Major League: Wild Thing Edition
DVD Reviews | Apr 8th, 2007

Starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Rene Russo, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, James Gammon, Bob Uecker
Written By: David S. Ward
Directed By: David S. Ward
Studio: Paramount
Buy on Amazon.com link
Major League is the type of movie I have to watch every time it’s on TV. I haven’t seen the movie in a long time, especially the R-rated version so it was nice to see this movie get a special edition treatment. Besides seeing the movie in a nice format like DVD, there’s actually a good amount of extras to watch. Any fan of this movie or baseball will certainly want to get this upgraded DVD!
Major League is about an evil, ex-Vegas Showgirl who inherits the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her dead husband. She wants to move the team to Florida so she decides to get the wildest and crazy ball players she can and have them lose the season. She gives a list to the GM of players she wants on the team, and he goes out and gets them to try out. The coach they go after isn’t even doing anything baseball related and is selling used cars (or something like that). The type of players that try out for the team include a has-been catcher with bad knees, a punked out pitcher who played baseball in jail, a voodoo slugger who can’t hit curve balls and a third baseman who’s too worried about endorsement deals. At first the team really stinks but soon they start to turn things around. Besides having to beat the odds as a team, each player has to overcome their own problems on and off the field. Everyone is against them, including their owner and they use that for motivation.
So i’m sure you all have seen Major League by now, either when it first came out or on TV endless amounts of times. It’s really considered a baseball comedy classic to this generation (which is kind of hard to believe). A lot of the people that starred in this movie were unknowns at the time like Rene Russo, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert, etc. It really was a great group of actors who had awesome chemistry together. Probably if these people weren’t in the movies, Major League wouldn’t be as funny. Besides all the actors who portrayed the baseball players, no one was funnier than Bob Uecker as Harry Doyle the drunken, foul-mouthed announcer. Some of his ad-libbed lines from the film are still quoted today among baseball players & fans, especially the line “JUST….a bit outside.” There’s so many quotes from the movie that are recognizable to that day but that seems to be the one that has lived on the longest. Major League is just a lot of fun to watch from start to finish. I loved the beginning of training camp and seeing how messed up most of the players are. It’s cool to see them finally overcome their issues as players and start playing good. I thought it was hilarious to see how they motivated with the cardboard stand-up of the owner. Each win they would tear a piece of clothing off of her to reveal her naked body (since she was a showgirl after all). That would certainly motivate me to play better that’s for sure. This whole movie sums up playing for a baseball team that sucks, rooting for a baseball team that sucks, and announcing for a team that sucks.
Usually with special editions for old 80’s movies, there’s only one or two extras on the DVD and the studios call it a “special edition.” I actually thought there was a good amount of bonus features to watch after the film. A lot of the actors have come back to talk about the movie and how it was working on the film at the time. A lot of the actors talked about how good Charlie Sheen was as a pitcher, and how good Wesley Snipes as well. A lot of the actors had a lot of praise for actor James Gammon as well. It’s funny to hear how they were all doing their impression of his groggily deep voice. That featurette was good because they focused on each player on the team, plus the other actors, director, etc from the film. Other bonus features include a great featurette on Bob Uecker, a featurette where current Indian players talked about how awesome the movie was, and a few other things. Bob Uecker talked about his character, and how that really was how some announcers were when the team wasn’t that good or there wasn’t anyone in the stands. If there wasn’t anyone in the stands, he would pretend there was and start yelling in the microphone. That featurette and the “My Kinda Team” featurette are the ones to watch after you see the movie.
Major League could be one of the funniest baseball movies out there. For someone who hates baseball, I certainly like a lot of movies about the sport. Major League has a lot of great actors, lots of funny jokes and of course Bob Uecker. Can’t get much better than that! The film spanned a few sequels that weren’t as funny but if you want to see the original film (unedited); then be sure to get this new edition DVD of the film.
Features:
Commentary by Writer/Director David S. Ward and Producer Chris Chesser
My Kinda Team
A Major League Look at Major League
Bob Uecker: Just A Bit Outside
Alternate Ending with Filmmaker Introduction
A Tour of Cerrano’s Locker
Photo Gallery
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Mono
Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Subtitles:
English
Favorite Scenes: Training camp, all the baseball scenes, all the lockerroom hijinks and the announcing of Bob Uecker
Rating: R
Running Time: 106 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: