Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Celtic Pride Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf March 25, 2018

Full disclosure: I’ve never read Judd Apatow’s original screenplay for “Celtic Pride.” However, I choose to believe that whatever he was able to come up with in the initial planning stages for the film has to be funnier than what ended up in theaters in the spring of 1996. Here’s a movie about fandom, taking a look at the lengths sports nuts will go to protect the good fortunes of their favorite teams, using the idea to inspire a comedy about extremes and mishaps, while saving a little space to pants the NBA and its collection of arrogant athletes. And yet, “Celtic Pride” doesn’t work, missing a sharp sense of humor and fondness for farce that could elevate some good ideas into an uproarious picture. Perhaps Apatow is to blame for whiffing with a surefire premise, but, more often than not, director Tom DeCerchio is lost, preferring to have his cast scream into the camera than craft a slightly more devilish understanding of the deceptively bitter relationship between fan and player.

Lifelong Boston Celtics fans, gym teacher Mike (Daniel Stern) and plumber Jimmy (Dan Aykroyd) are thrilled to find their team in the NBA championship during the final year of operation for the Boston Garden arena. However, the Utah Jazz and their star player, the supremely egotistical Lewis (Damon Wayans), are threatening to ruin the celebratory moment. Doing whatever they can to protect the positive magic inspiring the Celtics from the comfort of their seats, Mike and Jimmy grow frustrated with Lewis and his stellar performance on the court, considering an extreme act of kidnapping to help their beloved team achieve the impossible. Meeting Lewis in a local nightclub and helping the player to drink himself into a stupor, the blue-collar boys elect to keep Lewis in Jimmy’s apartment for a few days, tying him up as they struggle to keep a low profile from prying eyes, including Carol (Gail O’Grady), Mike’s fed-up wife, who’s coming around to secure a divorce.

There’s a pure idea in the fanaticism Mike and Jimmy share for their hometown basketball team, and “Celtic Pride” bleeds Boston, having fun with the volatile nature of local team supporters as they gather in the Boston Garden for one last run at a championship inside an historic arena. Apatow embraces the combustibility of such an occasion, and he exaggerates playfully, turning the lead characters into frightfully superstitious fans who want nothing more than a trophy to call their own, taking the Celtics and their ups and downs with the utmost seriousness. They’re Garden institutions, making sure to kiss walls and rearrange seats due to the game schedule, and Jimmy even has an admirer in a hot dog vendor who keeps his buns toasty. “Celtic Pride” carries lightly with its introductions, and there’s plenty to work with when observing men who’ve devoted their entire lives to the sporting performance of others, fighting to be part of something they truly have nothing to do with. At least Apatow makes an effort to grasp the emptiness of such a pursuit, with Mike facing the end of his marriage due to his maniacal appreciation of professional sports.

Instead of following through on the ridiculousness of super-fandom, “Celtic Pride” becomes a kidnapping comedy, and not an effective one. The plot soon turns its attention to Mike and Jimmy’s efforts to outdrink Lewis, showing up at a nightclub and pretending to be Jazz fans to get close to their target (the film’s lone bit of hilarity comes with an unfortunately timed run-in with Larry Bird). Their mission is a success, but most of the movie details Lewis’s imprisonment, with the no-nonsense basketball star trying to outwit his captors, even trying to talk Jimmy into shooting himself with a gun. There should be jokes everywhere, but DeCerchio prefers dim slapstick and argumentative encounters, making the picture more about noise than timing. Stern and Aykroyd do as instructed, and they’re reasonably riled up here, but they’re not part of a snowballing farce, working hard for a director who doesn’t really know what he’s doing here.

Celtic Pride Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is sourced from an older master of "Celtic Pride," giving the Blu-ray release very little HD oomph for its disc debut. Detail isn't strong, only coming through with any type of confidence during sweaty close-ups, but even then, facial particulars aren't sharp, just a bit easier to study. Crowd views and court action is also on the soft side, lacking compelling definition. Colors are on the muted side, missing natural vibrancy, with purple and green team jerseys and some Boston street views delivering broad enough hues to snap the viewing experience to life. Skintones teeter on bloodless. Delineation isn't overly problematic, but some evening sequences struggle to clarify frame information. Source is in strong shape, with some mild speckling on display.

Celtic Pride Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix offers a significant amount of loud behavior to inspect, making the track inherently aggressive. The frontal push plays a little too hollow at times, lacking warmer tones, but the sheer force of angry behavior and basketball action tends to even out the mix, which is more compelling away from echoed interiors such as basements and gymnasiums. Dialogue exchanges are never threatened, coming through with intended volatility, which never seeps into distortive highs or muddy lows. Soundtrack selections offer a little heaviness and stable instrumentation, and scoring selections are satisfactory. Sound effects are sharp, and Boston Garden atmospherics are evocative, capturing the feel of cheering fans and courtside bustle.

Celtic Pride Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Tom DeCerchio is absolutely useless. Apparently, the director wasn't in the mood to take on the challenge of talking about "Celtic Pride" seriously, so he treats the entire track as a joke, cracking wise throughout the listening experience, joined by a buddy he identifies as cinematographer "Mike Baumflah" (a name DeCerchio mumbles, likely on purpose), who's another profoundly unfunny jokester. The duo starts the conversation with a "hilarious" revelation that they bankrupted Hollywood Pictures by building a full-scale recreation of Boston in the Joshua Tree National Park, and it actually goes downhill from there (no, really). Perhaps the only honest fact found in the commentary is that basketball pro/commentator Bill Walton is actually a massive Grateful Dead fan. I have no idea why Kino Lorber decided to include this informational track, which is a colossal waste of time. However, it does manage to make "Celtic Pride" amusing in comparison, so perhaps there's a subversive intent I'm not aware of. If so, bravo, DeCerchio and Bike Obama. It worked.

• And a Home Video Trailer (1:03, SD) is included. The back of the case lists a Theatrical Trailer, which is incorrect.

Celtic Pride Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Though a series of turns and power plays, "Celtic Pride" ends up at a Big Game finale, and spends almost a third of the movie there, trying to make something out of Mike and Jimmy's loss of control when it comes to the theft of a controversial Jazz star, and one who openly disdains his teammates and coach (Christopher McDonald). And yet, despite so many avenues to explore, misunderstandings to manage, and basketball to worship, "Celtic Pride" routinely lands with a thud, absent the direction to brings wilder ideas (including satire of sell-out athletes) to life. Apatow offers a reasonable blueprint to create a Boston nightmare, but DeCerchio doesn't have the cinematic flair to make it all come to life.