- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit), Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles: English
- Subtitles Color: White
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: Not Rated
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Digital Copies: N/A
- Run Time: 99 Mins.
- Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 9, 2013
- List Price: $29.98
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Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(The below TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3/5]
This latest entry of insanity from the folks at Sushi Typhoon, Deadball (デッドボール) has everything you’d expect from the production company by now. There’s copious violence, lots of splattering blood and guts, scantily clad girls, and most of all, a pervading sense of comedy that keeps this film from ever being taken too seriously (note how lead Sakaguchi Taku is always pulling a fully-lit cigarette from out of nowhere). Directed by Yamaguchi Yudai, Deadball acts as a sequel of sorts to his 2003 splatter-film Battlefield Baseball. This one follows Yakyu Jubeh (Sakaguchi), a juvenile delinquent and vigilante with a mean pitching arm and a penchant for dressing up like Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly whose killing spree gets him locked up. He is sent to the Pterodactyl Juvenile Reformatory with a sadistic governor who has a Nazi fetish and whose pastimes include subjecting the new detainees to severe rectal examinations. There Jubeh is forced to play baseball with a ragtag team of young teen criminals against all-girl high school team Saint Black Dahlia High School in a violent match to the death. If watching people get their noses sliced of, their faces impaled by flying pens and pencils, and have forearms rammed way up their backsides is your thing, then Deadball has got it all. Like all Sushi Typhoon films, this one veers way out of control pretty early on, skipping through genres so that, by the time it wraps up you’re not really sure what you’ve witnessed – a gross-out comedy, a splatter-film, or some oddball, extremely violent sci-fi adventure. One thing is for certain, everything is always done with a wink and a nod, and Deadball, if nothing else is good for some laughs both at and with it.
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
You can never expect a movie from Sushi Typhoon to yield spectacular high definition results given the low budget production values. The AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement of Deadball from Well Go USA is as competent as it can be given the source, but the imagery is still rather ill-defined at times and definitely shows a lot of the digital anomalies from the cameras used. Some banding can be spotted and colors are pushed a little toward red, but this does make the various smatterings of blood pop nicely.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
The Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) soundtrack is really nothing to get to excited about and it is at times just a little harsh in the high end, but lows are solid and panning is rather aggressive. Dialogue is clear enough as there is no sign of clipping.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
We get a short that furthers the wacky world of Deadball plus two featurettes that include some interviews and a making of.
The supplements:
- Spinoff Short: Final Deadball (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:20:43)
- Making of Deadball (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:12:18)
- Cast Interviews (1.78:1; 1080i/60; 00:07:36)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3/5]
Deadball is straight-up oddball wackiness custom made for genre fans to gather around the television and have a good time. This is not going to win any Oscars anytime soon, but it will provide a wild and crazy ride.
Additional Screen Captures
[amazon-product]B00B4MMPB0[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Deadball on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B00B4MMPB0[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Deadball on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
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