Barnes & Noble

The National Pastime got quite a ribbing in this sexy, insouciant romp -- which still ranks among the best romantic comedies of the ‘80s. Bull Durham recounts the travails of North Carolina’s Durham Bulls, a bush-league baseball team hoping that recently signed pitcher Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) will lead the club to victory. Embittered veteran catcher"Crash" Davis (Kevin Costner, at that time a newly minted star) is assigned to work with the talented but undisciplined rookie. Susan Sarandon positively gleams in perhaps her most alluring characterization, that of a seductive groupie who bestows sexual favors on a different team member every year. (She’s picked Nuke as the current season’s lucky recipient, but she seems equally attracted to Crash.) Oscar-nominated writer-director Ron Shelton (Tin Cup) scripts this novel variation on the venerable "triangle" plot with great panache, and he also coaxes terrific performances from his exceptional cast. Smart, sassy, and saucy, Bull Durham wowed moviegoers in 1988 and continues to be a guaranteed crowd pleaser. The Special Edition DVD sports a recently shot making-of documentary, which includes new interviews with Costner, Sarandon, and Robbins. Shelton, Costner, and Robbins collaborate on the feature commentary, and there’s a "Sports Wrap" featurette as well.

Barnes & Noble

When it was announced that gross-out kings Peter and Bobby Farrelly were going to take a swing at Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, fans of the novel balked. How could the makers of There's Something About Mary do justice to Hornby's comic memoir about how work, women, and life itself all took a backseat to his utter obsession with London's Arsenal Football Club? Especially when they were moving the locale to Boston and changing the obsession to baseball's Red Sox. Hornby devotees should relax. While Fever Pitch's specifics have changed, Hornby's insight into the mind of the obsessive male -- also seen in High Fidelity and About a Boy -- remains intact, and the result is a winning romantic comedy. (Plus, there's already a faithful 1998 screen adaptation of Fever Pitch starring Colin Firth.) Drew Barrymore portrays a Boston-based, career-oriented young woman who longs for a substantive relationship but finds herself repelled by the self-absorbed men she usually meets. Then along comes a mild-mannered but witty math teacher (Saturday Night Live vet Jimmy Fallon) who charms her with his ready humor and attentiveness. But then comes baseball season, and with it the revelation that the teacher is a truly fanatical Red Sox fan willing to sacrifice anything -- and anybody -- rather than miss a game. Will true love win out or strike out? You can probably guess the answer, but the fun is in watching how this little saga unfolds. The most improbable aspect of the story, however, is that the Sox finally beat the Curse of the Bambino and went all the way in 2004, changing the film's World Series climax. The Farrellys, who've always had a sweet tooth, eschew gross-out gags entirely in favor of true love and fireworks. The contrivances mount near the end, but Barrymore and Fallon work so well together that it hardly matters. Fever Pitch may not be a home run, but it's a solid double that makes for perfect date night material in the off-season.

All Movie Guide

A blend of comedy, drama and romance, Bull Durham follows the intertwining of three lives brought together by the great American pastime. Crash Davis (Kevin Costner, showcasing his Midwestern charm) is a perennial Minor Leaguer assigned to the Durham Bulls, a hapless team with a long tradition of mediocrity. There he tutors a young, dim-witted pitching prodigy, Nuke LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) in the ways of baseball, life, and love. Each strikes up a romance with Annie (Susan Sarandon), the team's "mascot" who takes it upon herself to sleep with a new player every season. Each has his/her own conflict: Crash struggles to end his career with some measure of dignity; Nuke struggles to make it to the "big show"; and Annie struggles to find something more than a roll in the hay -- and of course, Crash and Nuke come into conflict over Annie's affections to further complicate matters. The film treats the sport of baseball with a sort of casual reverence, highlighting both the drama and the humor inherent in the game, illustrated by Annie's numerous references to baseball as "her religion." Jeremy Beday

All Movie Guide

Nick Hornby's acclaimed memoir about one man's struggle to balance his love of a woman and his love for soccer was the basis of a well-reviewed British film in 1997, and now gets a Americanized rewrite with this picture, in which the game is changed from soccer to baseball. Ben (Jimmy Fallon) is a high-school teacher who meets Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), who has a successful career in business. Ben and Lindsay don't appear to have much in common on the surface, but they hit it off and are soon involved in a serious romance. But when spring rolls around, Lindsay becomes aware of the true love of Ben's life -- the Boston Red Sox. Despite the team's lamentable record, Ben has been a fiercely loyal Red Sox fan since childhood, and Lindsay finds it hard to compete with his passion for baseball, while Ben is forced to choose between the obsessions of his youth and the enthusiasms of a responsible adult. Fever Pitch was shot in part in Boston during the 2004 baseball season, which to the surprise of the filmmakers saw the Red Sox winning baseball's world series for the first time since 1918. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 883904134008
• Source: MGM (VIDEO & DVD)
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1), Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan, Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Español, Français
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 3:31:00
• Sales Rank: 23,109

This set contains DVDs which may be available separately:

• Bull Durham
• Fever Pitch

Features:

DVD MENU