New
York Giants Road To XLVI Post-Season Collector’s
Edition (2012/Super Bowl/Vivendi
Blu-ray Set)/The Yankles
(2011/Magnolia Blu-ray)
Picture: B-/C+ Sound: B- Extras: D/C Main Programs: B-/C
Sports
titles continue to hold steady in release, including these Blu-rays…
The New York Giants Road To XLVI Post-Season Collector’s Edition is the second title on the
subject of the great football team winning the latest Super Bowl from Vivendi
and follows a previous, different Championship
disc on the same subject on Blu-ray and in a DVD version we reviewed at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11535/Baseball%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Ga
This is a
set that offers much of what the first might not have, but only has four games:
NFC Wild Card Playoffs vs. the Atlanta Falcons, NFC Division Playoffs vs. the
Green Bay Packers, NFC Championship Game vs. the San Francisco 49ers and the Bowl game
annihilating the New England Patriots.
It makes for a fine companion to the other release and makes fans happy,
though this is one of the most expensive list price Blu-rays for any sport
release I have seen to date. There are
no extras.
Now for a
comedy spoof, David R. Brooks’ The
Yankles (2011) is a somewhat politically incorrect but not bad, telling the
tale of how a group of Hassidic Jewish men become a baseball team and usually
lite ethnic jokes and humor that also includes other cultures. The mostly unknown cast is not great and has
little energy or chemistry, but then the script is only so good and unless you
really enjoy its angle, you could see why.
The one exception is Don Most from the old hit TV sitcom Happy Days, who has the energy, comic
timing and acting talent to steal every scene he is in, as if he was in his own
better project. He is the widow father
of one of the Jewish players.
See it at
your own risk, but unless you are part of its narrow audience, expect to be
mostly bored. Extras include virtual
Baseball Cards, Deleted Scenes, Extended Musical Sequences (though this is not
a Musical). Trailer, Behind The Scenes piece and a feature length audio
commentary track by Brooks and Co-Writer/Producer Zev Brooks.
The 1080i
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Giants
looks good for an HD sports shoot, better than the DVD we covered before that
has overlapping footage and is pretty consistent despite some flaws. Oddly, the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer on Yankles
is poorer with too much stylized choices, noise and degraded detail for reasons
unknown.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo on Giants
and 5.1 lossless mix on Yankles are
about even, with the sports recording really rich and pretty good throughout,
while the latter narrative comedy which is joke and dialogue driven, has a
limited soundfield and some recorded moments are weak and show the low budget.
- Nicholas Sheffo
