Major League DVD Review
Posted by Jacob Ziegler on 10.17.2002
The typical “lovable losers” sports team going from the cellar to the penthouse has rarely been funnier.
Major League
Release Date: September 24th, 2002
The Film
The story has been told a million times before, and a million times since. But something about Major League just sets it apart from the rest of the pack. It is side-splittingly funny all the way through, and has a good romantic subplot supporting the main story. Its cast, including Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Margaret Whitton, James Gammon, Dennis Haysbert, Wesley Snipes, Rene Russo and Bob Uecker, was perfectly selected, and the script and direction by David S. Ward perfectly fit the movie.
The film shows the revolution of a fictional Cleveland Indians baseball team. They are the absolute worst in baseball, and its evil owner (Whitton) wants the team to do bad enough so that she can move the team to Miami and get excellent fringe benefits for herself. So she purposely puts together a team she thinks will be bad enough to accomplish just that. Anyone could tell that the team will overachieve and win the big one to spite the evil owner, but the film is able to overcome that by still being immensely entertaining.
The romantic angle is played between Jake Taylor (Berenger), a washed-up catcher with bad knees and an inability to grow up, and Lynn (Russo). They have not seen each other for years, and Lynn is engaged to marry another man, despite Jake’s efforts to get her back. Most of the film goes through Jake, as he nurtures the young stars Willie “Mays” Hayes (Snipes) and “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn (Sheen). Vaughn also feuds with the arrogant veteran third-baseman Roger Dorn (Bernsen), and another feud sees Christian pitcher Eddie Harris (Chelcie Ross) feud with voodoo practitioner and rightfielder Pedro Cerrano (Haysbert). That is one of the film’s biggest strength, having many subplots under one overlaying story. The two highlights, though, are James Gammon and Bob Uecker. Gammon plays Lou Brown, hired to manage the group of misfits. His gruff delivery and sarcastic nature are always good for a laugh, and Uecker’s color commentator Harry Doyle almost serves as a narrator, and his wit pervades through the film.
Video Quality
Thankfully the film is presented in widescreen, and it looks as good as most DVD’s do. It shows its age (the film was released in 1989), but the baseball scenes look good, and the rest of the scenes do not require sparkling clarity, so it works.
Audio Quality
Dolby 5.1 and Dolby Surround are the choices, but it does not appear that the sound was re-done in any way. Which isn’t to say it’s bad, because the baseball scenes stand out with good sound, and the dialogue scenes work just fine.
Special Features
Sadly, there really are none. I was hoping for some deleted scenes, director commentary, interviews with the cast, theatrical trailer or anything. But they provided us with nothing. Very disappointing.
Film: 7.5
Video Quality: 7.0
Audio Quality: 8.0
Special Features: 0.0
The 411: Not like it is one of the best movies I have ever seen, but it has always been one of my favorites. My brother and I grew up watching it about every other day, so it has some sentimental value for me. But even without that value, the movie is very funny, and would be even more appreciated by baseball fans. Especially during playoff time (like now), and especially with the “Cinderella Story” theme the playoffs have this year (2002). It’s just a good, solid movie.
