The Game Plan (2007) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Family |
Deleted Scenes Outtakes Featurette-The King in Search of a Ring Featurette-Making Of-Drafting The Game Plan Main Menu Audio |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2007 | ||
Running Time | 105:48 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (58:50) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Language Select Then Programme | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Andy Fickman |
Studio
Distributor |
Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Dwayne Johnson Madison Pettis Kyra Sedgwick Roselyn Sanchez Morris Chestnut Hayes MacArthur Brian J. White |
Case | ? | ||
RPI | ? | Music | Nathan Wang |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Polish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 | None | Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | Yes | ||
Action In or After Credits | Yes |
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is the latest in a long line of promising action heroes to sell his career out to laboured family fodder. The Game Plan is the meal ticket that marks the end of his run as a promising action star. Following the same muscly guy plus small children formula as the last one of these things, The Pacifier, which sunk Vin Diesel's career a couple of years ago, The Game Plan mixes a staple diet of mildly amusing situations with lazily written jokes and plot to produce an affable but wholly forgettable romp.
The Rock stars as Joe "The King" Kingman, captain and all-star quarterback for the Boston Rebels American football team, whose assumedly hedonistic lifestyle is brought to a crashing halt when an 8 year old girl named Peyton (Madison Pettis) arrives on his doorstep claiming to be his daughter. The shock hits Joe's manager Stella (Kyra Sedgwick) harder than it does him and she rushes to put a positive spin on the story ahead of Joe's upcoming contract negotiations. Wacky hijinks ensue as Joe struggles to learn to be a single father, learn ballet and win the Superbowl at the same time.
I call Joe's lifestyle "assumedly" hedonistic because we never really get a firm idea that this is the case. The Game Plan is family-friendly to the extreme and anything that isn't squeaky clean has been left on the cutting room floor (the deleted scenes on the disc confirm as much - even general hints that Joe is a bit of a ladies' man have been snipped). As a result the movie fails to give the impression that Peyton has any real impact on Joe's outlook on life simply because he seems to have be squeaky clean to begin with, knocking the wind out of the sails of any message in the movie.
The Rock has had a reasonable degree of success with comedy in the past (let's face it, he was the only funny part of Be Cool), but he really struggles for laughs in The Game Plan. The movie has tried to go for a classic 1960s and 1970s Disney movie style but missed the mark by a long shot, largely thanks to the clumsy script. It certainly has a few good moments, but too often falls back on the perceived absurdity of situations (many of which aren't that absurd) rather than good jokes.
Lower to mid primary kids will probably enjoy The Game Plan but forget it in a hurry. Mum and Dad are probably best off catching up on their chores or having a quick snooze.
The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.
The video is quite sharp and free of grain and low level noise. There is a good level of detail in blacks and shadows.
The colour in the image is a little on the pale side. It certainly isn't as eye-poppingly bold as many comparable recent releases, but is consistent throughout.
No film artefacts of MPEG compression artefacts were noticeable.
English subtitles are present for the feature. Based on the portion I sample they appear to be accurate and well timed.
This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 58:50 but was not noticeable on my equipment.
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A English and Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384 Kbps) audio tracks and Polish, Czech and Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kbps) Audio tracks are present for the film.
The dialogue is at a good level in the mix. ADR looping is noticeable on a number of occasions, but the audio seems well synchronised to the video otherwise.
The film's score, by Nathan Wang, is a abrasively peppy affair that fits the film well and sits reasonably well in the mix.
There is moderate surround use throughout the film, most for the score and a handful of effects. The surround field created is a little flat and front heavy, but the kids probably won't notice. The LFE channel has a few good moments, but is mostly inactive.
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Overall |
Each of the extras on this disc feature a variety of subtitles, but not English.
This disc is set up with what Disney are calling "Fastplay", the idea being that the disc automatically plays the feature and extras once the disc is inserted so that kids can stick the disc in and not have to worry about using the remote to start the feature. It is a nice idea, but the disc authors have pretty much missed the point and added a language menu at the start of the disc that requires interaction before playing the feature. A main menu is available by pressing the menu button on the remote.
A reasonably colourful "Making Of" featurette. The material is pretty much all gushing self-praise and character motivation guff, but it is pleasant guff that will probably satisfy the young target audience for the movie.
A mock ESPN SportsCenter report on Joe Kingman. An entertaining supplement to the lead character.
Presented like a sports wrap up with blow by blow commentary and introductions from sports commentator Marv Albert, this set of bloopers is fairly entertaining largely as a result of their presentation.
Introduced by director Andy Fickman. These 9 deleted scenes are mostly excised footage that make characters seem ever so slightly less squeaky clean than they are in the movie.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Region 1 features Spanish and French language tracks in place of the Region 4's Russian, Polish, Czech and Hungarian tracks. Region 1 also includes an additional featurette, The Rock Learns to Play QB, and an interactive home makeover feature entitled Peyton's Makeover Madness. It looks like Region 4 missed out on this content in order to stick such a wide array of languages on the disc. In my playbook that places Region 4 as a loser.
The Rock sells out to sickly sweet family-fodder, starring as American Football all-star Joe Kingman who discovers he has an 8 year old girl in the lead up to the Superbowl. On the scale of these things, The Game Plan sits just behind Vin Diesel's sellout The Pacifier in terms of entertainment value. At least its miles ahead of Mr. Nanny, Santa With Muscles and Jingle All The Way!
The video is a little on the pale side, but otherwise looks very good. The audio is rather bland, but serviceable, and features no faults.
This disc includes a reasonable array of extras, but misses out on a couple that are found on the Region 1 edition in exchange for a bunch of additional Eastern European language tracks.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony Playstation 3, using HDMI output |
Display | Samsung 116cm LA46M81BD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). |
Audio Decoder | Pioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Pioneer VSX2016AVS |
Speakers | 150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub |