'HARDBALL' - Excellent disc!! (1 Viewer)

[Martin Jeeves]

Paramount have done a wonderful job with the No.1 feel-good hit 'HARDBALL' starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane. The picture is smooth, but sharp. It is colourful, filmlike and has next-to-no edge enhamcement. The sound while hardly hyper-active, is still very effective with some nice but subtle split surround activity. The soundtrack has some very good bass, and both the soundtrack and dialogue is very well recorded and crystal clear (all except G-Baby of course, who you are not meant to understand).

The supplements are first rate. The audio commentary is great. Director Brian Robbins and writer John Gatins are interesting and funny. They talk about the production, it's success, and alsi about working with Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane and the 'first-time actor' kids. Apparently, Keanu fancied the pants off of Diane Lane!

Next up, are the trailers, TV spots (called 'interstituals' here), a 'Hardball' music video and an excellent 'Making Of Hardball' featurette which features behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with Robbins, the cast including Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane, and the kids, and also the baseball co-ordinator. Running time is about 20mins but it is informative and entertaining, and much much better than the normal 'Making Ofs...'

A good little entertaining movie, that was a highly profitable theatrical release for Paramount in the Fall of last year. Highly recommended, even if you don't like baseball or Keanu Reeves, especially on such a well specified DVD. Well done Paramount.

 

[Yumbo]

volume level was quite low,

 

[Martin Jeeves]

Oh..and I forgot to mention 3 deleted scenes!

 

[David Von Pein]

Thanks, Martin J.!

I was curious about this disc.

Question: How is it that so many reviews are on this forum regarding as yet unreleased DVD's?? How are you able to get it days before release?

Hardball's not out for 4 more days.

 

[Michael Lee]

I also noted that the volume of this DVD seemed particularly low. The movie was ok...it didn't really impact my wife or myself too greatly. I expected a little more "oomph" audio-wise overall, but did not get it.

 

[Josh_Hill]

I saw this in theaters and loved it. I picked it up yesterday and was happy with the disc.

 

[Martin Jeeves]

Yeah, this is a cool movie on a top notch disc. I thought the soundtrack rocked!

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

My brother was an extra for some scenes that were shot outside of Tiger Stadium. I have not heard from anyone whether he made it into the film or not, so I have been anxious to see this one on video. Useless triva: A good number of the extras from the stadium scenes in the HBO film 61* were called to be extras in Hardball. Both used Detroit's Tiger Stadium as a surrogate for ballparks in other cities.

Regards,

 

[Martin Jeeves]

This was a FAR BETTER movie than I expected. The kids were great and Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane had good chemistry. A great disc! Definately one of Paramounts best! Check out the reviews below:
http://www.dvdfile.com/software/revi.../hardball.html
http://www.currentfilm.com/dvdreviews4/hardballdvd.html
http://www.dvdauthority.com/hardball.asp
Link Removed
http://www.dvdmoviecentral.com/ReviewsText/hardball.htm

 

[Martin Jeeves]

"HARDBALL" is a GREAT disc. The film is really, really good (NOT "Bad News Bears" far more dark). It has humour, it has drama, it has cute kids, it has Diane Lane....

The DVD is top-notch. Video is 10/10. Audio is good as well. Plenty of supplements too. As Keanu would say 'Whoa'...

Definately, a worthwhile disc. Very surprised by everything about it really.

 

[Trevor Bateman]

This was definately the surprise hit of the year for me. I was stunned how much I loved it. Great film and a great DVD.

 

[Trevor Bateman]

Great flick!!!!

 

[Rickhard Copley]

A truly great film. A GREAT film. I had no idea it would be as good as this. Wonderful. I can't recommend it enough.

 

[Trevor Bateman]

I really liked the audio commentary on this disc as well. The guys sound really down-to-earth and have a great time reflecting on the shooting of the movie. They also have a great deal of respect as well for Reeves, Lane and the kids which is nice.

A great allround disc I thought.

 

[Martin Jeeves]

I watched this again last night! It stands up really well to repest viewings. It's a cool movie, and the DVD is sensational. Reference quality stuff.

 

[Trevor Bateman]

I thought that the picture was so sharp but filmlike, I could almost touch everything. The picture has a warm Autumn hue to it as well to offset the cold subject matter. Great picture and the sound is excellent. 10/10.

 

[Rickhard Copley]

Apparently, this film has now taken in over $50 million in rentals, as well as the $40 million plus it took theatrically. Bearing in mind the films small-ish budget and small publicity campaign, Paramount must be raking it in on this title (and that's without homevideo sales and overseas figures!).

 

[Trevor Bateman]

Yes, I agree. It's done great business for a small-ish flick. The kid who played G-Baby reminded me of the guy on Different Strokes..