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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 (2005)

Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 (2005) (NTSC)

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Released 8-Aug-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Sports Main Menu Introduction
Menu Animation & Audio-Best Tricks
Audio Commentary-Skaterviews
Gallery-Photo-Death Lens Cut
Featurette-Globe Wildcard Skateboarding
Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Slams
Featurette-Gallaz Skate Jam
Trailer-7
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 51:56 (Case: 150)
RSDL / Flipper No/No
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Mike Hill
Studio
Distributor
Globe
Stomp Visual
Starring Dave Duncan
Bob Burnquist
Ronnie Creager
Danny Way
Mike Vallely
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI $29.95 Music Various


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Okay, put your hand up if you know what a back side flip, lip slide, wall ride, crooked grind, fakie, foot plant, air walk, tail grab, nose slide, or front-side invert means. If your hand's up, then read on because its time to seriously grind it, with the arrival of the Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 DVD. The World Cup is a skatie's heaven, and one of the highlights of the urban sports year. This DVD brilliantly captures world class performances by some of the world's top pro-skaters, who gathered in Melbourne earlier this year to battle it out for cash and the World Cup title.

    "Every year a hand picked line-up of skateboarding's all-time legends travel to Melbourne Australia to test their skills against the best competition skaters on Earth. The result is one of the craziest weekends of partying, mayhem and high performance skateboarding you're ever likely to see. With the allure of the Australian Summer, virgin street spots and truck loads of cash up for grabs, the Globe World Cup brings together the most diverse crew of pro skaters anywhere to destroy one of the gnarliest street courses ever built. Now all this excitement is captured in over two and a half hours of footage in this double disc set."

    As with the two previous years, the Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 event is set in a purpose-built indoor skate-park in the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, and held in front of an appreciative crowd of 15,000 people. The event consists of a series of heats, involving qualifiers, and then final heats, where the qualifiers battle it out with invited big-name skaters (including many big-name veterans) - all for a chance to make the finals and claim the $US20,000 first prize.

    The featured skaters in the "street skate riot" include some of the best wheeled board riders around, such as Bastien Salabanzi, Ronnie Creager, Tony Trujillo, Rick McCrank, Ryan Sheckler, Jereme Rogers, Paul Machnau, Greg Lutzka, Tosh Townend, Bob Burnquist, Danny Way, Mike Vallely, and Tas Pappas. It was also great to see so many Aussies carving it up here as well.

    We are treated to a variety of styles over the same course, with plenty of old-school 80s and 90s moves as well as all the latest technical tricks, including plenty of "sick" jumps, gnarly flips, bionic blasters, front side 180s, ramps, rail-riding, vertical walling, flipping it off the hip, and some seriously "big air". My favourite, however, were the table grinding tricks, which I think were new this year.

    As with last year, the event is hosted by the very large Dave 'Double D' Duncan (I assume his nickname refers to his initials and not to his man-boobs), and the DVD is squarely aimed at young skaters, with rapid, music video style editing, and plenty of uncontrolled skating action. There is also a great collection of highlights on the DVD, which showcase some of the more awesome manoeuvres from the day.

    Full results of the 2005 World Cup, and further information, can be found at http://www.globeworldcup.com/

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is excellent for the content, which I assume was shot on DV Tape.

    Unlike last year's DVD, this year we're treated to a beautiful widescreen presentation, with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. You might recall that last year I commented that "in today's world of widescreen digital sports broadcasts, a 1.29:1 transfer is pretty hokey and old fashioned - especially for a sport that strives to stay hip and cool."

    The sharpness and black level are fine throughout. The shadow detail for the interior scenes is good, but understandably the scenes shot outside, with natural light, can look a little harsh.

    The colour is excellent, but perhaps a little over-saturated. As with last year's DVD, the reds often looked a little unnatural at times. The skin tones were good.

    Overall, however, the disc is well-authored, and there are no problems with MPEG, film-to-video, or film artefacts.

    Understandably, there are no subtitles present on the DVD.

    This is a Single-Layered, Dual-Disc set, and the main feature is divided into 10 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio options on this DVD: English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), and an Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine throughout, although most of the dialogue comes from Double D's commentary.

    As with last year, the musical score consists of suburban white-boy angst rock tunes and some hip-hop and urban beats, which all suit the content and target market well.

    The Dolby Stereo track is not surround encoded, so there is no surround presence or LFE activity.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    The DVD is very slickly presented, both in content and packaging. For example, the cover features an excellent parody of the famous Nirvana album.

Menus

    Animated with audio.

Gallery

    A collection of photographic stills.

Disc Two

    Unless stated otherwise, all extras are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital Stereo Audio.

Featurette-Globe Wildcard Skateboarding (48:37)

    A meaty Featurette, which covers the international search for the 17 Wildcard Entries.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes (25:59)

    Footage taken from around Melbourne, suggesting some of the logistical issues in organising the event and marshalling the skaters.

Featurette-Gallaz Skate Jam (26:01)

    A look at the girl's skate-off, featuring the very talented Miss Violet Kimble. It's good to see that the girls got more time on this DVD than the five minutes they got last year.

Trailers

   Trailers for seven other cool DVDs:

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 has been released on DVD in Region 1. From what information I can find about this release, it seems that both versions are the same.

Summary

    Globe World Cup Skateboarding 2005 is a wonderful collection of big-name skaters, pulling out all their latest tricks down under. This DVD brilliantly captures some of the World's best skaters' blood, sweat, and tears . . . and triumph, over a very challenging street course. If you're into skating, or just watching skating, this is a must buy DVD for this year.

    The video quality is good, and I'm glad we got treated to a widescreen transfer this year.

    The audio quality is also good.

    There are a good collection of genuine and entertaining extras in this two-disc set.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using S-Video output
DisplayGrundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSony STR DE-545
SpeakersSony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer

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