Gridiron Gang (Blu-ray + Full Screen Standard DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/C+ Extras: C- Film: D
Though
the recent cycle of Sports films, many often well done and triumphant, have
been sometimes very impressive, some have been awful. Easily one of the worst is Gridiron Gang (2006), another “true
story” that does not ring true in any way shape or form. Sean Porter is a probation officer who
decides to try and help his prisoners with football. Despite the usual obstacles, including the teens
who have committed all kinds of crimes, they will use the sport to teach
discipline and give them focus.
Great
story ruined spectacularly. First, there
is Jeff Maguire’s screenplay, which is more interested in conforming the story
to both versions of The Longest Yard
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site) than telling the story honestly. Then there is the awkward mix of drama and
humor that is lopsided by formulaic tough-guy and street kid gags so stale that
they should have been thrown out decades ago.
Then there is the fateful decision to cast The Rock (suddenly credited
as “Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) as Porter, who is clueless on how to act or play
this role. He just plays himself for the
several-dozenth time and is a catastrophe from frame one to the closing
credits.
The
result is a very, very, very, very bad star vehicle, even in the directing
hands of Music Video director Phil Joanou, whose one great film State Of Grace (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) was made back in 1990! He can
juggle the logistics, but there is only a mess to juggle so he is a hire-out at
best. Rapper Xzibit from MTV’s
entertaining Pimp My Ride series
plays Porter’s co-worker, but it is too bad he did not take the script to The
Writer Guild Of America to have it pimped!
One
argument is that we do not see enough troubled youth on screen getting help and
that automatically makes this a positive film that is “down” and is “telling it
like it is” or some nonsense, but that is just PC garbage and if you want to
see such a film that works, Freedom Writers mows this bomb over on every level,
as does The Longest Yard. See those instead.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot in Super 35mm and looks it,
though Joanou and cinematographer Jeff Cutter do not totally gut out the detail
or color. Still, this follows the visual
formula of film disasters like Friday
Night Lights (see the HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) and still manages to
be worse! Colors are often desaturated
and Joanou has done much better even in his Videos. This looks worse in the 1.33 X 1 Full Screen
DVD further butchering and botching an already bad shoot.
The PCM
5.1 16 Bit/48kHz sound mix is also nothing special, though better than the
Dolby Digital 5.1, with improvements in thickness but not warmth. The sound editing is also nothing to write
home about, much like the image editing.
Trevor Rabin turns in one of his poorest scores in a while, obviously
also bored by the project as well. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Full Screen DVD is chopped down further to conform to
the chopped-down picture.
Extras
are the same on both discs, including Joanou/Maguire audio commentary, Joanou
profile, multi-angle version of a football play, deleted scenes and two
featurettes that are self-congratulatory even when supposedly admiring the
“true story” told. No wonder Invincible (reviewed on Blu-ray and
standard DVD elsewhere on this site) crushed this film with far less of a
promotional budget and far, far stronger word of mouth. Guess true sports fans are not as easy to
full as the general film audience.
- Nicholas Sheffo
