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Program, The
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // October 8, 2002
List Price: $9.99 [Buy now and save at Dvdempire]
The Movie:
A merely average football picture, "The Program" is a comedy/drama mixture that takes from any number of films before it instead of being an interesting exploration of the college football experience. The film focuses on the ESU 1993 team - while full of talented players, all of them have some issues going on that will need to be solved before they can work together to head towards the bowl games. They're also being lead by Coach Winters (James Caan), whose job is on the line.
As for the players, there's Joe Kane (Craig Sheffer), a Heisman Trophy candidate who also has a alcohol problem; Mack (Duane Davis), who is trying to get into the pros so that he can buy his mother a house and others, including one player on steroids and another who's having difficulty in classes. While the film's approach occasionally gets things right in exploring the problems and pressures (one player tells another that the athletic department gets $3m if the team gets in a bowl game) that these players have to face, more often than not, the film's characters seem made up mostly of cliches.
However, some of the performances rise above the material. Halle Berry is excellent as the love interest of Omar Epps's rookie player, while Epps also offers a terrific performance as a young player wondering if all of the what's going on - accepting money, etc - is right. Also offering decent performances are Kristy Swanson, Sheffer and Caan, although it's surprising that Caan, despite top billing, really isn't given that much to do.
"The Program" offers some decent performances, but it's too bad that it seems content to be just another football drama. There's nothing in the way of surprises here and little insight into the game.
The DVD
VIDEO: "The Program" is presented by Buena Vista in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Given the studio's sometimes inconsistent treatment of catalog titles, it was a pleasant surprise to see "The Program" boasting such a crisp, strong presentation. Sharpness and detail are quite fine, as while the picture fell just short of presenting fine detail, the picture still appeared well-defined and crisp throughout, with no noticable softness.
The picture did suffer from a few issues, but these weren't terribly distracting. Minor edge enhancement was present in a handful of scenes, while the print did show a few specks and marks here and there. No pixelation or other artifacts were noticed, however. Colors generally appeared crisp and well-defined, but could appear slightly muddy in a couple of the darker scenes. A pretty fine transfer from the studio.
SOUND: The 1993 film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is only occasionally active, but otherwise remains a fairly basic effort. The surrounds kick in during some of the football scenes with sounds of the game in the rear speakers and with reinforcement of the music in other scenes, but otherwise, the surrounds are silent or subtle. Audio quality is respectable, as the score and sound effects are crisp, but not terribly dynamic and dialogue remains clear.
EXTRAS: Nothing.
Final Thoughts: I didn't find that much to like about "The Program", which ended up being a fairly average Football drama with a couple of good performances. Buena Vista's DVD edition provides good audio/video quality, but nothing in the way of supplements. Still, fans should consider picking this up, given the $9.99 price tag.
A merely average football picture, "The Program" is a comedy/drama mixture that takes from any number of films before it instead of being an interesting exploration of the college football experience. The film focuses on the ESU 1993 team - while full of talented players, all of them have some issues going on that will need to be solved before they can work together to head towards the bowl games. They're also being lead by Coach Winters (James Caan), whose job is on the line.
As for the players, there's Joe Kane (Craig Sheffer), a Heisman Trophy candidate who also has a alcohol problem; Mack (Duane Davis), who is trying to get into the pros so that he can buy his mother a house and others, including one player on steroids and another who's having difficulty in classes. While the film's approach occasionally gets things right in exploring the problems and pressures (one player tells another that the athletic department gets $3m if the team gets in a bowl game) that these players have to face, more often than not, the film's characters seem made up mostly of cliches.
However, some of the performances rise above the material. Halle Berry is excellent as the love interest of Omar Epps's rookie player, while Epps also offers a terrific performance as a young player wondering if all of the what's going on - accepting money, etc - is right. Also offering decent performances are Kristy Swanson, Sheffer and Caan, although it's surprising that Caan, despite top billing, really isn't given that much to do.
"The Program" offers some decent performances, but it's too bad that it seems content to be just another football drama. There's nothing in the way of surprises here and little insight into the game.
The DVD
VIDEO: "The Program" is presented by Buena Vista in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Given the studio's sometimes inconsistent treatment of catalog titles, it was a pleasant surprise to see "The Program" boasting such a crisp, strong presentation. Sharpness and detail are quite fine, as while the picture fell just short of presenting fine detail, the picture still appeared well-defined and crisp throughout, with no noticable softness.
The picture did suffer from a few issues, but these weren't terribly distracting. Minor edge enhancement was present in a handful of scenes, while the print did show a few specks and marks here and there. No pixelation or other artifacts were noticed, however. Colors generally appeared crisp and well-defined, but could appear slightly muddy in a couple of the darker scenes. A pretty fine transfer from the studio.
SOUND: The 1993 film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is only occasionally active, but otherwise remains a fairly basic effort. The surrounds kick in during some of the football scenes with sounds of the game in the rear speakers and with reinforcement of the music in other scenes, but otherwise, the surrounds are silent or subtle. Audio quality is respectable, as the score and sound effects are crisp, but not terribly dynamic and dialogue remains clear.
EXTRAS: Nothing.
Final Thoughts: I didn't find that much to like about "The Program", which ended up being a fairly average Football drama with a couple of good performances. Buena Vista's DVD edition provides good audio/video quality, but nothing in the way of supplements. Still, fans should consider picking this up, given the $9.99 price tag.
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