NBA Dynasty Series - Los Angeles Lakers - The Complete History Review

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(More customer reviews)This set is certainly desirable for any die hard Lakers fan, and basketball fans who remember how great the game became after Magic and Larry Bird paved the way for unselfish play will surely enjoy it.
The edited games are great. The finals games featured between the Lakers and the Sixers are mindblowing because of how fast paced they were. It's pure fast break basketball at its best. The games between the Lakers and the Celtics are intense and you also realize what an excellent job Dick Stockton did for CBS when he was the play-by-play man. In retrospect, even Stockton's color man partner seems pretty balanced, even though he was a Celtic great and even though he had the incredibly irritating habit of placing the subject of his sentences at the very end, Tom Heinsohn.
No set is going to be perfect, but I think where the box set is a bit of a letdown is in the "history" aspect. It's really just a compilation of all the NBA films that they do at the end of each year for the champion. And while they are all pretty good and I rented them all years ago, they don't really tell the history of the team. They tell the history of the champtionship seasons.
If you're looking for history, Disc 1 is probably the best, with old footage and more recent interviews. But there's no description of the Lakers of the '70s and how they got Kareem and what the team was like before Magic and how the Lakers drew about 11,000 fans per game. I think that is missing from this and I would have liked to have seen more of that. Also too bad someone couldn't dig up more interviews with Elgin Baylor and Jerry West talking about how frustrating it was to lose all those years to the Celtics, although there is a good feature on Rod Hundley and Tommy Hawkins talking about the '85 Lakers win.
Two other criticisms: (1) On the whole the editing of the games is very good, but on the early games is a bit choppy. We lose the last few minutes of the 71-72 Lakers championship, which was the team's first and there's no footage of West running off the court with Pat Riley. It should have been there. (2) Not enough about Chick Hearn and his role with the Lakers. He's featured prominently as the narrator on the '87 overview, but there should have been more devoted to him. Also, it would have been nice if they could have taken one or two of the games and replaced the network commentary with Chick Hearn and Stu Lantz.
Still, any Lakers fan should have this.

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Over the past 50 years the Lakers have won an unprecedented 14 championships, making them the best NBA franchise ever. This five-disc special edition collector's set features the complete Lakers history including year-end compilation programs highlighting the Championship seasons from the 1950s through 2002. Plus for the first time ever on DVD, the team's most memorable Finals games including its first championship win in Los Angeles, Magic's "baby hook" game in 1987, and back-to-back title games.

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Semi-Pro - Unrated (Two-Disc "Let's Get Sweaty" Edition) (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Come on everybody! We're going back! Back to the 70's. Back to the bell bottoms and the big fro's. Back to the disco dancing and roller skating days. Back to when basketball players wore really...REALLY... short shorts.
Will Ferrell plays Jackie Moon who made a ton of money from his song "Love Me Sexy". What does Jackie go and do with it? He's buys himself a basketball team in the ABA called the Flint `Michigan' Tropicals. Jackie is a one man show who not only owns the Tropicals, but also coaches them. And to get fans into the stadium, he even promotes them with outlandish themes such as jumping over 10 cheerleaders while he's wearing roller-skates. Then one day it's decided that the ABA and the NBA will merge into one, and that 4 teams will go to the NBA. Jackie convinces them to let the 4 BEST teams go, not the 4 most popular. The commish, to make it harder on the not so popular teams, also says they have to bring in at least 2000 fans each game. So Jackie tries everything from free Corn Dog night to Jackie Wrestles Bear night. There are a decent amount of funny parts in the movie, but in all seriousness, the story is better than the comedy this time around.
To me the comedy seemed extremely forced in some parts. Usually Will Ferrell can just flow comedy out of his mouth without even a problem. But here it seemed he didn't have much help from his supporting cast when it came to impromptu time. Sometimes Will's antics will make you laugh and sometimes you wish Will would just put his comedy on hold for a few minutes so he could be fresh again. Now don't get me wrong though, there are funny parts in the movie. I for one liked the bear wrestling scene and also the interaction between Jackie Moon and the ref that is a priest. But that also has to do with the language that is used and there is a LOT of fowl language coming out of Ferrell's mouth in this movie. MF'r, F That, C-Sucker, and a lot more. I'm sure there will be more on the unrated version, but I have yet to see that one.
I'd also like to say that Andre Benjamin (from the rap group Outkast) did a really good job in this movie playing Clarence `Coffee' Black. The interaction on the bus between him and Woody Harrelson had me cringing in a good way cause I could just feel the tension between the two. Also Andre, with his big fro and all, just seemed like he should've lived in this time. Everything about him just seemed 70's. Great job.
All in all, this is definitely a rent especially if you like Ferrell. It had it's funny parts and a decent story, but I'm not sure if it was enough to actually give this a buy.

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Will Ferrell stars in Semi-Pro, an outrageous comedy set in 1976 against the backdrop of the maverick ABA - a fast-paced, wild and crazy basketball league that rivaled the NBA and made a name for itself with innovations like the three-point shot and slam dunk contest. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder who used the profits from the success of his chart-topping song "Love Me Sexy" to achieve his dream of owning a basketball team. But Moon's franchise, the Flint Michigan Tropics, is the worst team in the league and in danger of folding when the ABA announces its plans to merge with the NBA. If they want to survive, Jackie and the Tropics must now do the seemingly impossible - win.

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NBA Street Series, Vol. 5 Review

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(More customer reviews)This volume 5 in the NBA Street series is an absolute amazing dvd. Great features on today's stars, such as Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and Gilbert Arenas. Unlike some other dvd's, they really take their time to put the spotlight on these great stars. Not much talk, just A LOT of highlights and great stories !

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The fifth volume of the NBA Street Series collection features all new incredible highlights, ankle-breaking moves, awe-inspiring dunks, unthinkable passes, and ruthless rejections while following the journeys of many star NBA players and how these extraordinary athletes ended up in the NBA. The back-stories of league standout players, including Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett and Dwyane Wade, will be featured along with incredible highlights from various parts of their NBA careers.

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He Got Game (1998) Review

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(More customer reviews)Spike Lee's film contribution of 1998 marks his greatest graduation as a filmmaker since "Malcolm X". "He Got Game" documents the story of Jesus Shuttlesworth, the top high school basketball player in the U.S. who is receiving incentives one way or the other, to attend someone's university. Jesus' father Jake - in prison for accidentally killing his mother - is offered an early parole in exchange for Jesus' enrollment at the governor's alma mater. Jake has one week to convince his son, who wants nothing to do with him. This film is really not about basketball, it is instead, a tale of a father seeking the forgiveness & respect of his son. Lee makes good documentation of the cutthroat world of professional sports recruiting. Washington, as always, delivers a touching performance. Whether asking his son for forgiveness, or giving his wife's tombstone an embrace, Washington portrays a flawed man in deep need to heal his family.
Lee had no need to cast an NBA player, but cast Ray Allen anyway, who does a fine job. The music, a mix of Public Enemy and Aaron Copeland, is an odd combination that Lee puts to effective use. This film introduced Lee's slower pacing of storytelling, which he would continue to do with "Summer Of Sam", and it works quite well.

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Academy Award(R)-winner Denzel Washington (Best Actor, 2001, TRAINING DAY) stars in this must-see story about a convict given one shot at a second chance to be a father! With promises of a reduced sentence, Jake Shuttlesworth (Washington) is granted temporary release from state prison in order to persuade the nation's top basketball recruit ... his estranged son, Jesus (Ray Allen of NBA's Milwaukee Bucks), to play ball for the governor's alma mater! But just as Jesus faces intense pressures and irresistible temptations contemplating his big decision, Jake is also forced to consider not only what's best for himself ... but what's best for his son! With a groundbreaking soundtrack by the legendary Public Enemy -- plus great cameos from John Turturro and basketball personalities Dick Vitale, John Thompson, Dean Smith, and more, HE GOT GAME is a critically acclaimed hit you don't want to miss!

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ESPN Films 30 for 30: Winning Time: Reggie Miller Vs. The New York Knicks Review

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(More customer reviews)Winning Time! I watched this documentary when it premiered on ESPN. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, but, about ten minutes into the presentation, I remembered Reggie Miller. That skinny, brash, trash talking guy out of the California culture, that was selected by The Indiana Pacers instead of Steve Alford. ( The biggest disappointment in Indiana since Larry Bird went to Boston ). As this film will show, Reggie earned his stripes in the tough Eastern Conference of the NBA, where rivalries were more akin to fueds than anything else. The memorable clashes between the Bulls, The Pistons, The Celtics and of course The Knicks, would be where Reggie would change minds and attitudes, but none of these engagements even come close to the occasions of playing the Patrick Ewing led Knicks. Once I discovered this project was available on DVD, I couldn't wait to see it uninterrupted. The stuff they are passing off today in the NBA, pales in comparison to what you'll see just briefly in this film, and that is the only knock I have on this splendid, informative and elevating film. The interviews with many of the principles confirms that it was more than just a game. These swaggering gentlemen who now find themselves outfitted in the garments of NBA, should be required to watch this piece of league history and maybe aspire to commit to putting a similar excellent representation before their ticket buying public, highly unlikely. However, you can now witness, ( If you weren't there...then ) what all that rumbling was coming out of the NBA Eastern Conference, when the players really knew how to do it....and just for a moment, this kid from The Indiana Pacers became The King Of New York. A Must Have/See

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Reggie Miller single-handedly crushed the heart of Knick fans multiple times.But it was the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals which solidified Miller as Public Enemy #1 in New York City.With moments to go in Game 1 and facing a seemingly insurmountable deficit of 105-99, Miller scored eight points in 8.9 seconds to give his Indiana Pacers an astonishing victory.This career-defining performance, combined with his on-court give-and-take with Knicks fan Spike Lee, helped establish Miller's legend as "The Garden's Greatest Villain." Through thrilling highlights and engaging interviews with Miller, his sister Cheryl, Spike Lee, Patrick Ewing and many others, Peabody Award-winning director Dan Klores uses humor and wit to capture the intensity of a rivalry between two cities and create a "terrifically entertaining piece of work*" critics were calling"the hit of Sundance**." (*The New York Post, **The Oregonian, 2010 Sundance Film Festival)Bonus:- 2 Director's Statements- 11 Extended Interviews- 3 Featurettes- 1 Deleted Scene
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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