Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 16, 2020

A modern era Super Bowl win was a long time coming for the Kansas City Chiefs. One of the NFL's most storied franchises begin life in the AFL, was a dominant force in that league in the 1960s, and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV as the AFL representative. And since then...nothing. Not a single conference championship, no Super Bowl appearance despite years of success, including three straight division titles from 2016-2018. Things would change in 2019. With Patrick Mahomes at quarterback and a star-studded cast of characters around him on both sides of the ball, as well as a sudden, steep decline from the once-unstoppable New England Patriots, the door for a Chiefs Super Bowl trip opened wide. But a midseason Patrick Mahomes injury would threaten to derail the Kansas City freight train. The Chiefs would go 2-4 in a midseason stretch but recover to finish the regular season with six straight victories, going 12-4 on the season and earning the AFC's second seed.

The Chiefs would meet the Houston Texas in the team's first playoff game. Houston, a perennial contender with difficulty pushing deep into the playoffs, would again find round two a challenge. Although Houston would jump out to a 21-0 first quarter lead, Bill O'Brien's team couldn't stop KC from returning the favor in the second quarter, putting up 28 to Houston's three to take a 28-24 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Chiefs would add 23 in the second half to the Texans' 10, resulting in a rout for the Chiefs, 51-31. With the defending champion Patriots and the first-seeded Ravens both dismissed by the upstart Titans, Kansas City faced the suddenly red-hot team from Tennessee and its white-hot running back Derrick Henry in the AFC Championship game. Henry would be held to 69 yards at the end of the game, a key shutdown in the Chiefs victory. Tennessee took a 10-7 lead in the first quarter, but Kansas City would secure a 21-17 lead going into the half. Neither team would put points on the board in the third, but the Chiefs outscored the Titans 14-7 in the fourth to secure an AFC title and a trip to the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers.

Kansas City came into the Super Bowl red hot, having won eight straight games between the regular and postseasons, including most recently against the league's hottest team, the upstart Titans. They would face a 49ers team that started the season 8-0, finished 5-3, and went into the playoffs as the first seeded team. They beat the sixth-seeded Vikings in the divisional round and the second-seeded Packers in the NFC title game. Kansas City would take a 7-3 lead after one. The 49ers would outscore the Chiefs 7-3 in the second to take the game into the half tied at 10. The 49ers would score 10 more unanswered in the third, but the Chiefs would score 21 unanswered in the second half of the fourth quarter to win the game 31-20 and take home the Lombardi Trophy.

Though faces, names, and uniforms have changed, there's not any alteration to the long established layout that has propelled these Super Bowl discs to great heights over the years. The film begins with a rather lengthy -- coming in close to 40 minutes -- regular season recap, though certainly these are glorified highlight reels of the 16 regular season games ratter than in-depth analyses. It does represent about half of the total runtime, though, which means the other half is dedicated to the two AFC playoff games -- the Chiefs earned a first-round bye -- and, of course, the Super Bowl itself. But even within the allotted time, the program does a masterful job of presenting not just the highlights but also the sights, sounds, greater atmosphere, emotion, and drama of the games with that unmistakable NFL Films style that's as visually pulse-pounding as it is narratively exciting and exacting.

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cinedigm brings Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs to Blu-ray with a 1080i, 1.78:1-framed presentation. Don't allow the encode to be a deciding factor against this disc. it looks terrific even with an "i" at the end rather than a "p." It is essentially no different than the presentations from past releases in this ongoing series, boasting tremendous detail -- particularly in its slow motion footage -- that brings the viewer right onto the field. Uniforms patches, materials, frays and stains; helmet scratches and decals; skin textures with helmets removed; and assorted one-off artistic shots of stadiums, cities, signage, and the like all feature superb attention to detail. The picture is clear, focused, intricate, and spectacular in just about every way. That extends to colors too, which are rich and full, from Chiefs red to turf green, the former of which particularly leaps off the screen as what is unquestionably the tonal centerpiece within this program. White snow in one game against the Broncos (chapter 15) and white jersey components are crisp and true. There are a few noise spikes at times but otherwise little in the way of truly bothersome source or encode issues. This one looks great beginning to end.

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The audio presentation is dynamic and intense, offering expressive stage engagement and plenty of surround extension and low end depth. It's loud but not too aggressive, allowing the dramatic musical numbers to soar as vital compliments to the program's familiar cadence. The track plays big, unquestionably, with various support effects ranging from classic on-field hits and crunches to a stealth bomber flyover prior to the Ravens week three game delivering fluid and precise placement and depth. It's a very zealous, vigorous soundtrack that suits the material well. Player soundbites and clips from various play-by-play broadcasts are crisp, clear, and centered. Ditto narration, which does sound just a touch boomy for effect. NFL fans are going to love this track, which is right in line with expectations.

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs' supplements are broken into two categories: The Season and The Team. Below is a breakdown of what's included. A DVD copy of the program is included with purchase. No digital copy has been bundled. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The Season

• Super Bowl Opening Night (1080i, 11:58): Key members from the Chiefs and 49ers, including Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, sit down to discuss the big game with the media.
• Post-Game Ceremonies (1080i, 8:39): The Chiefs receive the Lombardi Trophy after winning the game.
• 2019 NFL Shots of the Year (1080i, 4:55): A league-wide video highlight compilation
• 2019 NFL Sounds of the Year - Game Day (1080i, 6:04): Chatter and sounds from the field.
• 2019 NFL Sounds of the Year - National Tight End Day (1080i, 5:31): Big plays and sound highlights from the season, followed by clips from October 27, "National Tight End Day," focusing on plays and soundbites from, yes, tight ends around the league.
• 2019 NFL Sounds of the Year - Celebrating the Game (1080i, 6:23): On-field (and from the stands) fun, dances, and general excitement.

The Team

• Norma Hunt - A Lifetime of Sundays (1080i, 2:16): A quick look at NFL history though the eyes of the Chiefs minority owner.
• Chiefs Rewind (1080i, 0:51): Recent Chiefs history set to video clips and a custom Rap song.
• Patrick Mahomes - Game Changer (1080i, 0:59): A super short look at the Chiefs QB's excellent play rooted in fundamentals.
• The Tyrann Mathieu Interview (1080i, 2:43): The Chiefs starting safety discusses his evolution as a player.
• Deion Sanders and Patrick Mahomes (1080i, 3:53): The former NFL great interviews the current NFL great.
• Andy Reid - Big Red (1080i, 3:31): The Chiefs head coach talks about his career, coming close to winning it all before, and his current Chiefs team.
• Travis Kelce - The NFL Experience (1080i, 3:36): Travis Kelce attends some of his biggest fans' wedding.
• Joe Montana and Super Bowl LIV (1080i, 3:29): Montana, who played for both teams in his career, talks up the big game.

Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Who knows if there will be a Super Bowl LV. At time of publication, the COIVD-19 novel Coronavirus has brought the sporting world to a standstill shutdown. No NBA, no NHL, no MLB. Hopefully by next fall things will have returned to normal, and a great football season -- or just a football season -- might just be step one in, hopefully, returning things to the way they were. Until then, NFL fans have this superb disc to relive an exciting Super Bowl. High quality production values, excellent video and audio presentations, and a few supplements make this a must-own for Chiefs fans and, maybe now more than ever, football fans in general. Super Bowl LIV Champions: Kansas City Chiefs comes highly recommended.