Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 17, 2016

Eddie the Eagle traffics in some pretty well worn clichés about athletic underdogs, combining the basic story elements of films like Rudy with perhaps a hint of the unlikeliness offered in films like Cool Runnings, with maybe just a soupçon of the family dynamics of Billy Elliot thrown in for good measure. Based on the real life exploits of Eddie Edwards (played by a variety of actors of various ages in the film, but largely by Taron Egerton as the adult Eddie), Eddie the Eagle doesn’t try to mask the fact that it’s a fairly predictable tale of both the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory (so to speak), but what’s rather remarkable about the film is how genial it is despite that very predictability. Like a lot of outings bearing the imprimatur “based on a true story,” one needs to take that “based” as the ambiguous statement it is, for Eddie the Eagle willfully bends the historical record to suit its dramatic (and/or comedic) whims.

Eddie the Eagle wastes little time in detailing both the sweetness and perhaps obsessive compulsive tendencies of little Eddie (played by a darling Tom Costello), a ten year old who has set his sights on the Olympics, despite the fact that he is at best a geek of substantial proportions, and perhaps (in one of the film’s kind of odd decisions) borderline developmentally disabled. That choice at least sets Eddie up as perhaps one of the more unlikely potential Olympics stars ever, something that is central to the film’s thesis that hard work and focus can overcome any perceived lack of ability or indeed “talent”. The early part of the film also nimbly portrays the supportive but realistic home environment Eddie enjoys, one where his mother routinely encourages her son’s fantasies, but his father tends to toe the typical “yeah, but how are you going to make a living?” line.

After a couple of near montages which provide a bit of a segue from Eddie as a kid to Eddie as a putative adult, the film moves into its main story arc, where Eddie, consigned to working as a plasterer with his father, initially decides to give up his dreams of skiing in the Olympics. That of course changes when a job rather coincidentally takes him right next door to an outdoor facility where skiiers are practicing downhill runs on a (snow free) track. Dreams die hard, especially when there are temptations like this one so close by, and Eddie is once again off and running (and/or skiing).

It’s at this point that the film evidently starts departing rather drastically from the actual historical record. While the story sticks at least somewhat close to facts by showing that Eddie doesn’t qualify (initially at least) for Britain’s Olympic team, it completely elides the fact that he was already a fairly well known skiier. Once the film moves onto Eddie’s supposed training regimen, Sean Macauley and Simon Kelton’s screenplay pretty much leaves “real life” behind for a much more formulaic and fictional approach, one that brings Eddie under the aegis of a hard partying former skiing star named Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman). Eddie the Eagle probably shortchanges its own opportunities for honest to goodness human emotion by positing a caricature like Peary, with the signs pointing way too obviously that not only will Eddie ultimately triumph despite supposedly insurmountable odds, Peary will experience a kind of salvation courtesy of his mentoring efforts. It’s an overly trite story arc, and one that undercuts the film’s emotional verisimilitude.

In fact it’s Eddie the Eagle’s resolute adherence to fictionalized biopic conceits, with an equal avoidance of what really happened, that tends to cheapen this experience, making the supposed heartstring tugging moments look awfully calculated at times. Perhaps it’s a sign of how facile the film is, though, that it actually does make an emotional impact, albeit in a good, old fashioned “glossy Hollywoodized” fashion rather than in a more contemporary, real feeling way. Performances are generally quite winning as well, something else that helps boost the overall ambience of the film.

Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eddie the Eagle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists this as having been shot with the Red Epic Dragon, and the results offer abundant levels of detail and fine detail, despite some kind of unusual color grading choices at times. A warm, buttery yellow suffuses some of the childhood scenes with Eddie, and even some of the cooler blue tones of some of the ski sequences even have a yellowish cast at times. Detail levels remain high throughout, however, and close- ups offer precise looks at everything from some wounds Eddie endures to more typical elements like the fibers on ski sweaters. Some of the CGI and/or green screen material looks pretty soft when compared to the bulk of the presentation (see screenshot 14), but that tends to be the exception. Contrast is strong, the palette looks healthy and there are no problems with image instability or compression anomalies.

Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Eddie the Eagle evidently had a Dolby Atmos presentation when it screened theatrically, and though I haven't yet received a screener for Eddie the Eagle 4K, our members are reporting that that release does in fact sport Dolby Atmos. This "standard" Blu-ray release offers a perfectly fine sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix, one that doesn't shirk on surround activity, whether it be great panning whooshes as skiiers catapult down runs, or softer, gentler spills of sonic activity due to the very enjoyable score by Matthew Margeson. Dialogue is rendered very cleanly and clearly, with no prioritization issues.

Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Let the Games Begin: Soaring with Eddie the Eagle (1080p; 46:43) is a set of decent EPKs with interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the film.


• Gallery (1080p; 5:43) offers both Manual and Auto Advance options. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:25)

Note: In the really annoying (if understandable) department, this is the first disc I've encountered that is "locked" if you try to play it from a PC (which I do in order to check the resolution of the supplements). An interstitial screen appeared saying that to assure "authorized" access, I needed to enter a multi-digit/letter code. The supposedly "automatic" way to retrieve a code via the internet failed, despite the fact that I was indeed connected to the internet, and I had to go to one of several listed websites to retrieve the code and then enter it in a very clunky way by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate the onscreen keyboard (the mouse wouldn't work, and cutting and pasting the code also wouldn't work). There certainly has to be a more facile way that Fox and other studios/labels can protect their product from piracy than requiring something this convoluted.

Eddie the Eagle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As with so many supposed "true life" films based on real people, Eddie the Eagle may serve best as an introduction to its subject, an introduction best followed up with some research into the actual story. The film's resolute tendencies to rely on predictable story arcs and almost cartoonish characters undercuts what is at its core a rather fascinating story of one of the more unlikely Olympic champions in recent memory. The film is at least brisk and often pleasantly humorous, but its emotions seem overly calculated virtually every step of the way. Technical merits are strong and the supplementary package quite good, so with caveats noted, Eddie the Eagle comes Recommended.