Jon Peters Reviews: “Leatherheads” Blu-Ray

The Film:

What’s with comedies these days? It seems like the narrative has taken a backseat to gross out jokes, sexual humor, and one-note spoofs. It’s tired and boring. There have been a few comedic gems that have successful mixed big laughs with a good story, but they are few and far in between, sandwiched in the middle by frat-styled humor.

So, it’s always pleasing to witness a natural comedy, one that uses good old fashion humor with fun characters. For George Clooney’s third feature film in his directorial career, he has gone back to the more whimsical, giddy humor of yesteryear. It’s fast-paced, full of sight jokes and clever subtle humor, mostly resembling films of Howard Hawkes, like ‘His Girl Friday’ and ‘Bringing Up Baby’. We’ve known Clooney to be a modern day Cary Grant and he has a love for the films of the 40s and 50s, all of which are immediately clear from frame one. The film opens with the retro 1920s Universal logo, one that they changed in the 30s and many times since, which quickly places you in the mood.

The story is about pro football and its early days of the sport. Clooney wonderfully weaves football’s origin in with the laughs, without slowing it down for a history lesson. Back then they were individually financed, traveled to play the next team that didn’t go belly up. What it lacked in rules, style, and marketability, it gained in the spirit of the players. But college football was huge and it made the pros look amateur in comparison. But when a young college sensation faces his senior year, ‘Dodge’ (Clooney) decides the best way to help pro football is to sign this phenom, Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to the pros. With the media in frenzy over this intriguing development, some of Carter’s war buddies decide to let the papers know that Carter isn’t the war hero the media made him out to be. A fast-talking, no-nonsense, journalist Lexi Littleton is sent out to uncover this story.

‘Leatherheads’ is not a typical sport movie. While the world of football is the main topic, the actual game is in the background, until the climatic game at the end. I find most sports movies boring or ill-conceived. They are some good ones, ‘Rocky’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Rudy’, Field of Dreams’, but there are plenty that are not good. I think they fail to capture what makes the sport popular in the first place. Since this is a football one, most other football films fail to deliver the strategy or the randomness of the game. Most feel contrived or clichéd. Luckily, Clooney wisely focuses on the characters, like Dodge, Lexi and Carter, the three main characters. With this as the forefront, we get to know the characters so when they play, we are with them. I think some with dislike that lack of football, but here I think it works to the film’s advantage.

Surprisingly, Renee Zellweger is good here. Once in a while she features the ‘I-just-sucked-on-a-lemon-face’, but she’s game to handle the quick, snappy dialogue in a Lauren Bacall-type of role. Clooney is equally game too, honing his best Cary Grant-like performance. He can care a visual joke as natural as his directorial skills. Most of the cast is equally as good, like CC who is played by veteran Jonathan Pryce.

Where the film sort of fumbles is towards the end, when Carter is trying to prove his valor, the film feels like it’s trying to say something about the recent sports stars who are always in the tabloids. Carter is a modern day (insert the troubled sport star of choice) and allows the laughs to tick away. It’s not as clever as it thinks, satirizing modern sports celebs, but after that two-minute warning, the final climatic game between Carter and Dodge is worthy of the set up and is genuinely entertaining. ‘Leatherheads’ is a breezy, light-heart comedy. While I didn’t laugh out loud more than a few times, its overall nature is fun and becomes a welcomed break from spoofs, Apatow, and raunch.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: The DTS track is quite powerful with nice sub action and when there’s some football action, you can hear the crowd in the rear speakers hollering and clapping. Outside of the action everything goes to the fronts, but it’s a comedy, so don’t expect an audio assault. Video wise, this Blu Ray is really sharp. Universal was the last studio to jump to Blu but this presentation is exquisite; the Midwest exteriors are bright and absolutely clear, the football uniforms are equally as appealing. This is a good disc.

U-Control:This is Universal’s pop-up track so to speak, which features interviews, behind-the-scenes items, Clooney talking about production challenges and whatnot. Its okay but nothing substantial.

Commentary:As added ‘fun’, this is also visual recorded, something I see studios trying more of. I am not sold on this extra, a commentary should be audio based because who wants to watched two people (Clooney and producer Heslov) talk? As for the commentary it is an n okay track as Clooney is a nice talker. Overall though, this track is a bit forgettable.

If anything, ‘Leatherheads’ is a completely harmless film. I enjoyed myself a bit; Clooney is always fun to watch. While I’m not a sports film fan, Clooney’s attempt at mixing it up with some old fashion comedy is worth at least a rental. If you loved the film, visually and audio-wise this is a top-notch Blu Ray disc, but I wish it had more extras.