Project-Blu ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’ Review, by Nate Boss

The Greatest Game Ever Played

By: Nate Boss, 6.16.2009

The Movie Itself:
 Once, long ago, there was a time when Shia LaBeouf wasn't a headline grabbing star actor. He was a virtual unknown, mostly recognized for his role in the Disney television series Even Stevens. Now, LaBeouf is friggin' everywhere, headlining blockbuster after blockbuster, with little time between projects, and even his personal life and the fires and misfires of it seem to be constantly under public scrutiny. While his car crash and alcohol issue related to such have been big news, at least there were no fatalities.

The point of all this? Mr. Mega-Movie Superstar was once just a regular actor like the rest, struggling to transition from being typecast as the spunky youthful sidekick (see: Constantine, I, Robot), not yet the target of plenty of hatred from adult male moviegoers. His first film after those blockbusters turned out to be the role that got LaBeouf through, one that even he quotes as being the one that got him consideration as an adult actor finally, rather than a child actor. That film, of course, was The Greatest Game Ever Played. A modest title, to be sure.

This is a true story...

Francis Ouimet (LaBeouf) is just a caddy, living parallel to the local golf course, long praised for its difficulty. For ten years, Francis grinds it out caddying for the locals, learning the game, and the course. At the age of 20, in 1913, Francis enters an amateur contest, to try to place in a major event, but falls just short, and promises to stop playing, and pursue realistic goals and work. But with the US Open coming to town, along with his longtime golfing hero, Harry Vardon, Ouimet is given one more chance to succeed on the course. One that history books have long recorded as one of the greater upsets in American sporting history, as one David takes down two Goliaths.

You guessed it...inspirational sports drama, focussed on a young player, full of potential, realizing his talent and overcoming the obstacles put in front of him to go on to greater success than ever could have been imagined for him. We've seen this movie a hundred times before, just with different sports, and we see all the same heartstring pulling and silly cliche, from the sports MONTAGE (Montage! Even Rocky had a montage!), to the budding love interest that is more a McGuffin than it is a real plot point, a real distraction in the middle of a film that truly doesn't need it.

Unofficial Project: Blu forum mascot Bil Paxton (you know, the guy whose head is one of our emoticons) directs The Greatest Game Ever Played, and does a respectable job of the situation, despite all the above knocking of the cliche that the film never aspires to conquer. That's right, Bill Paxton. It's hard to fault our respective idol for the film's shortcomings, as the script is far from original, the kind of "based on a true story" sports drama that comes around every four to five years. That fault can be placed on Mark Frost, the scribe of the book by the same name, who adapted his work to the screen.

LaBeouf is actually not hatable in this role. That's right. Shia being something other than utterly awful in a film, something we (the audience) haven't seen in some time from Hollywood's golden boy. He sells the part of a young whippersnapper ready to do big things, to take on the world, and live to tell the tale. His golfing form wasn't even that bad, either, as the film doesn't suffer from not knowing the sport it depicts, a deathblow to any sports drama. The Greatest Game Ever Played may not be The Greatest Sports Drama Ever Made, as it's been made many times before, but that doesn't change it's standing as a solid golf film (there aren't many of these floating around), an inspirational story, full of respectable performances by the cast, and an efficient, though tedious and repetitive, directing gig performed by Mr. Paxton.
Rating: 6/10

The Presentation:
The Greatest Game Ever Played hits Blu-ray in an AVC MPEG-4 encode that is great, true to it's name, though, like any round of golf, is not perfect. The most obvious strength in this transfer is the wide range of green hues in the trees and grass adorning the course. The other strength is the fact that there is no sign of DNR (pores and facial features remain sharp throughout), and no sign of edge enhancement, as edges are quite natural and clean. Woo woo!

The film begins with a title sequence that sports a fantastic three dimensional facade, which is simply gorgeous, though it lets the underlying issue with the rest of the film (and the ONLY issue with the film, really) be known early: aliasing. Clothing in this sequence, represented with fine lines, begins to create a circular waving motion. It's honestly quite ugly, in the middle of a beautiful sequence.

Aliasing again appears a few times in the lush grass on the golf course, and that's the last complaint I have about this transfer, save for some more green, in the form of noise, being visible in the blue backgrounds of some scenes, and some blue, coating the picture, being absorbed in the whites of eyes or in plain white painted set pieces, in a raining shot.

Presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix, The Greatest Game Ever Played is a bit more like a fun round of miniature golf, than a major championship, when it comes to the sound department. That may sound harsh, but it is good...it's just not great.

Dialogue is always clear, over the cliche "heartwarming story of overcoming adversity" score, the busy crowds, or any other noise. I always enjoyed when the film would go into "focus" by a golfer, and have the world around them disappear, as the bass rumble picks up, becoming a dominant factor. That's right, solid, well used bass in a film about GOLF. Small sounds like the buzz of a lady bug are always clear. Surrounds are used a bit with cheering/anxious crowds, though the effect wasn't as good as it should have been, as it was a bit soft, even in loud celebration. A completely passable track, free from glaring faults, with a nice dynamic range for a film of it's nature, hampered by the constraints of the genre it is in. The job is done nicely, but that is all that can be done with a film like this.

Editor's Note: Despite the packaging only showing a few language tracks, as the sidebar at right will show, there is an absolutely huge amount of language options, both in dub tracks or subtitle tracks, including THIRTY TWO subtitle tracks (varying language tracks for each of the commentaries are the reason for this hilarious anomaly). Do not let the package dissuade you from purchase, and check the sidebar to see if this film supports your preferred viewing language.
Rating: 8/10 ( 8/10- video, 7/10- audio)

The Extras:
Audio Commentary
With director Bill Paxton.

Audio Commentary
With author/screenwriter/producer Mark Frost.

A View from the Gallery: On the set of the Greatest Game Ever Played (SD, 15 min)
Frost, Paxton, producer Mark Brezler, Mick Reinman, LaBeouf, and more talk up the film, while behind the scenes footage making the film is shown. A basic making of featurette, really.

Two Legends and the Greatest Game (SD, 7 min)
A look at Ouimet and Vardon, and the game at the time of the film (1913). Vardon's history as an ambassador for the game, bringing it to America, and his bout of Tuberculosis, and Ouimet's origins with the game, heading on to the covering of the actual event, retelling the tale we just saw on screen, to show the historical accuracies, and tells what happened to each character after the film, rather than the one liner text blurbs shown at the end of the film. Basically, this is a condensed recap of the film, in a sense.

From Caddie to Champion: Francis Ouimet (SD, 25 min)
A vintage feature, hosted by Fred Cusick, includes some footage with the actual Ouimet. Fans of the movie must check this out, but shouldn't expect too much, as hoo-boy! NONE of these gentlemen have any screen presence! The funny thing is, he talks about how the game was about fun in those days, NOT about pressure, which is the opposite of what the film depicts. A slow, draggy feature, full of interesting info, but definitely aimed at the most hardcore of golf fans.

Previews
Trailers for: Generic BD Promo, G-Force, Morning Light, another generic BD promo, Disney Movie Rewards, Race to WItch Mountain, Hannah Montana: The Movie, and Earth.

Disney Movie Rewards
Get movies, posters, or bigger trinkets back from Disney by using your code and saving some points!
Rating: 5/10

Overall:
While predictable, cliche, and all those awful characterizations may apply here, The Greatest Game Ever Played is a pretty decent inspirational sports movie, far from the best, but also far from the bottom dredges. With solid audio and video qualities, and some VERY interesting extras, this is a nice pick up, for sure. Worth a rental at least, but a possible blind buy, especially for sports fans.
Rating: 6/10