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Final Shot - The Hank Gathers Story
R0 - America - MPI Home Video Review written by and copyright: Pat Pilon (17th April 2007). |
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The Film
 The badly dated music plays over the opening credits and you can tell the kind of movie this is going to be. That's what I thought, though, because this movie actually surprised me. I didn't expect to be entertained so much but the characters and story are very nice. The movie is about a guy wanting to play basketball but its scope reaches beyond that. It's about following your dream, whatever the obstacles. The movie unfortunately has some silly moments that don't really help the movie much, and that could have easily been avoided. They unfortunately bring the movie down a notch but at least they're short and easily forgotten. The biggest moment of this sort comes when Hank (Victor Love) and Bo (Duane Davis) fight for the ball during a game. It's silly and even without that moment the movie and its characters would still make perfect logical sense. Luckily, the second half is better. The basketball scenes are good but the movie isn't about those. They only serve the plot, which is good to see. The movie is about Hank Gathers, not basketball. The scenes are well choreographed and because of the drama, the scenes mean something, which is really nice to see. Sometimes the editing plays a part in the excitement, but many times these people are really making the shots. A few very nice shots find their way into the movie. My favorite is a little throw-away shot of the young guys eating at a table. The camera does a nice little move that really surprised me. The rest of the movie is nothing special, with dated music and nice editing. The movie starts with the end of the story chronologically, which I think is a nice idea. For people who knew about the true events already knew what happened, and starting the movie this way shows no pretensions about what happens. It's a nice touch. (The movie does forget its structure, though, with the reporter trying to get her story being forgotten about halfway through.) It's not the best sports movie ever made, but it's definitely a good one. As far as TV movies go, this is pretty nice, and it surprised me.
Video
1.33:1 full frame. There are plenty of specks throughout the movie, which isn't the best. The colours are good, and the contrast is okay, but the level of detail isn’t perfect. This is a TV movie and it shows. There are no problems with compression artifact and edge enhancement is non-existent. The colours are accurate, though the print may seem a bit faded. The movie looks its age, but it's not a bad print.
Audio
The only track is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo, with no subtitles. The track is very nice, but most of the movie is talking. The dialogue is all clear and the track is adequate. The score comes out of your TV set without any problems, and the bouncing and squeaks are clear and unmuffled. The balance between the sound elements is very good and there should be no complaints about the aural part of the movie.
Extras
None!
Overall
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