7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Crash Davis is a perennial Minor Leaguer assigned to the Durham Bulls, a hapless team with a long tradition of mediocrity. There he tutors a young, dim-witted pitching prodigy, Nuke LaLoosh in the ways of baseball, life, and love. Each strikes up a romance with Annie, the team's "mascot" who takes it upon herself to sleep with a new player every season.
Starring: Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert WuhlRomance | 100% |
Sport | 98% |
Comedy | 22% |
Drama | 11% |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French 2.0=Mono
English SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
“Baseball is life,” the saying goes, but it could easily be “baseball is love,” or even “baseball is sex.” I mean, after all, we say I got to third base and headed for home, not I sunk a shot from the foul line, or, I knocked one between the goal posts, even though those—waka waka—make for much better innuendos. There’s something about baseball that makes it relatable to nearly every aspect of human existence. It’s Zen-like, the philosopher’s sport, the poet’s game. Unsurprisingly, then, there have been a number of films that feature baseball as a metaphor for the learning of various life lessons. What is surprising, and somewhat bizarre, is that Kevin Costner stars in so many of them. Well, three of the heaviest hitters, anyways—Field of Dreams, For the Love of the Game, and Bull Durham. I’ll admit to getting choked up over Field of Dreams, a hokey-in-retrospect feel-good film that’s nonetheless loveable, but Bull Durham is probably a better—if not the best—baseball movie. It’s funny, sexy, poignant, and— unlike so many sports films—it seems to authentically capture what it’s like to play the game day in and day out.
Every pitcher's worst nightmare...
MGM must've had this 1080p transfer in the bullpen for a long time, as it features the now-antiquated MPEG-2 encode that graced—some might say disgraced—many of Blu-ray's earliest releases. And like most of those out-of-the-gate titles, this one looks like it could use some improvements. While the image is appreciably high definition, there's really not much fine detail to be found here. There are fleeting moments of sharp texture, but generally the picture is soft and somewhat gauzy, and I wouldn't hesitate to call several shots outright blurry and indistinct. This can't all be attributed to the transfer—I'm sure the source print isn't the sharpest—but if you're on the fence about upgrading from the DVD edition, it's something to consider, as the leap in quality isn't as great here as it is in some other titles from the mid 1980s. Black levels are somewhat hazy, and during many of the darker scenes, you'll notice strong chroma noise peppering the image, along with heightened amounts of grain. Color is gentle and natural, however, with no artificial boosting, and skin tones seem right on. Aside from the noise, there are no overt compression problems, and both DNR and edge enhancement are nowhere in sight. As it stands, Bull Durham's Blu-ray transfer is acceptable, but if it were placed on a dual-layer disc and given a more up to date AVC or VC-1 encode, I'm sure the film could look at least marginally better.
There's less to say about the film's standard issue DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which carries the film's dialogue and score capably but doesn't offer much in the way of immersion or intricate sound design. And that's okay. Not every film has to blow the roof off and rattle the walls with booming LFE response and whippet-fast cross-channel sound effects. This is a noticeably front-heavy affair, with little besides music and extremely quiet ambience bled into the rear channels. You really have to crane your ears toward the surround speakers and intentionally listen to hear anything. Still, the audio that emerges from the front row is more than adequate. There's no LFE response to speak of, and not much cause for an extra-broad dynamic range, but the effects are crisp and the music has plenty of presence and clarity. There are a few instances when dialogue doesn't sound as clear as it possibly could, but it's nicely balanced in the mix and I didn't need to fiddle at all with my remote once I set my receiver to my usual listening level. English, Spanish, Korean, and Cantonese subtitles are available in easy-to-read lettering.
Like most of the recent MGM catalog releases, this Bull Durham Blu-ray is noticeably short on
special features. In fact, the only extras you'll find on the disc are 1080p trailers for Bull
Durham (2:49), Rocky (1:40), Hoosiers (2:38), and The Thomas Crown
Affair (2:16).
What's inexplicable is that the included DVD copy of the film features two audio commentaries—one
with the director, and one with Costner and Robbins—a 19-minute retrospective, a 16-minute
featurette on minor league baseball, a 30-minute "making of" documentary, a profile of Kevin Costner,
and a short EPK promo. What's keeping these from being ported over to the Blu-ray?
Bull Durham is one of the better films to use baseball as an allegory for life, and it's also a funny, sexy, smartly scripted comedy that defies most of the clichés and conventions of both rom- coms and sports movies. MGM hasn't done much with this release—the disc features a middling MPEG- 2 transfer and no special features—but this is still a title that's easy to recommend for baseball lovers, sports film fanatics, and anyone looking for an antidote to the glossy, brainless rom-coms that clog up theaters today. Recommended.
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