
100
Years Of Wrigley Field
(Chicago Cubs/2014/A+E/Lionsgate DVD)/Super
Bowl XLVIII Champions: Seattle Seahawks
(2014/NFL/Cinedigm Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B- Sound: C+ Extras: C/B- Main Programs: B/C+
Here
are two new sports titles that revisit some similar coverage from the
past...
100
Years Of Wrigley Field
(2014) is a new documentary that talks about the legendary baseball
field and longtime home of the Chicago Cubs. Turns out it was
originally built for a long-defunct baseball team, became their home
early on and much, much more. Running a rich 85 minutes and narrated
by William Petersen, we have seen programs telling us how great this
place is before, but this one adds new facts, ideas, rare footage and
interviews old and new to any kind of overlap we may have encountered
before. The result is a portrait of one of the greatest cities on
the world with a place that is part of its heart and soul.
While
too may other cities have torn down their stadiums long before they
needed to (if they ever needed to), Chicago rightly stuck to this
amazing structure that has endured and become an entity unto itself.
Wish more cities pulled off what the Windy City (aka Second City) has
here.
Extras
include clips on the Ernie Banks Statue Dedication and the retirement
of key numbers from legendary players Ron Santo, Ferguson Jenkins and
Greg Maddux. For more on Wrigley and The Cubs, try these DVD links:
Essential
Games Of The Chicago Cubs
Box Set
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11753/The+Essential+Games+Of+The%E2%80%A6Chica
Forever
Loyal
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/961/Forever+Loyal+(Chicago+Cubs
We
Believe
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9790/We+Believe+(2009/Virgil+Films+DVD
As
the Cubs keep chasing a World Series victory, they can take
inspiration and the like from Seattle, Washington, another great city
that has hardly ever had any national sports victories of any kind.
Super Bowl XLVIII
Champions: Seattle Seahawks
(2014) shows the rise and victory of the NFL football team throughout
their entire season to their bizarre win against the shockingly weak
San Francisco 49ers, a team some thought could win. Instead, they
had trouble on every level of the game, barely scored and were
bulldozed in the end as they seemed to be dozing off too much of the
time.
That
makes this particular entry in NFL Films' consistently fine series of
Super Bowl programs on home video unusually anticlimactic and mixed,
but the record of the whole season is here in a thorough 142 minutes
and will be here for anyone who has missed in in perpetuity.
Extras
include ten clips including two Wired For Sound clips, one for
the players, the other for the coaches. For more Super Bowl action,
try these links:
Baltimore
Ravens: Super Bowl XLVII Champions Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12079/Baltimore+Ravens:+Super+Bowl+XLVII+Champion
Greatest
Super Bowl Moments DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11374/Greatest+Super+Bowl+Moments+(NFL/Vivendi)/Wa
New
York Giants Road To XLVI Blu-ray
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11653/New+York+Giants+Road+To+XLVI+Post-Season+C
Super
Bowl Champions XLVI: New York Giants DVD
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11535/Baseball%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Games:+2011+
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Wrigley is going to
be a little rougher because it has 100 years of film and video
footage, so it is not going to be able to compete with an all-HD (and
possibly 16mm film)-shot compilation of the newest football season,
especially in a 1080p 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition image transfer as Seattle
offers, though the Cubs, which could help them maybe finally win?
Though
it can have rough monophonic sound at times via the age of some of
its film and video clips, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 sound on
Wrigley
is usually simple stereo, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1
lossless mix on Seattle
has a strangely restricted soundfield and puts its sound too much in
the center channel. It is still full enough that you can tell it is
not lossy, but it disappoints enough that the DVD can more than
compete with it.
-
Nicholas Sheffo