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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Featurette - Behind The Bases
  • Music video - Sing Along
  • Interactive game
  • Gag reel

Air Bud - Seventh Inning Fetch (Rental)

Buena Vista/Buena Vista . R4 . COLOR . 88 mins . G . PAL

  Feature
Contract

This movie should work. It has it all. A smart cute acting dog that can play various ball sports, a smart cute girl, a smart geeky friend, some smart dirt, a smarty house, a couple of cartoon bad guys and the beardo from Home Improvements.

I mean, even I like The Princess Diaries and Max Keeble's Big Move, and they're kiddie movies, so this should have been a shoe in, right?

Wrong. It’s boring. And there’s nothing worse than a boring kids film. Well, maybe a boring review about a boring kids film is worse, but then we don’t have five million dollar budgets to write these reviews. We get paid in Tic-Tacs. This week mine were orange.

So, this film is apparently the fifth in a long line of Air Bud films. There was Air Bud: A New Hope, Air Bud II: The Return of the Budi, Air Bud III: Bud Harder, Air Bud V: Bud Goes to Hell, and now this one, Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch, or as I like to call it, Air Bud: RoadKill.

But maybe it’s because I’m not the target audience for this film. So, I tested this theory by making my cat watch it instead. The rest of this review is written by him.

Meeeeeeeeowwwww. Purrrrrrrrrrrrr. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee owmeowwwwer oooooooooooooo arrrrrrrrrrrrreoooooo ooooooooooooooooooo…

…oh boy, er, it’s me, Vince, again. Um, it looks like my cat killed itself rather than watch this film. Can't say I blame him. Wish I'd thought of it first. That blood is gonna be murder to get out of the leather recliner, though.

Now, I guess the problem with the film, other than it’s boring, is that it’s stupid. I mean, fair enough, maybe a dog CAN play basketball, maybe even soccer, but isn’t it a bit much to try have us believe that it can play baseball? See, Bud has to hold the bat in his jaw. Now try to explain to me how it can possibly swing its head fast enough to hit a 200mph fastball? I’m sure that physics would dictate that Bud’s neck would snap at that speed and he’d be dead on the first pitch.

Okay, so you say that maybe they’ll introduce a new rule that you can’t pitch over 30mph to dogs.

I think now you’re just being silly. They’d never make a rule like that.

  Video
Contract

We’ll stay away from mentioning technical words, and highlighting where examples can be found, because I doubt that anyone cares, or that the kids watching this film would know the difference anyhow. I'm not shirking my responsibilities, just trying to keep a sense of perspective here.

What’s important is that the kids will like the nice natural bright colours and clear picture, and you’ll be happy that the money you spent wasn’t on a film riddled with all kinds of problems and an unwatchable picture.

All looks nice enough for the film, the kids will be happy, you’ll be happy, everyone will be happy. Happy happy happy!

  Audio
Contract

A Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track at 448kbps? Man, talk about overkill. It may as well have been mono for what you get out of it. Still, it's bright, clear, and happy sounding. Your kids will love it. It's not a whizzybangywowwy type of mix, just your ordinary everyday baseball-playing dog mix. Nothing really bad stands out, as does nothing great, so I guess it's kind of a good thing. I think 'bland' is the word I'm looking for. But then your kids probably still eat their boogers, so what do they know?

  Extras
Contract

Air Bud: Batter Up! Game
An interactive game where you have to find the matching picture of the dog. It’s boring and slow and stupid and dumb and stupid. If you really, really, really must put your kids in front of the television at least make them watch something educational, not this mindless RSI-inducing-button-pressing-pointless excuse for fun.

Behind the Bases
a. This is the most important three minute featurette ever made and will change your life.
b. This is the most boring three minute featurette ever made and will make your eyes bleed.

Only one of the above statements is true. Which do you think it is?

Gag Reel
Yes, 'gag' is a good word to use.

Sing-Along Song “Take Me Out to the Ball Park
Finally, something interesting. Now I finally know what the words are to this song, something which has bugged me for close to a decade.

  Overall  
Contract

Look, I know I can go on a bit when I don’t like something, but it’s for your own good. If the film was any good at all, I’d happily recommend it. But it’s not, so I won’t. And the opinion of a child closer to the target age group may be a little different, but it’s not likely, because I can be pretty bloody childish when I want. But even a kid can tell when something isn’t entertaining. Probably more so than an adult, and they will struggle to find this entertaining.

However, what with free will and all, you may decide that you just must see this film, in which case technically you’ll be happy enough with it. It’s hardly a shining example of the best the format has to offer, but then if you’re 12 years old you won’t care less anyway.

We can now only hope that they put Air Bud down and rid us of any further sports dog films.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=2273
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      And I quote...
    "Not a very good movie, not very good at all. The DVD is satisfactory, if you simply must force your kids to endure it. It is for your kids and not you, right?"
    - Vince Carrozza
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-525
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Sony STR-DB1070
    • Speakers:
          Wharfedale s500
    • Centre Speaker:
          Polk Audio CS245
    • Surrounds:
          Wharfedale WH-2
    • Subwoofer:
          DB Dynamics TITAN
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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