6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
From the director of NAKED GUN comes a side-splitting comedy of professional sports. Starring Trey Parker and Matt Stone (SOUTH PARK) as two guys who invent a game in their driveway that quickly becomes a national obsession and catapults them into the spotlight, BASEketball is a hilarious comedy about babes, brews and being number one.
Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthyComedy | 100% |
Sport | 16% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Sports are big business and hugely popular, but sports are also stagnant. There hasn't been much innovation over the years, no real new sport that's taken off to the professional ranks and captured the world's attention. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf...they're all rich with history and, despite some rules changes, relocations, expansions, and other fringe changes, their cores essentially remain the same. BASEketball offers a glimpse into one hybrid sport -- baseball and basketball if for some reason that's not obvious -- that starts small and explodes into a hugely popular phenomenon. A game with some strict rules but at the same time an anything-goes approach and openness to "athletes" of all shapes and sizes, the sport makes for an interesting subject and the Frankenstein construction allows for sports film cliché and drama to carry it through as it pokes fun at its genre while commenting on the money-talks state of professional sports today.
BASEketball arrives on Blu-ray sourced from a dated master that doesn't hold up well on the 1080p format. It's a victim of noise reduction, artificial sharpening, and edge enhancement, the former particularly troublesome as characters are left appearing pasty and unnatural. All is not lost, though, as a fair bit of detail remains -- pores are complex and tangibly deep in close-up, and various elements like uniforms, balls, and scoreboards show satisfactory complexity and clarity. Colors are vibrant but lack much in the way of nuance. Reds, blues, and greens show plenty of punch but the image's slightly oversaturated push leaves them with only vitality rather than accuracy while the palette pushes a little warm, too. Print wear is most evident over the opening titles, but the occasional speckle remains for the duration. The image benefits from the uptick in resolution and occasionally doesn't look all that troubled, but its flaws are readily apparent in most scenes.
BASEketball's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is plenty active but limited by the state of its elements. Early on, it's a rather bland, straightforward, front-heavy track. Things open up once the BASEketball league goes pro. The open arena, cheering crowds, and other sound effects filter into the back with enjoyable, though hardly precise, immersion. The track is dotted with several moments of heightened vigor and surround implementation. Comical electric pulses zap through the stage when Joe and Doug attempt to revive a boy they believe to be dying in the hospital. Late in the film during the championship game, surround activity enjoys another spike. Public address announcements nicely filter through he stage. A character accidentally flies through the stadium with comical sonic accompaniment. Fireworks pop with pleasing presence. All of these effects lack the pinpoint distinction one might find in today's tracks, but the almost comical over-saturation suits the movie well. Dialogue is clear and precise with solid prioritization and consistent front-center placement.
BASEketball contains three vintage extras. No top menu is included; all supplements must be accessed in-film via the pop-up menu.
BASEketball offers a funny spin on the classic Sports film by reinventing two of the more popular sports in the world but nevertheless keeping up with all the clichés and working in plenty of classic sports moments and sports world cameos along the way. It still plays well today, and its central story of the extreme monetization of sports seems more relevant today than when the film released almost two decades ago. It's nowhere near as memorable as some of the other Sports comedies out there, but it remains a fun little movie watching experience. Universal's Blu-ray, on the other hand, doesn't impress all that much. Video is dated, as is audio, and the supplements are few and simple carryovers from the DVD era. Fans may as well pick it up on the cheap, but it's not worth more than a few dollars.
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