David Galindo
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2003
- Messages
- 1,264
[c]Coach Carter (UMD)
Region 1 • PG-13 • Dolby Digital • Available Now
[/c]
Jeez Paramount, if your gonna charge premium for these UMDs, at least make them worth their price.
Thoughts on the Movie
I hadn’t seen this movie until now, and only expected one of those movies where the new coach turns the bad basketball team around into a winning team on and off the court. Yup, that’s exactly what I got… but it worked so well, I didn’t care. This is a great movie.
Basically, this true story centers around Coach Carter and his new methods of improving the men’s lives with education and basketball. Many have said this is Friday Night Lights on the basketball court, and I couldn’t disagree more. Coach Carter has a figure who realizes what kind of lives these young bball stars will end up having after school, and tries to get them to realize that basketball isn’t everything: education is. Friday Night Lights has no one to tell the team that football isn’t everything, because there isn’t a soul that believes that in the movie. The players, the crowds, all of them know that football is the only thing the kids got, so they gotta enjoy it before it’s gone. That makes FNL the stronger and better movie, but I have to say the morality of some of the kids in Coach Carter really got to me, including a weird substory about an abortion. The way one of the characters thinks about getting an abortion (and the egging on of her boyfriend) is pretty sick, and the conclusion makes me wonder if the movie really needed to deal with this issue in the first place. Ah, must be part of the true story I guess.
Coach Carter is exactly the movie you think it is, but much better. I was pleasantly surprised.
Video Quality
Wow, Paramount is incredibly stupid. The original aspect ratio of Coach Carter is 1.85, just shy of the 1.78 ratio of the PSP screen. Heck, at the 1.85 ratio, even Sony keeps it and places extremely tiny black bars on the top and bottom of the PSP. You hardly notice it’s there.
Well, Paramount STILL cropped the film to 1.78. Now, it’s not a bad crop- it’s hardly a crop at all. It’s the principle of the thing that gets me angry. They make sure to put on the back of the case that it’s cropped, as well as a warning before the movie. Why? Why not leave it and be done with it? AHHH!
What is there looks great, and the colors are very vibrant. But Paramount needs to stop going crazy with the cropper and start respecting the director’s intended way of watching the movie.
4/5
Audio Quality
For a regular movie that’s heavy on vocals, Coach Carter still impresses with some great surround work and loud volume. The audio comes in clear and great, and I have no issues with it at all. This movie sounds fantastic.
5/5
Extras
All you get is one menu, with the Play option and Subtitles On/Off option. No extras, no other menus, not even any trailers. For $30, you can REALLY do much better than this.
Damnit, why do studios think they can overprice their movies without adding anything in return?
0/5
Overall…
This UMD, for $30, isn’t enough. Heck, had the movie been $15 I would definitely recommend it (even with all the problems), but for $30 I at least want the OAR preserved, a chapter selection, and some smidgen of extras. This is unacceptable, and barely reaches average.
2.5/5
Region 1 • PG-13 • Dolby Digital • Available Now
[/c]Jeez Paramount, if your gonna charge premium for these UMDs, at least make them worth their price.
Thoughts on the Movie
I hadn’t seen this movie until now, and only expected one of those movies where the new coach turns the bad basketball team around into a winning team on and off the court. Yup, that’s exactly what I got… but it worked so well, I didn’t care. This is a great movie.
Basically, this true story centers around Coach Carter and his new methods of improving the men’s lives with education and basketball. Many have said this is Friday Night Lights on the basketball court, and I couldn’t disagree more. Coach Carter has a figure who realizes what kind of lives these young bball stars will end up having after school, and tries to get them to realize that basketball isn’t everything: education is. Friday Night Lights has no one to tell the team that football isn’t everything, because there isn’t a soul that believes that in the movie. The players, the crowds, all of them know that football is the only thing the kids got, so they gotta enjoy it before it’s gone. That makes FNL the stronger and better movie, but I have to say the morality of some of the kids in Coach Carter really got to me, including a weird substory about an abortion. The way one of the characters thinks about getting an abortion (and the egging on of her boyfriend) is pretty sick, and the conclusion makes me wonder if the movie really needed to deal with this issue in the first place. Ah, must be part of the true story I guess.
Coach Carter is exactly the movie you think it is, but much better. I was pleasantly surprised.
Video Quality
Wow, Paramount is incredibly stupid. The original aspect ratio of Coach Carter is 1.85, just shy of the 1.78 ratio of the PSP screen. Heck, at the 1.85 ratio, even Sony keeps it and places extremely tiny black bars on the top and bottom of the PSP. You hardly notice it’s there.
Well, Paramount STILL cropped the film to 1.78. Now, it’s not a bad crop- it’s hardly a crop at all. It’s the principle of the thing that gets me angry. They make sure to put on the back of the case that it’s cropped, as well as a warning before the movie. Why? Why not leave it and be done with it? AHHH!
What is there looks great, and the colors are very vibrant. But Paramount needs to stop going crazy with the cropper and start respecting the director’s intended way of watching the movie.
4/5
Audio Quality
For a regular movie that’s heavy on vocals, Coach Carter still impresses with some great surround work and loud volume. The audio comes in clear and great, and I have no issues with it at all. This movie sounds fantastic.
5/5
Extras
All you get is one menu, with the Play option and Subtitles On/Off option. No extras, no other menus, not even any trailers. For $30, you can REALLY do much better than this.
Damnit, why do studios think they can overprice their movies without adding anything in return?
0/5
Overall…
This UMD, for $30, isn’t enough. Heck, had the movie been $15 I would definitely recommend it (even with all the problems), but for $30 I at least want the OAR preserved, a chapter selection, and some smidgen of extras. This is unacceptable, and barely reaches average.
2.5/5
