With the single season home run record broken twice in the last three years, it seems almost quaint to reflect on baseball's 1961 season, when New York Yankee Roger Maris competed with his much more popular teammate Mickey Mantle to break Babe Ruth's benchmark of a mere 60 home runs. Originally broadcast on HBO, this multi-Emmy nominee is the movie that lifelong Yankee fan Billy Crystal was born to make; an affectionate but unflinching look at this historic season, the unlikely friendship between Maris and Mantle (who were opposites on and off the field), and the pressures Maris faced from a badgering media and increasingly hostile fans. The lineup is loaded top to bottom with MVP candidates, including a dead-on Barry Pepper as the stoic Maris and a pitch-perfect Thomas Jane as swaggering good ol' boy Mantle. Buffed-up former Geek Hall of Famer Anthony Michael Hall (16 Candles) is pitcher Whitey Ford, and Bruce McGill goes from Animal House to the House That Ruth Built as manager Ralph Houk. Christopher McDonald, usually cast as a smarmy villain, is all smiles as legendary broadcaster Mel "How about that?" Allen. Admittedly, the welling music that accompanies the home-run heroics of "the M&M boys" is as bush league as Glenn Close rising in the stands to rally Robert Redford in The Natural--but baseball movie lovers wouldn't have it any other way. Highly recommended. (K. Lee Benson)[Blu-ray Review—July 5, 2011—HBO, 129 min., TV-MA, $14.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2001's 61* sports a fine transfer with DTS-HD 5.1 sound. Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Billy Crystal, a “making-of” featurette (52 min.), text bios and stats for Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, and Maris' home run list. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for a winning sports bio flick.]
61*
HBO, 128 min., R, VHS: $14.95, DVD: $19.98 Volume 16, Issue 6
61*
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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