7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
A Dominican teenager, Miguel "Sugar" Santos, travels to the Midwest to play for the Swing of the Quad cities after seeing the movie 'Field of Dreams.'
Starring: Algenis Perez Soto, Jose Rijo, Rayniel Rufino, André Holland, Michael GastonDrama | 100% |
Sport | 52% |
Foreign | 12% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Spanish: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Just remember that until you reach the top there's always guys above you hustling to keep
you down here and guys below you pushing to take your jobs.
Baseball may be America's pastime, but there's no denying the sport's allure the world over.
From Canada to South Korea, from Japan to the Dominican Republic, the international baseball
scene has captured the hearts and minds of fans all around the globe and produced top talent
that has propelled teams to the top of the standings in both professional leagues abroad and in
the Major Leagues in the United States and Canada. What was once a sport dominated by
names like Ted Williams, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, and Babe Ruth has enjoyed the injection of
countless foreign-born players over the past several decades -- Roberto Clemente, Fernando
Valenzuela, Byung-Hyun Kim, and Ichiro Suzuki, for instance -- that have become legends and
heroes to millions in not only Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle, but in the biggest
cities and poorest villages around the world. Perhaps baseball's top hub for burgeoning talent lies
in the Dominican Republic, a small Caribbean nation that lies east of Cuba. Growing up playing
the game with twigs for bats and milk cartons for gloves, the absolute love for the game and
millions of dollars that await the next flame-throwing pitcher, mashing first baseman, or slick
fielding shortstop has yielded some of the best in the game and plenty of players with the
pedigree to someday find their names enshrined at Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New
York:
Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins, Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals, Pedro Martinez of
the Philadelphia Phillies, and Vladimir Guererro of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Sugar ponders the long journey ahead.
Sugar toes the mound with a quality 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. Strong, natural, film-like, and pleasing to the eye, Sugar makes for a fine Blu-ray presentation in most every area. The brighter outdoor baseball scenes look great; the brown dirt, green grass, blue sky, and various trees and shrubs all offer strong details and texture. The colors are the strong suit here; they always take on a natural tone and never appear too dim or overblown. Even some of the less-brightly-lit interior shots and darker dusk or nighttime scenes hold up well; the first time audiences are taken inside Sugar's Dominican house or, later, his Iowa home with the Higgins family, retain a solid color balance and fine detail resolution in lesser lighting conditions than those afforded to the daytime exteriors. The transfer enjoys a layer of grain that's never too heavy or too light, the result a fine cinematic look and feel to the picture that accentuates the overall quality of the presentation. Flesh tones remain a natural shade throughout, but blacks occasionally appear a bit too bright. Overall, however, Sugar hits for a very high average on Blu-ray.
Sugar winds up on Blu-ray and delivers a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's offered only in Spanish and Portuguese but with an array of subtitle options (including English) but does offer a fair deal of English-language dialogue throughout. Though the track is almost exclusively front-heavy and none too interesting, it seems to capture the intended sonic experience well enough. The track does offer up a rather strong sense of atmosphere and space; background chatter in the locker rooms or cafeterias, or coaches blurting out instructions and hard-thrown balls popping leather mitts in some of the baseball scenes do well to place the listener in the midst of the action. Things liven up a bit during the baseball game sequences; listeners will enjoy the sense of being at a small-time, small-crowd Midwestern Minor League baseball game as the sound of fan banter, player chatter, and the public address announcer fill up the listening area nicely. A dance club scene in chapter eight offers the best opportunity for the track to stretch its legs, but while the beats and lyrics are delivered clearly and distinctly, the aural impact is minimal, and things aren't helped by a rather reserved low end. Sugar is a predominantly dialogue-driven film, and it's delivered clearly throughout. Still, the track's fine sense of atmosphere makes it a rather good listen even if there's just not much going on to excite the senses.
Sugar tosses a few innings worth of supplements. Leading off is Making 'Sugar:' Run the Bases (480p, 14:33), a good interview piece that examines casting the parts, the film's themes and departure from sports movie norm, its authenticity, shooting locations, and more. Play Béisbol! The Dominican Dream (480p, 12:56) looks at the impact of the film on Dominican audiences and offers interview clips with several Major League stars, including Pedro Martinez, Sammy Sosa, Daniel Cabrera, Francisco Cordero, David Ortiz, and Robinson Cano. Casting 'Sugar:' Interview with Algenis Perez Soto (480p, 4:26) features the actor answering a series of questions while still auditioning for the role. Also included is a collection of five standard-definition deleted scenes, BD-Live functionality, and 1080p trailers for Sugar, Tyson, Rudo Y Cursi, Moon, Whatever Works, Soul Power, Ghostbusters, and A River Runs Through It.
Those entering Sugar with the wrong expectations for the film are bound to be thrown off-kilter at best and wholly disappointed at worst by the experience. That doesn't make it any less of a great movie. Sugar is raw, unpredictable, and powerful. It's a reprieve from the admittedly great string of uplifting sports films that have brought audiences to their feet over the years in the wake of powerful storytelling with a feel-good message of perseverance in the face of adversity, age, or any number of maladies that stand in the way of one's dreams. Sugar doesn't sugarcoat its story; there's nothing here to suggest anything other than a hard, honest look at the brutality of life and the struggle to make it in a world that's bound and determined to place any number of obstacles in one's path. Poignant moviemaking at its best, Sugar is a must-see film for anyone -- baseball fan or otherwise -- thirsty for a genuine human drama. Sony's Blu-ray release of Sugar does the film justice. Boasting a strong 1080p transfer, a dull but otherwise accurate-to-the-source lossless soundtrack, and a few decent extras, Sugar earns a solid recommendation.
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