Year:  2010 
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Director:  Nina Gilden Seavey
Run time:  89 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     I am a fanatic for NFL football.  I go down to the states every year for at least one game, I never miss a Sunday, I PVR all the games I might miss and I’m in about twelve pools every year.  My basement is decorated all in Packers green and gold, and my chili goes in the slow cooker every Saturday night to be ready for game time on Sunday.

     But I have nothing on millions of Americans.  For me, NFL football is just a time-consuming, much-loved hobby.  For others, it is a life-consuming religion.  And so it is for many kids who play the game.  The NFL is the ultimate dream, playing on Sunday in front of 80,000 people and millions more on television. 

     4th & Goal, out September 20th on DVD from First Run Features, follows six of these young men, all of them from the same elite school, as they try to make that dream come true.  As an NFL fanatic, I know that one of these kids DID make it.  If you’re a freak like me, you’ll know his name the second you hear it also.

     More interesting though, are the other five kids, all blessed with termendous talent of one kind or another, who don’t make it.  For one reason or another (they are mentally unprepared – they get injured – they’re just plain passed over), they are probably not going to get a real shot at the NFL.  And their coaches seem to spend a lot of time preparing them for that eventuality.

     The fact is, less than 2,000 people get to play in the NFL each year, while several million play the game at a lower level.  4th and Goal is a terrific look into this world, and fascinating to me as a football fan.  For every special teams player I see on a Sunday, there are thousands of one-time high school or college superstars who never made it. 

     One more note – my wife, who hates football and my obsession with it, loved this movie.  After watching The Blind Side, she started watching Ravens games for Michael Oher.  Now, she wants to watch the Bengals.  The Bengals!  (The one guy who made it from this film now plays for Cincy.)  This MUST be a good documentary if my football-hating WIFE is interested in the game.  If only for the next few weeks, until she discovers that Bengals games are not ever going to be shown on TV, because they’re the Bengals.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Georges St-Pierre, David Loiseau
Appearances:  Rich Franklin, Joe Ferraro, John McCarthy, Keith Jardine, Matt Serra, Steven J. Wong  
Director:  Steven J. Wong
Run time:  95 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     Ostensibly, The Striking Truth is a documentary about two MMA fighters.  It follows Georges St-Pierre over a period of several years as he rose to the top of the Ultimate Fighting world.  It also follows David Loiseau over that same stretch, as he topples from the top and ends up being dropped from the UFC roster.  I say ostensibly, because really this is a documentary about St-Pierre.

     Loiseau actually has a much more interesting story.  In interviews with MMA folk, like Big John McCarthy and Showdown Joe Ferraro, the film makes the case that in terms of talent and skill, Loiseau was one of the best ever.  But self-doubt and panic attacks derail his career while the camera follows.  The suggestion is made that perhaps he doesn’t “have what it takes” – the mental toughness and so on – to really be a great fighter.  The problem is, Loiseau’s problems seem to be shown here just to point out that Georges St-Pierre DOES have what it takes – the character, the toughness, the guts, whatever.

     In fact, The Striking Truth spends more time showing us Georges St-Pierre’s house (it has a fancy stove, you see…and he has a chef…) than it does showing us Loiseau’s decline and eventual banishment from the UFC.  And while 90% of the film is about St-Pierre, I didn’t feel like I learned anything about him I didn’t already know.  What really makes him tick?  Don’t know.  How did his loss to Matt Serra actually affect him?  Can’t tell. 

     And that’s the problem with The Striking Truth.  Not that it ignores Loiseau (although he could be taken out entirely, and a separate documentary could be made about him that would be fascinating), but that it’s a big long GSP love-in.  The director, Steven J. Wong, is obviously a long-time friend of the fighter, and he shows up every now and then to sing his praises, or to take him on at ping-pong.

     And so we get a portrait of a professional fighter who seems very friendly, and genuine, and extremely likeable.  And that’s about it.  In no way is this a hard-hitting documentary (although it most certainly could have gone that way had they wanted to make something good).  Really it’s not much more than a long episode of MTV Cribs where GSP shows us his childhood heirlooms and his fancy stove.  I’m no fan of MMA, but I like GSP.  I won’t be watching him in his title fight on Saturday in Toronto because I don’t care for the sport, but I hope he wins because I like him.  I just don’t know him any better after watching this documentary, out April 26th from Alliance Films.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Music, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Billy Joel
Appearances:  Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, Roger Daltrey, John Mayer, Tom Seaver, Steven Tyler, Don Henley, Garth Brooks
Directors:  John Small, Paul Crowder
Run time:  95 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     One of the coolest concerts ever was the one Billy Joel put on at Shea Stadium to close down the legendary old building.  Guest stars like Roger Daltrey of the Who, John Mayer, Tony Bennett, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Don Henley of the Eagles, and an incredible surprise appearance by Paul McCartney.  The story of McCartney’s arrival at the airport, and the help he had just to get to the show in time from the police and from air traffic control and seemingly all of New York City, is by far the best story in The Last Play At Shea, out March 22nd from Alliance Films.

     This is not a concert film.  There is very little footage of the concert itself, and Daltrey, Mayer, Tyler, Bennett, Brooks, Henley and the rest barely appear in the film.  Rather, this is a documentary about New York City, Queens, Shea Stadium, Billy Joel and the New York Mets.  Not necessarily in that order.  The problem there is that the documentary just scratches the surface of each of those things, and provides little depth.

     I’m not a huge fan of Billy Joel.  But I found his story interesting – his marriage to Christie Brinkley, his childhood in New York and the suburbs, getting screwed over financially by a close friend - I would have liked to hear more.  I love baseball, although I’m no Mets fan.  And I love their story – the miracle comeback over the Cubs in ’69, Mookie Wilson’s ground ball through Bill Buckner’s wickets in ’86, those early disastrous years – I would have liked to see more.

     And so it is with the rest of this incredible cast of characters.  I would have loved to see a whole documentary on the groundskeeper who is still with Shea Stadium at the time of this concert, who was the guy who drove the Beatles onto the field when they played Shea at that monster show at the height of Beatlemania, who reconnected with McCartney when he arrived for this massive show.

     More than anything else, though, I wanted to see more of the SHOW.  The documentary shows snippets of performances, and some of the Tony Bennett and McCartney clips are longer – maybe 30 seconds at times.  But John Mayer and Roger Daltrey and Steven Tyler are barely there at all.  And the special features are just a couple of short deleted scenes from the doc.  None of the full performances are included – although you can get them here.

     I love concert documentaries, and The Last Play At Shea is okay, and worth viewing if you have a passing interest in Joel, baseball, or New York City.  But it doesn’t compare to the great ones like The Last Waltz.  (Another film that celebrated the end of an era – in this case the career of legendary act The Band.)  What Scorcese did in that film was focus on one thing – The Band.  And while he too included both interview footage and concert footage, he gave both enough time to resonate.  And he included full performances. 

     When I see Bob Dylan take the stage in The Last Waltz, I want to see Bob Dylan play his full set.  I don’t want to see nine seconds before being taken away to another subject.  And that’s what The Last Play At Shea does.  It gives me nine seconds at a time, each on a fascinating topic that just whets my appetite for more.  It’s good, but frustrating.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Drama, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams, Jack McGee, Mickey O’Keefe, Melissa McMeekin, Bianca Hunter, Erica McDermott, Jill Quigg, Dendrie Allyn Taylor, Kate O’Brien, Jenna Lamia, Frank Renzulli
Cameos:  Sugar Ray Leonard, Richard Eklund, Tommy Eklund, Sean Eklund, George Michael Ward, Richard Eklund Jr, Michael Buffer, George Foreman
Director:  David O. Russell
Run time:  115 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     I really, really like The Fighter.  I will watch it several more times, I’m sure.  (Partly because my wife LOVES it, and I know from past experience that means several viewings.  I’m just thanking my lucky stars it will no longer be Sex and the City 2.  The Fighter is not only a massive upgrade, it reduces the chance of an alarming rampage through Kanata on a weekday afternoon.)

     This is the true story of “Irish” Micky Ward, a boxer out of Lowell, Massachusetts, and his remarkable, frustrating, creepy family.  His older brother Dicky Eklund was the original “pride of Lowell” – his claim to fame was that as a boxer, he once went the distance with Sugar Ray Leonard, and even knocked Sugar Ray down at one point (although he may have slipped – the movie never really makes the case one way or another).

     Chrisitan Bale is magnificent as Dicky, the former hometown hero who has become a joke as he is ravaged by crack addiction.  Bale’s Dicky is charming and magnetic, and has been able to skate by on personality alone for a long time.  His charm allows his mother (the terrific Melissa Leo) to turn a blind eye to his worsening addiction, and his brother Micky (Mark Wahlberg) looks the other way as Dicky is constantly late for training or not showing up for a fight.

     The rest of Ward’s family is lively and fascinating, if a little despicable.  His sisters are loud and angry and ugly and mean – and there are a LOT of sisters (and half-sisters, and other relations).  The only person who seems to be a reasonable, level-headed human being is Micky’s father, who realizes that the family is killing him.  His mom and brother are so wrapped up in Micky and invested in him, that they would rather see him die in the ring with them in his corner than to achieve success without them.

     The only problem I have with the film is Micky himself.  With all these colourful yet sad people around him, (including his girlfriend, the great Amy Adams), Micky seems to have no personality of his own.  He stays inexplicably loyal to his family, desipte the obvious fact that they are dragging him down with their selfish behaviour.  WHY is he so loyal?  Well it seems that…that’s…just the way things are.

     Micky has a little daughter with an ex.  This little girl pops up a couple of times during the movie, but I still know nothing about that situation.  His ex seems to be a bitter, angry, vindictive woman who doesn’t want Micky to see the little girl, ever.  Her new man (husband, boyfriend, I’m not sure) is nice to Micky and halfheartedly and ashamedly disagrees with his wife over her treatment of him.  But again, I’m not sure why.  Is it because Micky is a local hero, and her new man admires him?  Or does he see how illogical her vindictiveness really is?  And why is she so angry?  Did Micky actually do something to deserve this, or is she just a lunatic?  If you’re not going to answer those questions, don’t put it in the movie!

     Wahlberg does a good job, conveying Micky’s tortured emotions as he must placate his family, his girlfriends, his trainers and the boxing world.  But in the end, he never makes a single difficult decision.  He tries, half-heartedly, then backs down.  Every ultimatum given to him, from his girl, his family or his trainers, is never followed through to the end.  And his story is oddly uninspiring, since he seems to just muddle through the tough choices, never actually makes one, and lucks into his title shot at the end.

     For me, the movie was Dicky’s story.  And that is a great one.  The hometown hero, destroyed by drugs.  The city of Lowell comes alive (I watched this in the theatre with two friends who recently moved back here from the Lowell area, and it really hit home for them).  Dicky brings it to life.  And he brings the town down with him.  And maybe, through his brother, Dicky can bring some of that magic back. 

     The movie sort of plays out just like the HBO documentary that is being filmed throughout.  Dicky thinks the film makers are filming his comeback, when in fact they are filming a documentary about crack addiction.  Everyone else knows what the film is about (except maybe his mother, who is wilfully ignorant about her son’s obvious downward spiral).  And I thought I was going to be watching a movie about Micky Ward’s unlikely resurrection.  When in fact I was watching a movie about his brother’s (sort-of) redemption.

     The Fighter comes out March 15th from Alliance Films.  Yes, it has terrific performances, two of which won Oscars this year (Melissa Leo and Christian Bale in their supporting roles).  But it’s a must-see for the terrific story, the direction and the incredible true story as much as it is for the acting. 

Year:  2010
Genre:  Sports, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Featuring:  Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers, Robbie Lawler, Babalu Sobral, Fedor Emelianenko, Fabricio Werdum, Cris Cyborg, Jan Finney
Run time:  5 hours, 33 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Midway through the second disc of the Strikeforce MMA set (out October 12th from Paramount Home Entertainment), Showtime TV takes a break midway through a fight to interview one of the female superstars of Strikeforce.  Cris Cyborg is the middleweight womens’ champion.  Her husband, Evangelista Cyborg, is going to be fighting in an upcoming bout on this same card.  A few things bothered me about this.  First of all, this is a DVD.  You can cut out all the excessive stuff – interviews and back stories and pre-fight analysis, and get right to the actual fight.  It would be very easy to do. 

     Second, her name (and her husband’s name) is Cyborg.  They have clearly changed it from something else, because nobody, ever, has been actually named Cyborg.  Furthermore – what this means is that the husband, Evangelista Cyborg, decided that rather than go by his real name, he was going to nickname himself after the T-1000 in Terminator 2.  Or maybe he’s channeling Winona Ryder in Alien Resurrection.  Either way, I hate nicknames like this in sports, because it makes everyone in the sport seem like a Hooters waitress or a stripper.  I can go to Hooters and get chicken wings from Diamond and beer from Vanilla while I watch Cyborg take on Wolverine in the cage.  Guh.  The most irritating thing of all?  Cris Cyborg took her husband’s name.  Not his real name, his nickname.  They are now the Cyborg family.

     Susannah Collins is the sideline reporter for Strikeforce MMA, a hot chick who is there simply to provide some hot chickery, and while she is pretty good at her job, this was one of the worst interviews I have ever seen.  The fact is, Cris Cyborg barely speaks English.  At all.  She knows only one phrase – “training hard”.  So while Collins asks her about her husband’s upcoming match, she just says “training hard”.  Does your husband come to you for training advice?  “Yes, training hard”.  What do you think of his chances?  “No, training hard.”  You have a fight coming up against a really tough opponent named…something or other…as she rises through the ranks of Strikeforce, how do you rate her as a fighter going into your match?  “Oh, very much training hard.”  The interview goes on.  And on.  And ON!  Just pull the plug here!  Or, don’t included it on the DVD – it makes for some very boring viewing!

     But that’s the way of the Strikeforce MMA DVD.  It’s just three events, exactly as broadcast on Showtime.  One event in San Jose, one in St. Louis, and one in Los Angeles.  The title fights are between Alistair Overeem and Brett Rogers, then Robbie Lawler and Babalu Sobral, then Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum.  I assume those names are known to fight fanatics, but I had heard of only two – Emelianenko and Lawler.  Even then, I was only vaguely interested in their fights.  I don’t mind watching great fights, but that’s all I want – show me the highlights.  Show me the best fights.  I really, really don’t care about the undercards to the title bouts, and I care even less about interviews with random people or shots of Herschel Walker in the crowd.

     This, I feel, is the beauty of sports on DVD.  I have a ton of boxing DVDs, because then I can sit down and watch the classic fights, over and over, without commercial interruptions or delays between rounds.  I know how Ali-Frazier II is going to end, but I will watch the entire thing anyway.  I’ve seen the Thrilla in Manilla maybe forty times.  But I wouldn’t be putting it on if I had to skip over the interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor at ringside between the third and fourth round.  So for fanatics of mixed martial arts, who simply have to have the Lawler-Sobral fight on DVD, I can see them rushing out to get this.  But for the rest of us, with only a passing interest in MMA, there is just too much filler, and not enough great fights, to keep my interest.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Director:  Ken Burns, Lynne Novick
Run time:  4 hours
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Some documentaries transcend their genre, like Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Capitalism: A Love Story.  And some documentaries transcend thir medium itself.  Ken Burns has made two of them – his Civil War and Baseball are both bigger than movies, bigger than television.  And their box sets are bigger than my dining room table.  Baseball was an 18 1/2 hour documentary series that I purchased many years ago.  It has its own shelf in my living room.

     Actually – I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here.  About ten years ago or so, I discovered that if I worked at a local CD store, I could get discounts on CDs and DVDs, and could special order anything I could find.  I took the job there for one reason – Ken Burns’ Baseball.  At the time, the box set cost a heck of a lot of money, and if I worked at this store, I could save almost $100 with the discount.  And I did.  And I saved.  And the first thing I bought was the PBS Ken Burns Baseball box.

     I love Civil War, and I love Burns’ Jazz series, but for me the ultimate achievement is Baseball.  At almost 19 hours, it’s impossible to imagine a more complete documentary, examining every facet of America’s National Pastime.  But what makes the documentary remarkable, a staggering achievment, is that it remains fascinating and brilliant and thoroughly entertaining through every minute of the 19 hours!  Imagine anything else that comprehensive that can be that interesting through such a long run time.  Betcha can’t.

     Now, almost 20 years later, Burns adds a four hour, two-part bonus to his magnum opus.  The Tenth Inning, on DVD and Blu-Ray October 5th, is split into two parts – 1990-2000, which details the achievements of international superstars like Seattle’s Ichiro, the ongoing greatness of Ken Griffey Jr., the lockout, and of course the dramatic 1998 home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  Which, of course, leads to a comprehensive and fascinating look at the steroid era.  Because everything Burns does is comprehensive and fascinating.

     The second part, 2000-2010, is even more interesting.  The aftermath of the historic home run chase and the investigations into steroids.  The mercurial and controversial career of Barry Bonds.  And the relationship that baseball has with world events, such as 9/11.  And of course, my personal favourite moment – the incredible 2004 comeback from 0-3 by my Boston Red Sox as they took out the Yankees and won their first World Series since 1918.

     The interview subjects are fascinating, and a long list of sportswriters and players are involved.  One of them is Keith Olbermann, who I included in the preview clip up at the top of this review.  Why, you may ask, was that the clip I included?  Well, it was the only one I could find.  See, Major League Baseball is very tight with their baseball clips.  You can find them only on mlb.com, or on DVDs.  Like The Tenth Inning.  And so you should.  In Blu-Ray if you have it, because no sport looks as awe-inspiring in high definition as baseball.

     A must for fans of the game, and a no-question must-have for those of us who already own the original box set, The Tenth Inning is so remarkable that being a baseball fan isn’t necessary, at all, to enjoy it.  I have been talking about this series for a week now, and I have met many people who say they were never baseball fans, but got totally sucked in by this documentary when it was on television.  It’s the gold standard for box sets, documentaries, television and movies in general.  And The 10th Inning is a perfect addition to the perfect series.  So…get it, is what I’m saying.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Avery Klein-Cloud
Director:  Nicole Opper
Run time:  78 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Off And Running could be a movie about many different subjects.  It could be about same-sex couples, or interracial adoption, or same-sex parents, or a black girl growing up in a white environment, or the life of a high school track star, or adoption dilemmas, or any number of those things.  In the end, it’s about all of those things (a little bit) but more about adoption than anything else.  I must say though, a documentary about a black distance runner (Avery Klein-Cloud) adopted by two white Jewish lesbians has a lot going for it before it even begins.  That’s a lot to deal with.

     This movie really hit home for me because I too am adopted.  And so is my sister.  The quest to find my birth parents and get answers about my origin has never really interested me.  In fact, the only time I have ever thought about it is when my sister brings it up.  I’ll probably never go on that search, because I truly don’t care.  My parents are my parents, my life is what I make it.  My sister, on the other hand, always had a deep need to find out.  She I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was obsessed about it, but she certainly cared an awful lot more than I did, and made a considerable effort to track down her birth family.

     And in this way, I see a lot of my family in Avery’s family.  Her older brother Rafi, a mixed-race child who was born a drug addict and adopted from a rehab centre as a baby, is very close to Avery.  They talk a lot about it, but he doesn’t really see the need to discover his biological origins.  For Rafi, his parents are his parents – he has two moms and a sister and a little Korean brother and that’s his family.  He thinks he will create his own life, regardless of what happened before he was adopted.  For Avery, it isn’t that simple.

     One of her biggest questions involves her African-American heritage.  When she hangs out with her black friends, she doesn’t really fit in with “black culture” (if such a thing can be defined) because she has never known it.  But she also doesn’t feel at home with the white Jewish culture in which she has been raised.  Because of her skin colour, she of course sticks out like a sore thumb in the Jewish schools she has attended.  So Avery has a real crisis of identity, one that her two moms and even her brother have some trouble understanding.

     After making contact with her birth mother, and then losing that contact, Avery begins to have real troubles.  She becomes somewhat self-destructive, dropping out of school, slipping in her performance on the track, and basically running away from the only home she’s ever known.  This all comes to a conclusion that could not have been scripted in a Hollywood movie because it would have seemed just too coincidentally perfect and no audience would buy it.

     Off And Running momentarily touches on the lesbian aspect of the story – Avery’s moms go out of state to finally get married, but Avery is not there.  It touches a little on the track-star aspect of Avery’s persona, as she competes in a few meets and gets ready to choose a university scholarship.  But really it’s the story of a black girl growing up in a white Jewish family searching desperately for her place in the world.  And it’s a positive, amazing, loving and thoughtful movie that is honest almost to a fault, and compelling throughout.  Avery and her family are beautiful and likeable and charmingly together.  A fantastic documentary, Off And Running is available right now through First Run Features.

     The Hert Of The Peleton is a three-disc box set, out August 17th from First Run Features, that includes three bike racing documentaries.  Yell For Cadel, which follows Australian superstar Cadel Evans as he trains for, and competes in, the Tour De France.  Hell On Wheels, which follows several different riders and teams as they compete in the Tour.  And Blood Sweat And Gears, the story of an American “clean” cycling team.  It’s probably a must-have box set for cycling fanatics.  But it’s not a must-have for documentary fans like me.

  Yell For Cadel (****4/10)

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Cadel Evans
Directors:  Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Steve Decraene
Run time:  52 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Watching Yell For Cadel is kind of like reading someone’s diary.  Sometimes there’s an interesting passage that you might want to read again.  But mostly it’s something you skim, because people write stuff in their diaries with no context, and so it’s often difficult to understand why you would care about your sister’s hair appointment.  Or whoever’s diary you stole.

     What I mean by this is that very often the documentary leaps to the next scene without providing any context, and suddenly Cadel Evans is holding a puppy, and you don’t know where the puppy came from or why it’s on the screen, and you want to skim ahead to see more cycling.  The movie is a backstage look at the Tour De France from the point of view of Cadel Evans, an Australian cyclist who was one of the favourites going into the Tour De France this year.

     The movie follows him from stage to stage as he competes in the race.  They have gone to great lengths on the DVD case and throughout the movie to make the end of the Tour a surprise.  Does he win?  Doesn’t he?  I won’t divulge the final result here, because they have obviously tried very hard to maintain the drama in the documentary.  But maybe you follow cycling and already know.  Or maybe you have google and want to find out easily.  Or maybe you don’t care.  I’ll leave it up to you.

     I had a hard time with Yell For Cadel because I didn’t really feel his passion or his pain or any of those things that you get at the Tour De France.  I saw him being charming, which was nice, and I saw him biking (a little bit) which was okay.  And I saw his trainers and crew joking around and having a good time, although I was often lost without the context.  But there is little flow in the film, and it’s edited poorly.

     As it turns out, however, it’s the poor editing and sloppy attention to detail that give this movie its best moments.  Mostly, it’s the subtitles.  Although Evans himself speaks English, of course, being Australian, many of the people around him speak other languages, and they need subtitles.  So when Evans is holding the puppy, he’s talking a different language to the people around him.  And apparently, in that language (I believe Belgian), he said “oh no, the dog pied on me!”

     There are countless moments like this – bad grammar and words substituted for similar ones that would have made far more sense.  It made me laugh though, because it made me wonder.  Is Evans’ Belgian that bad that he actually did say “pied” in Belgian?  It would be decidedly clever if they translated the phrase that way.  Or did the people who wrote the subtitles just not pay any attention?  Or was their English this bad?

     I don’t know.  Either way, it made the movie worth watching.  I couldn’t get into the story of Cadel Evans, because I felt that unless I was one of his road crew, and I was watching the movie to reminisce about our time at the Tour De France, there was little there for me.  But I did look forward to the next set of subtitles.  Those, and the scene-splitting text that appears on the screen to set up each following stage are priceless also.

  Blood, Sweat And Gears (******6/10)

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  David Millar, Mike Friedman, Magnus Backstedt, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, Matt White, Doug Ellis, Lara Pate, Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn, Allen Lim
Director:  Nick Davis
Run time:  93 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features
DVD extras:  Short film: Millar’s Tale, Short film: Behind the Scenes at the Tour, Photo gallery, Film notes, Director biography

     When I think of cycling, I think of two things.  Lance Armstrong and steroids.  Not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily seperately.  So it’s nice to see a cycling documentary that makes little mention of Armstrong.  I believe the first time I heard his name was about an hour into the film, and even then only in passing.  And Blood Sweat & Gears is about an American cycling team, one that is attempting to compete in the Tour De France without the assistance of performance-enhancing drugs.  You would think Mr. Armstrong would be top of mind for them all the time.  But he apparently isn’t, or he’s been edited out of the movie very effectively.

     But the drugs factor prominently in the movie.  It opens with the forming of the team, where cyclists have come together to prove that cyclists can be successful without drugs, something akin to a “natural” bodybuilder competing against the others.  A longshot, at best.  But these guys believe in their mission, and they think they have a shot to bring some legitimacy back to their very, very tainted sport.  Many of the cyclists on the team are no-names, others are disgraced former drug users, and some are at the tail end of successful careers.  But they all believe in the mission, and they come together as a tight unit.

     Then all that appears to be forgotten.  The second half of the movie has almost no mention of steriods whatsoever.  Or the lack thereof.  Instead, it’s just a story about a team trying to make it to the Tour De France (and the method for making it to the Tour is labyrinthine and strange).  And once they do make it to the tour (I hope that isn’t too much of a spoiler), the film focuses on the team as they meet the brutal 21-day challenge that is that famous race.  A dramatic finish to the race and some interesting twists and turns along the way make for a compelling finale.

     I really enjoyed watching a team prepare for this arduous event.  I learned a ton about cycling, the non-tour events, and the bizarre process by which teams get invited to the Tour De France.  I thought that was very exciting and really cool.  And I really thought the idea of a totally clean cycling team was an interesting and inspirational story.  But the two stories never seem to co-exist.  I don’t know why that bothered me so much.  But Blood Sweat And Gears felt to me like two different movies.  Both were good, but they just didn’t fit together to make a greater whole.  It’s still fascinating, but it’s choppy and uneven.

  Hell on Wheels (*****5/10)

Year:  2004
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  Germany
Language:  English
Starring:  Lance Armstrong, Eric Zabel, Jan Ullrich, Rolf Aldag, Andreas Kloden
Directors:  Pepe Danquart, Werner Schweizer
Run time:  123 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     The Tour De France is tough.  Really tough.  It’s mentally draining as much as it is physically draining.  It’s one of the ultimate tests of endurance a human being can attempt.  No other race in the world is as demanding.  Boy, is it ever hard to do.  Few people who have not competed could possibly comprehend the difficulty that is involved with competing in the Tour De France.  No one could ever imagine….OK I GET IT!  The Tour De France is very, very difficult.  I’m there.  I follow.  Now tell me something else.

     Hell on Wheels told me little else.  Except that the Tour De France is awfully tough.  But then, I already knew that.  So what I saw was a bunch of guys, each speaking a different language, suffering their way through the famous race.  They are sore, and exhausted, and can barely walk after each stage.  They discuss their pains, their plans for the next day, and once I have read the subtitles we move on to another guy from another country who says pretty much the same thing.  It’s tough.

     When I wasn’t watching big-time cyclists discuss their pains and their mental state and their hopes for the future, I was watching an elderly French guy wax poetic about the Tour.  Which was kind of neat.  This guy is really excited to talk about the greatness of competing in the Tour De France.  He has some interesting perspectives on what makes it truly special (he feels it’s the ultimate sport for actually involving spectators – Lance Armstrong comes to you when you’re watching.  Miguel Indurain comes to you.  He also makes the dubious statement that the Tour De France is bigger than the Olympics and the World Cup of Soccer combined.  That’s…debatable.  At best.  But at least he’s enthusiastic!)

     I like a lot of elements of Hell On Wheels.  I like the enthusiasm, and the determination of the riders, and the behind-the-scenes stuff that sheds a little more light on this race.  But, only a little.  They could have achieved the same results by having the old man recite a poem, then showing pain and suffering on the faces of the riders for a little while.  Then roll credits.  Done.  And that wouldn’t have taken two full hours.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Cadel Evans
Directors:  Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Steve Decraene
Run time:  52 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Watching Yell For Cadel, out March 23rd from First Run Features, is kind of like reading someone’s diary.  Sometimes there’s an interesting passage that you might want to read again.  But mostly it’s something you skim, because people write stuff in their diaries with no context, and so it’s often difficult to understand why you would care about your sister’s hair appointment.  Or whoever’s diary you stole.

     What I mean by this is that very often the documentary leaps to the next scene without providing any context, and suddenly Cadel Evans is holding a puppy, and you don’t know where the puppy came from or why it’s on the screen, and you want to skim ahead to see more cycling.  The movie is a backstage look at the Tour De France from the point of view of Cadel Evans, an Australian cyclist who was one of the favourites going into the Tour De France this year.

     The movie follows him from stage to stage as he competes in the race.  They have gone to great lengths on the DVD case and throughout the movie to make the end of the Tour a surprise.  Does he win?  Doesn’t he?  I won’t divulge the final result here, because they have obviously tried very hard to maintain the drama in the documentary.  But maybe you follow cycling and already know.  Or maybe you have google and want to find out easily.  Or maybe you don’t care.  I’ll leave it up to you.

     I had a hard time with Yell For Cadel because I didn’t really feel his passion or his pain or any of those things that you get at the Tour De France.  I saw him being charming, which was nice, and I saw him biking (a little bit) which was okay.  And I saw his trainers and crew joking around and having a good time, although I was often lost without the context.  But there is little flow in the film, and it’s edited poorly.

     As it turns out, however, it’s the poor editing and sloppy attention to detail that give this movie its best moments.  Mostly, it’s the subtitles.  Although Evans himself speaks English, of course, being Australian, many of the people around him speak other languages, and they need subtitles.  So when Evans is holding the puppy, he’s talking a different language to the people around him.  And apparently, in that language (I believe Belgian), he said “oh no, the dog pied on me!”

     There are countless moments like this – bad grammar and words substituted for similar ones that would have made far more sense.  It made me laugh though, because it made me wonder.  Is Evans’ Belgian that bad that he actually did say “pied” in Belgian?  It would be decidedly clever if they translated the phrase that way.  Or did the people who wrote the subtitles just not pay any attention?  Or was their English this bad?

     I don’t know.  Either way, it made the movie worth watching.  I couldn’t get into the story of Cadel Evans, because I felt that unless I was one of his road crew, and I was watching the movie to reminisce about our time at the Tour De France, there was little there for me.  But I did look forward to the next set of subtitles.  Those, and the scene-splitting text that appears on the screen to set up each following stage are priceless also.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  David Millar, Mike Friedman, Magnus Backstedt, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, Matt White, Doug Ellis, Lara Pate, Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn, Allen Lim
Director:  Nick Davis
Run time:  93 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features
DVD extras:  Short film: Millar’s Tale, Short film: Behind the Scenes at the Tour, Photo gallery, Film notes, Director biography

     When I think of cycling, I think of two things.  Lance Armstrong and steroids.  Not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily seperately.  So it’s nice to see a cycling documentary that makes little mention of Armstrong.  I believe the first time I heard his name was about an hour into the film, and even then only in passing.  And Blood Sweat & Gears is about an American cycling team, one that is attempting to compete in the Tour De France without the assistance of performance-enhancing drugs.  You would think Mr. Armstrong would be top of mind for them all the time.  But he apparently isn’t, or he’s been edited out of the movie very effectively.

     But the drugs factor prominently in the movie, out October 20th from First Run Features.  It opens with the forming of the team, where cyclists have come together to prove that cyclists can be successful without drugs, something akin to a “natural” bodybuilder competing against the others.  A longshot, at best.  But these guys believe in their mission, and they think they have a shot to bring some legitimacy back to their very, very tainted sport.  Many of the cyclists on the team are no-names, others are disgraced former drug users, and some are at the tail end of successful careers.  But they all believe in the mission, and they come together as a tight unit.

     Then all that appears to be forgotten.  The second half of the movie has almost no mention of steriods whatsoever.  Or the lack thereof.  Instead, it’s just a story about a team trying to make it to the Tour De France (and the method for making it to the Tour is labyrinthine and strange).  And once they do make it to the tour (I hope that isn’t too much of a spoiler), the film focuses on the team as they meet the brutal 21-day challenge that is that famous race.  A dramatic finish to the race and some interesting twists and turns along the way make for a compelling finale.

     I really enjoyed watching a team prepare for this arduous event.  I learned a ton about cycling, the non-tour events, and the bizarre process by which teams get invited to the Tour De France.  I thought that was very exciting and really cool.  And I really thought the idea of a totally clean cycling team was an interesting and inspirational story.  But the two stories never seem to co-exist.  I don’t know why that bothered me so much.  But Blood Sweat And Gears felt to me like two different movies.  Both were good, but they just didn’t fit together to make a greater whole.  It’s still fascinating, but it’s choppy and uneven.

“A boy comes to me with a spark of interest, I feed that spark and in becomes a flame, I feed the flame and it becomes a fire, I fed the fire and it becomes a roaring blaze.” – Cus D’Amato, Mike Tyson’s trainer

“I knew the art of skulduggery, beat these guys psychologically before I ever got in the ring with them.” – Mike Tyson

Year:  2009
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Mike Tyson
Director:  James Toback
Run time:  90 minutes

     There is a special feature on the Tyson DVD where director James Toback talks about his decision to film Mike Tyson, in his own words and his own voice, describing his own life.  He says that there is something hypnotic about Tyson’s voice, and he’s right.  First of all, that voice is so incongruous with the rest of Tyson’s physique and persona.  Secondly, Tyson’s command of English is almost fascinating.  OK, I’ll go a step further.  It is fascinating.  Tyson talks in such a strange way, using big words in bizarre fashion.  He uses the term “skullduggery” several times, as a verb and a noun and in all kinds of other ways.

     And therein lies the gripping nature of Tyson’s speech.  He uses big words a lot.  Sometimes correctly, most often almost correctly, and quite often he changes their entire meaning to shoehorn them into a phrase.  It might be because he is desperate to appear smart, but I have spoken to many people desperate to appear smart and they don’t use language in this way.  With Tyson, I think that it’s because there are many different voices at war in his head, and one of those voices is that of an eloquent, well-spoken man.  The others are of an uneducated, foolish and off-balance brawler.  Sometimes he is both within a single sentence, and it’s utterly mezmerizing.

     The greatest thing about Tyson is that it’s a movie that allows the viewer to make up their mind, one way or another, about Mike Tyson, whether you love him or hate him or even if you just don’t care.  You will still get something out of this movie.  And I will wager that, love him or hate him or otherwise, you will not come out of this movie with the same opinion you had when it began.  When this movie started, I thought Mike Tyson represented everything that was wrong with boxing.  My opinion changed, in a big way.  Now I think that boxing represents everything that is wrong with Mike Tyson.

     Watching Tyson talk is not only fascinating because of his language, but because of his perception of himself.  I understand that after watching the movie, Tyson himself was shaken.  He said “I would be afraid of that guy”, meaning himself.  And rightly so.  Fear plays a huge part in the downfall of Mike Tyson.  And, in fact, in his meteoric rise to fame and the heavyweight championship.  This man was, of course, a god in the boxing world at one time.  The movie shows many of his most brutal knockouts, none of which have lost any of their power or impact (pardon the pun).  Tyson in his prime remains as scary a boxer today as he was in the late 80s. 

     When he describes his fighting style, he says that rather than aiming for his opponent’s head, he was always aiming for the back of their heads.  Trying to put his fist right through their skulls.  He says that shattering someone’s eye socket or breaking their jaw is not just something a guy with power can do, it requires precision and skill, and that aiming for the back of the head is his technique, not just viciousness.  He uses the word “ferocious” an awful lot, and watching him fight in his prime, you understand that ferocity.  When he says that after his time in prison, the “ferociousness” was gone, you can see that too.  But even now, hearing him describe this devastating style as merely a boxing “technique” is a little frightening.

     There are two Tysons in this movie.  The one who aspires, at all times, to be a better man, a good person, and to live the best life he can.  And then there’s the other Tyson.  The one who could never control himself.  The one who bit off Evander Holyfield’s ear.  The one who savagely beat Don King on the sidewalk.  The one who had incidents of road rage, who became paranoid and thought the entire world was out to get him.  His self-reflection is gutsy, and he certainly tries as best he can to be introspective, but at times he really seems to be lying to himself.  He is being entirely truthful to the camera, he is saying everything as he sees it, but he may not be seeing himself the way a normal person would.

     There are several scenes in Tyson where director James Toback, for effect, layers several screens with Tyson saying a few things at once.  These scenes are meant to create the impression that there are warring voices in Tyson’s head, and they are all saying something slightly different.  It’s an effective technique, but it creates an impression that isn’t entirely accurate, I think.  Tyson doesn’t have “voices in his head” like a schizophrenic person or a serial killer.  He doesn’t literally hear people talking to him inside his own skull.  Rather, he has a persona that he is constantly trying to suppress, the one who blacks out and attacks viciously, whether he wants to do so or not.

     But the description of “voices in his head” is the closest approximation to his mindset as is possible.  He has conflicting emotions, he responds in strange ways to odd situations, and he can’t just be the good person he so desperately wants to be.  Some of the strangest scenes in the film are the ones where he fights back tears.  He is desperately holding it in, trying not to cry, but it comes at the weirdest moments.  He doesn’t cry when he describes how devastated he was following the death of his trainer and mentor, Cus D’Amato.  But when he talks about winning every championship at every level, he breaks up almost entirely.

     I am no psychiatrist.  I’m sure that someone with a degree would have an absolute field day with this movie, and would study it for hours upon hours.  I was content with the hour and a half running time, I found it mezmerizing, but I would not want to spend much more time in the head of Mike Tyson.  It’s scary in there.

“Duuuude.” 

Year:  2009
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Andy Bell, Travis Pastrana, Jolene Van Vugt, Erik Roner, Jim DeChamp, Streetbike Tommy
Guest starring:  Johnny Knoxville, Mat Hoffman
Creators:  Gregg Godfrey, Jeff Tremaine, Jeremy Rawle
Run time:  244 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     While there are certain moments in Nitro Circus that are reminscent of Jackass (leaping off a tall cliff and bellyflopping in the water), most of the show is different.  It’s hard not to make the comparison, because both shows are about a bunch of crazy people doing crazy and dangerous things, but I find Nitro Circus to be far more entertaining.  Because instead of amateur…well…jackasses, these are professional bike riders and stunt people attempting ever-more ridiculous things.  They have the skill to pull it off, but no one really knows if they can.  There is a ton of cool stuff that I would want to do at home.  Even though the show makes it clear that non-professionals should not try this at home.

     The coolest parts of the show are the ones where the guys take an ordingary everyday item, like a tricycle, and try to do a backflip with it off a ramp.  Or where they set up a loop-the-loop on a slip-n-slide.  It’s simple stuff, and with the equipment these guys have, seems easy to set up.  But only people who have an actual chance to land a backflip on a tricycle are interesting when they make the attempt.  I am pretty sick of watching people wipe out attempting stupid stunts.  Any time I want to see that, I can turn to youtube, or watch America’s Funniest Home Videos, or go to the park at the end of my street where the amateur skateboarders fall down.

     The interest I have in Nitro Circus is that these guys attempt stunts that seem utterly ridiculous, but they have a chance at actually landing their tricks and being successful.  So when they miss, and wipe out, it’s a more interesting wipeout than just some fat guy with no fear wiping out.  And when they land the tricks, like a super-speed tricycle backflip, I’m as excited as they are.  I, too would want to attempt to jump a gorge on a Big Wheel.  But then, I am not a super-skilled stunt guy like say, Travis Pastrana.  I am just an untalented fat guy with no fear.  And I wouldn’t even watch myself make the attempt.  Nitro Circus, Season One comes to DVD September 8th from Paramount Home Entertainment.

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      There are no subtitles to help us English folk when watching Le 7e Round on DVD, out May 26th from Alliance Films.  This is a boxing-themed miniseries from Quebec that ran on television in 2006.  The box set is three DVDs and 11 episodes with no subtitles, no dubbing, and no special features.  I can certainly recommend it to people who speak French, but for the rest of Canada it’s useless.  Too bad, because this is a pretty good sport series.  The boxing scenes are not fantastic.  Like, they’re not Raging Bull.  However, at the very least they are compelling and look realistic.  Like, they’re not Rocky.  And that’s a good thing.

     Strong performances by Julie LeBreton, Sebastien Delorme, Denis Bernard and others keep the story interesting between the boxing matches, and at times they manage to make the show riveting.  What’s really good about the series is that it follows many different camps – boxers, trainers, families, women, dreams, aspirations and heartbreak.  The very first episode involves the death of a boxer as a result of injuries sustained in the ring, and the profound effect this has on everyone – his family, his coaches, and of course his opponent.

     Le 7e Round is a little uneven, but that’s OK.  At its worst, it’s melodramatic and it drags.  At its best, it’s pulse-pounding boxing matches and riveting life stories.  And it’s more often good than it is slow.  A well-acted, well-filmed sports miniseries, Le 7e Round is a great series for boxing fans.  And I love the fact that it boils down to a clash in the ring between the rivals who have held up the whole series – depending on the viewer, you could be cheering for either guy to win, because there is no clear good guy and bad guy.  That’s great.  It’s just too bad there are no subtitles or dubbing for the English audience.  I think they would like it too.

“Hats…for bats.  Keep bats warm.”

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      What makes Major League a success is that it isn’t a slapstick, stupid comedy that happens to be about baseball.  Although on the surface it appears that way.  Instead it’s a Slap Shot style movie – in fact, it’s almost an exact rip-off.  It’s a baseball movie that happens to be a comedy.  A ton of memorable characters (played by Wesley Snipes, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Rene Russo) team up on a real-life ball club (the Cleveland Indians) to do battle against the evil former Vegas showgirl who runs the team.  How will they defeat her nefarious scheme?  Well, by winning the pennant, of course.

     The Blu-Ray, out May 12th from Paramount Home Entertainment, is billed as the “Wild Thing Edition” of Major League.  Why it’s called that is anybody’s guess.  There is an alternate ending, a “Major League look at Major League“, and a few other special features, none of which have to do specifically with Charlie Sheen’s character, Rickie “Wild Thing” Vaughn.  Strange.  But then, his character is actually one of the worst characters in the movie.  Many references are made to his criminal past, and to his temper and wild streak.  But we never really see any of that in the movie.  Instead, he’s just a kid who happened to come out of prison into a Major League tryout, and he’s just really, really hoping he makes the team!

     Wesley Snipes, on the other hand, plays a terrific and memorable character.  Willie Mays Hayes is one of the best characters ever in a baseball movie.  He’s one of those guys who will never, ever be defeated in life.  He is the fastest guy on the field, but also the only one who wasn’t actually invited to the tryout.  But he shows up anyway, and he has absolute confidence in his abilities to the point where he can’t conceive of NOT making the team.  He is an inspirational character, in a decidedly NOT inspirational movie.  And of course, he does make the team, and maintains an implausibly optimistic attitude throughout the entire season.

     Major League IS good.  But make no mistake – it is the actors and characters that make it good, not the director or the writers.  Deep down, Major League is powerfully generic.  Dig a little deeper, and it might just be terrible.  But Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert and Rene Russo lift it above its subject matter.  Take the team owner.  A former Vegas showgirl who wants to move the team to Miami because it’s warmer and she hates Cleveland.  The only way to do this is to make sure the attendance at the park is terrible, and the only way to do THAT is to make sure the team really sucks.

     However, even with the cast of dreadful ballplayers she assembles, they manage to find team chemistry and do rather well, considering their talent level.  And they start to win.  She does everything she can to screw them over – replacing their team plane with a broken down piece of crap team bus, messing with the hot tub, and so forth.  But still, they keep winning just enough to foil her plans.  You would think, that at the 75-game mark of the season, there have already been enough fans to screw up her big idea, and that there is already enough attendance to kibosh her hoped-for move to Florida.  But at this point, we’re supposed to have forgotten this important plot point, and just root for the team, against her.  Now, she just hates the team and wants them to lose.  But WE hope they’ll win the pennant.  The whole idea behind her-against-them that kicked off the movie is long gone.  But still, somehow, the movie continues.

     In retrospect, the main thing wrong with Major League is that it isn’t Bull Durham.  It’s not a superior baseball movie, or a superior comedy, or an especially smart film.  It is no classic on that level, and that will always be the benchmark for a baseball movie.  Major League is also not Slap Shot, the benchmark for a sports movie, although it does borrow heavily from that film.  Instead, it’s a relic of the 80s, and a decent one, but nothing more.  It looks great in Blu-Ray, but if you already own it on DVD there’s no need to upgrade.  If you don’t already have the movie though, it’s certainly worth checking out.

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To hear the review   As far as instructional videos go, Phil Mickelson is likely the ultimate authority on the golf short game, and as such I can’t imagine any more authoritative DVD to teach someone the nuances and techniques that go into the world’s best short game.  However, I can’t comment on how it has affected my short game as yet, since I haven’t gone out and put the skills I learned into practice.

   That being said, there are certain tips from Phil that I know, for certain, I will not be able to use for some time.  You see, I am a terrible golfer.  I love it, I play it a lot, but I am, at best, a hacker.  On a trip to the golf course, I am pleased with a bogey, thrilled with a par, ecstatic with a birdie, and I have no idea what an eagle looks like.  I’m basically tying to stay  sober enough to drive the golf cart straight by the eleventh hole.

   So there was a lot of stuff on Mickelson’s DVD that was beyond me.  I have no idea how to cut a shot, and when I’m chipping around the green, that’s certainly the last thing I’m thinking about.  Really, I just want to avoid shanking it, and I’m hoping that when it comes down, it’s closer to the hole than it was when I started.  Same goes for putting.  So as far as the chip-shot advice and the inside-50-yards stuff goes, I just don’t yet have the capacity to refine my game to this extent.  I need some lessons first.

   However, the putting advice seemed to be extremely helpful.  Again, I will have to get out onto a golf course to put it into practice, but Mickelson’s advice for reading greens and for practicing putting was terrific.  I have never imagined that I could read a green before, but I never knew just how bad at it I really was.  Now, I think I will have a chance, next time I’m out on the course.  At least, before the eleventh hole.

   Phil Mickelson: Secrets of the Short Game is a two-disc set that goes through putting, chipping, bunker shots, uphill and downhill lies, and even some trick shots.  It comes with a handy reference booklet with the salient points condensed, I assume so I can carry it to the course in my back pocket.  It’s solid, but it’s more for the hardcore golfer than the duffer like me.  It comes out April 14th from Paramount Home Entertainment.