The Longshots (2008/Dimension/Genius Blu-ray + DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B/C+     Sound: B/C+     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

Singer Fred Durst has directed several Music Videos, but tries his hands at a simple narrative film and the result is The Longshots, another of the endless entries in the “fell good sports cycle” as a young teen (Keke Palmer) has to deal with being picked on in High School and sees little change until a cousin (Ice Cube) starts watching her and finds out she has a talent with a football.

 

A safe script makes this a tired film, despite the novelty of having a young lady playing the sport, but the acting is not bad throughout and the film is at least competent, which is more than I can say about most features from Video directors of any kind.  Unfortunately, it does not go much further and is just about everything we have seen before.  Still, it is worth a look for those interested.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image has been stylized to look less colorful than a normal shoot would, but is not totally gutted as we are used to seeing these days.  That still is much better than the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 color image that is not bad throughout, but is soft and nothing special.  It could have looked a little better on DVD, but Blu-ray is your best bet to enjoy this visually.  The 5.1 mixes are mostly dialogue-based with music and ambience using the surrounds lightly most of the time, but the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on the Blu-ray sounds much fuller than the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD for whatever reason.  Extras on both versions include a trailer, featurette on the real life young lady who inspired the film, separate interviews with Cube & Durst, deleted scenes and a making of featurette.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo