For Love of the Game (1999) |
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For Love of the Game (1999) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Featurette-Spotlight On Location (19:38) Deleted Scenes-(20:43) Notes-The Perfect Game Game-Trivia Game-On The Mound Easter Egg-Play Ball With Babe Ruth (9:08) Theatrical Trailer Production Notes Biographies-Cast & Crew DVD-ROM Extras |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
| Running Time | 132:09 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (87:13) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Programme | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Sam Raimi |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Kevin Costner Kelly Preston John C. Reilly Jena Malone Brian Cox |
| Case | Brackley-Trans-No Lip | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Basil Poledouris |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Portuguese French Arabic |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, one instance | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The game starts, and while Billy is throwing down his bullets at the Yankees, we see, hear and feel the world through him. Billy remembers the day 5 years ago when he met Jane for the first time and we see the good and the bad times that followed, and ultimately how he lost her.
I don't actually follow baseball, but I do love a good baseball movie, and this one does not disappoint. It has a great, if not perfect balance of action, romance and baseball, and the climatic end to the baseball game had me on the edge of my seat the first time I saw this movie. Kevin Costner's performance is fantastic, as is that of the whole cast. If you like Kevin Costner, then this is a must-see movie. On a more personal note to Mr Costner, I'd just like to say thank-you for all your wonderful movies and acting performances, and I hope there will be many more to come.
The sharpness and the detail of this transfer can only be described as superb. It is clean and crisp from the opening scene to the end of the credits, with an excellent amount of detail in the foreground. There are several scenes that are intentionally of lower quality, such as the home movie footage and the television broadcast footage, both of which have some judder and a slightly out-of-focus soft look about them, but this was the same at the cinema so it is not an issue with the transfer.
The shadow detail was superb. There was no low-level noise, edge bleeding or excessive edge enhancement seen.
The colour was excellent. It was beautifully saturated, rich and vibrant with wonderful skin tones throughout.
Pixelization and grain is basically non-existent, with only the tiniest amount being seen on the odd occasion. There is only one exception to this, at 33:06, where the blue sky suffers from some minor but noticeable grain.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Due to the wonderful sharpness of this transfer, regular but minor aliasing occurs. These instances were always mild and extremely well-controlled. Many of these instances will go unnoticed, but some are sure to catch your eye. I can't wait to view this disc using a Progressive Scan DVD player, as I'm sure all these minor aliasing problems will simply vanish, leaving us with one of the best transfers I have seen to date.
Film artefacts are very rare, with just a dozen or so tiny white specks being noticed.
This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 87:13 in Chapter 12. There is a definite pause in the video, and because the audio stops with it, it becomes all the more noticeable. Thus, the layer change does disrupt the flow of the movie slightly, but is still acceptable. Its placement could have been a much better though - the scene change that occurred two minutes earlier would have been a much better place for it.
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The dialogue was extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the entire movie and was superbly integrated into the overall soundstage. The audio sync was completely spot-on for the entire movie.
Basil Poledouris' musical score is wonderful. It supports and enhances the on-screen action throughout the entire film.
The surround channels were very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects, which created a wonderfully enveloping sound field. Directional effects and precise sound placement within the sound field are the norm rather than the exception, putting you right in the midst of the movie at all times, and not just during the action sequences. There are many great examples of split rear channel use. Most are subtle, but there are plenty of the not-so-subtle kind too, such as at 3:48, 4:07, 17:28, 23:39 and 63:54. I could keep raving on and on forever about the sound, but I think you've already got the point that this is a superb soundtrack that has excellent surround channel use.
It's been quite a while since I've heard a soundtrack that uses the .1 LFE channel this well. The subwoofer subtly adds bass to many many scenes, and between 2:08 and 2:58, my floor was vibrating away quite happily. I just love it when that happens! Other examples of excellent .1 LFE channel use can be found at 47:32, 86:30, 96:07 and 115:20.
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| Overall | |
For those who don't have a good knowledge of baseball knowledge (like myself), here are the answers which I worked out using trial and error: (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) C, B, C, A, B, A, C, C, B, C, A, A.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The picture quality is of excellent quality, only slightly tarnished by some regular but minor aliasing.
The sound is superb, and is of reference quality.
There are a great selection of high quality extras.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony DVP-725, using Component output |
| Display | Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SV919THX |
| Speakers | Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1) |