts, particularly in the visibility of minute changes where divots and other imperfections change texture and color alike. But colors across the spectrum are bright, bold, and healthy. White jerseys are crisp, nighttime and low light blacks are excellent, and noise is only an issue in very low light. Never mind the "1080i" spec; this one looks fantastic no matter its encode.

NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ditto the thoughts from the video review: there's essentially nothing here's that changed from last year's disc in terms of the broad dynamics that define the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is large and powerful, never wanting for more authoritative stage engagement or dynamic intensity. Music soars and spreads through the stage with seamless width and vigor, aided by balanced surround immersion and a quality low end output. The track incorporates some crunches and hits from on-field action, which are pleasantly deep and true, but for the majority of the runtime it's the familiar NFL dramatic music and the spoken word, whether be that from narration, interviews, or scattered on-field chatter. The narration is the most prominent and it's of the best quality. It's deep, true, and center focused. There are some understandable fluctuations in clarity for interviews and on-field chatter as they're often captured through compressed video and field mics, respectively. But overall the track is excellent; fans will be pleased.

NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers' supplements are broken into two categories: The Season and The Team. Below is a breakdown of what's included. A DVD copy of the program is included with purchase. No digital copy has been bundled. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Season

• Super Bowl LV Opening Night (1080i, 11:01): On the night of the game, NFL Network previews the contest which also includes video calls featuring both Brady and Mahomes as well as other players and talking heads.
• Post-Game Ceremonies (1080i, 5:28): The Bucs receive the Lombardi Trophy after winning the game.
• 2020 NFL Shots of the Year (1080i, 5:58): A league-wide video highlight compilation
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - Trash Talk (1080i, 4:20): Some of the less than polite chatter from the field of play.
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - The QB Club (1080i, 4:31): Listen to the QBs candid comments on the gridiron.
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - Officials (1080i, 1:37): Hear a little from the men in zebra stripes, but mostly hear the players and coaches yelling at them.
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - Follies (1080i, 3:53): Some lighter chatter from the sidelines and the field and some of the funnier catches and plays from the season that was.
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - Defense (1080i, 3:23): Chatter and sound effects from the defensive side of the ball.
• 2020 NFL Sounds of the Year - Celebrations (1080i, 2:47): Players engage in some advanced celebratory moves.

The Team

• Women Coaches in Tampa Bay (1080i, 4:15): A closer look at the Bucs' two female hires, one in the weight room another on the field.
• The Tom Brady Interview (1080i, 2:18): As in "The Obligatory" with Brady appearing in most every one of these videos over the years. The Bucs QB talks up his career playing for Bruce Arians and the supporting cast around him.
• Man of the Year: Mike Evans (1080i, 2:23): The Bucs receiver talks up his charitable work and blessing the family of a young man who passed away from cancer.
• NFL the Grind: Devin White (1080i, 6:17): A closer look at the Bucs' superstar linebacker.
• NFL the Grind: Tom Brady and Brett Favre (1080i, 3:56): Favre watches Brady's first game at Raymond James Stadium.

NFL Super Bowl LV Champions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This time last year, it wasn't certain if there would be a 2020 NFL season. The Chiefs were coming off a Super Bowl win and, between the time the team hoisted the Lombardi Trophy until the time the championship video released the world changed just like that, in a matter of weeks, throwing everything and everyone into a state of, at best, quasi-panicked confusion. But with ample time from March to September the NFL was able to adjust, learn from the other major sports, and make sure that the season would not be lost to the pandemic. And for Bucs fans: good thing. What might have been an erased season turned into a second Super Bowl title for the franchise and the first with the legendary Tom Brady under center and, to be sure, the promise that the door will stay open for several more seasons. Cinedigm's Blu-ray is essentially identical, technically, to least year's release. And that's a good thing. Highly recommended.