Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Night Game Blu-ray Movie Review

Pinch hit with another movie.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 11, 2015

It's "if they don't win it's a shame" not "if he wins someone dies." Lives are on the line every time a Houston Astros pitcher takes the mound in Night Game, a disappointingly dull Thriller/Procedural that focuses on a detective tracking down a killer who only strikes when a certain pitcher wins a game, at home, at night. That's even more convoluted than leading the team in ninth inning doubles in the month of August. The Astros happen to be in a pennant race, and it's their young, hotshot new pitcher twirling gem after gem to get the team back into contention, so the bodies mount rather quickly. Sports backdrops aren't new to the genre; Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in a solid little movie called Sudden Death about a cop in search of a killer at a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game. The Last Boy Scout mixed up murder, politics, and pro football. Most of these sorts of movies are middling at best, decent time killers with a fun and familiar backdrop but hardly approaching the realms of classic cinema. Night Game, however, takes the cake as arguably the worst of the bunch. It's a flat movie that feels like it's standing still far more often than it seems to be in motion, if nothing else circling the drain and collecting all of the usual transparent plot devices and twists along the way to cinema oblivion.

Gotcha!

The Houston Astros are back in the pennant race thanks largely to the left arm of ace pitcher Sil Baretto (Alex Garcia). The team is packing the Astrodome and mesmerizing the entire city. Detective Mike Seaver (Roy Scheider) is one of the team's biggest fans. He's engaged to Roxy (Karen Young), a young blonde who fits the profile of a string of recent homicide victims. Seaver slowly pieces together the puzzle, first theorizing that they're dying by way of a hook to the throat and gradually coming to terms that his beloved 'Stros are somehow mixed up in the whole thing. As the Astros continue to win and the body count mounts, Seaver comes to realize that there's some connection between the killings and Astros victories, particularly victories that come off Sil Baretto's left arm.

The only really interesting piece of the Night Game puzzle is sorting out the possibilities of who's killing people and why he or she is doing so only after a certain pitcher wins a game under a couple of specific parameters. Why he's also targeting a certain demographic might offer a clue, too. It's not fully transparent, and the end reveal does make sense and tackles an age-old question many sports fans have undoubtedly pondered for quite a long time. Is the killer rooting for some team other than the Astros to win the pennant and "punishes" the club with a murder? Does he have some sort of grudge against the team or, more specifically, the hurler in question? Or is the killer just a random psycho who pointed at something in the newspaper and made the pitcher a calling card by sheer dumb luck? It's a halfway interesting premise that will strike a chord with baseball fans if only for the backdrop, but even for fans of basic police procedurals the movie proves disappointingly dull and sticks so close to routine that it seems to play in slow motion. The movie enjoys no momentum, no driving force, no real emotional weight from beginning to end.

The movie's single most glaring shortcoming, however, is its complete absence of on-the-mound tension. Why the filmmakers didn't thrust Sil Baretto deeper into the plot beyond mere backdrop is beyond comprehension. The film would have found significantly more tension had Baretto been made aware of the connection between his wins and the murders at some point prior to some big game where he'd be forced to toe the rubber and toe the line between pitching a gem to win the game and deliberately throwing the game to save a life. Instead, the movie keeps Seaver (likely named for Hall of Fame Hurler Tom Seaver) front-and-center and the dry detective work the main focal point. It's thanks to too much slow-burn and emotionless procedural and far too little -- none, actually -- in the way of legitimate emotional upheaval that the movie collapses by way of tedium overload. The movie, as it's constructed, would have undoubtedly worked better trimmed down to 45-50 minutes and made into a random episode of pick-a-police-procedural television show. And even at that it would have likely been little more than filler and a mild curiosity for baseball fans.

Night Game Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night Game's 1080p transfer impresses. Its only real drawback is the constant presence of light, mostly unobtrusive spots and speckles. Otherwise, it's smooth sailing. The image retains a light grain structure and enjoys a fine film-quality texture. The image is naturally sharp and nicely defined, with general facial and clothing textures clear and accurate while the transfer also reveals nicely defined building façades around the city, solid crowd definition in Astros games, and astroturf and dirt textures in the dome. Colors are impressively accurate and bold, showcasing an even, natural palette that's never overcooked or dull. Skin tones and black levels impress (beyond film's open where blacks go undesirably pale). The image suffers from no overt examples of noise, blockiness, aliasing, or other common problems. Overall, this is a strong visual release from Olive Films.

Night Game Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night Game's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack maanges to spring some life into a mostly talk-heavy film. Music is nicely defined with clear, accurate, and distinct instrumental details flowing into the stage from a wide front end. The track is packed with easy-flow and nicely defined support effects, whether big cheering crowds at baseball games, chirping birds off to the side in chapter five, light radio chatter on police frequencies, or the general din at a carnival or on the beach. A couple of gunshots fall in-between puny and aggressive. The dialogue-heavy film never flubs on the spoken word, recreating each syllable with a center-focused presence, natural volume at reference level, and stable and articulate delivery.

Night Game Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Night Game contains no bonus content.

Night Game Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Night Game is a terribly disappointing, flat, uncreative, and tedious movie that manages to wipe itself clean of any real sense of urgency or emotion. While the killer's identity does, at least, make sense, there's nothing else here of value and there's zero re-watchability. Performances satisfy basic requirements and the film is competently, if not dryly, assembled. Olive Films' Blu-ray release of Night Game delivers good video and audio presentations. No supplements are included. Rent it, watch it, forget it.