You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 9, 2024

If you're one of what I imagine must be the countless millions wondering what a film might be like if it combined elements of The Bad News Bears and Brian's Song, You Gotta Believe may well be exactly what you've been waiting for. Joking "mash ups" aside, this is an undeniably heartfelt film, though it's kind of hard to call it a "feel good" movie, in what might be called a traditional "sports underdogs ultimately triumph" idiom, since that Brian's Song "ingredient" turns out to be The C Word (so to speak). This true life story documents both the stunning trip to the Little League World Series by a hangdog Fort Worth team, as well as the devastating cancer diagnosis and (no real spoiler here) death of coach Bobby Ratliff (Luke Wilson), whose own young son Robert (Michael Cash) is a player for the group.

Perhaps thankfully, then, given the ultimate undeniable "downer" side of the plot mechanics, You Gotta Believe begins resolutely in The Bad News Bears territory, as Bobby and co-manager Jon Kelly (Greg Kinnear), whose own son Walker (Etienne Calicci) is the pitcher, banter with each other, and their young charges, during a rout where their team not only is completely swamped by their opponent's mastery, but also where the team engages in some inadvertent damage of their own, albeit to surrounding people and/or items. At least their season is rapidly drawing to a close, something that actually seems to give comfort to not only the team itself, but frankly to the harried Jon and Bobby.

There's an unabashed sweetness to these opening vignettes, and some decent if frankly never guffaw worthy comedy, and that seems to be the course the film will be taking. Then kind of out of left field (no baseball pun intended), Bobby collapses one day and is soon diagnosed with cancer. Almost before the family can react to that scary situation, though, Bobby is approached to put together a new if maybe not instantly improved new team, perhaps ironically called All Stars, who may have a shot at getting to the Little League World Series.

However, that then sets the film off on a rather curious double track, where the cancer stricken Bobby attempts to deal with both his impending mortality and a different kind of fate, namely whether he can whip a bunch of boys into a winning team. It's probably in this maybe impossible to tonally balance combination of plot points that made You Gotta Believe evidently miss pretty spectacularly with paying audiences. This seems even more evident when the brief supplement on this disc touting the joys of little league baseball seems to more or less ignore the whole "hey, the focal character is about to die" element, which frankly might be especially disturbing for younger viewers.

Those either niggling or more major qualms aside, there's actually quite a bit to like about You Gotta Believe, not the least of which is its unabashed heartstring pulling (ripping out?) tendencies as the story wends its way to its bittersweet conclusion. The film probably only drives the emotional point home even more strongly with a brief coda featuring the real life Robert Ratliff, now an adult teaching his own toddler son the joys of baseball, and opening a letter from his late father that he had never read in front of that little boy so that they could discover it together for the first time. If that doesn't produce a lump in the throat or tear in the eye, probably nothing will.

You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

You Gotta Believe is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1 (occasional archival video elements are closer to Academy Ratio). The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini as having been utilized, but as of the writing of this review fails to specify the resolution of the DI. This is an appealing presentation that nonetheless kind of comes off, speaking of Brian's Song, like a made for television movie in terms of its production finesse, though there are a few attempts at injecting a somewhat "arty" influence into some of the shots of the baseball players in particular. A glut of outdoor material helps to boost perceptions of fine detail on things like team uniforms, and the palette tends to be very well suffused in the bulk of the outside scenes as well. There are some nicely evocative lighting or grading utilized at times, as in some almost orange moments in Bobby's sons' bedroom, and while I'd probably give the edge to the 4K UHD's presentation of these moments courtesy of HDR / Dolby Vision, they still pop in a beautifully warm way in this 1080 version. I was less enthusiastic about the smudgy looking digital grain, which almost starts to give a quasi-banded look toward the edges of the frame, though in the good news department it's probably more subliminal in 1080 than in the increased resolution the 4K UHD disc offers. There are some curious anomalies throughout the presentation (in both 1080 and 4K) that suggest either sloppy focus pulling or some kind of deficient lens, where items just to the left or right of the center of the frame look slightly out of focus. There can be more observable blurry objects toward the corners of the frame at times, but those look more "natural" in a way since the center of the frame tends to be in focus at those times.

You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

You Gotta Believe offers an occasionally energetic Dolby Atmos track, though surround activity is probably most noticeable in the game sequences, especially the climactic showdown at the Little League World Series, where things like clamorous fan (i.e., family) responses clearly envelop (and waft over) the listener. Otherwise, though, this is really a relatively quiet family drama, and as such surround activity can be somewhat limited, offering well placed but hardly "showy" in any way ambient environmental effects, as well as providing spacious accounts of underscore and a rather wide swatch of source cues. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Kind of oddly, this disc offers optional English and French subtitles even though the spoken languages offered are English and Spanish.

You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Little League Special Featurette (HD; 5:02) concentrates on the baseball side of things, perhaps understandably leaving out the "hey, Dad's dying from cancer" part of the film.


• Trailer (HD; 2:21)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically, so that clicking on the Little League Special Featurette is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover.

You Gotta Believe Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I don't mind admitting I was pretty choked up by the end of You Gotta Believe, and while it's hard to claim you're being manipulated when the story evidently hews pretty closely to so-called "real life", there's little doubt that the film is designed to deliver a gut punch while also offering manifest lessons about family, friends and teamwork. That said, I'm not sure the "combo platter" of a comically inept Little League team and a mortally ill coach and parent really make for the easiest "family film" viewing experience. I can't outright recommend the film due to its tonal ping ponging, but I'm absolutely sure many will probably find it an uplifting if undeniably sad viewing experience. Technical merits are generally solid for those who may be considering making a purchase.