Armchair Commentary

"One Shining Moment": The NCAA Final Four anthem on DVD

This weekend is the Final Four, and since I generally have a Monday-night commitment I tend to record the championship game and watch it later. I always pad the recording so if the game runs long I won't miss the end or, even worse, miss "One Shining Moment," the song that traditionally closes every tournament. I love this song and the highlight montage it accompanies--CBS has made it into the perfect season-ending ritual for college basketball. So a new DVD just caught my eye: One Shining Moment, "a collection of all One Shining Moments from 1987 to 2009, plus a compilation video that captures the most magical moments of the last 23 years." Sounds like a lot of great memories. (By the way, Luther Vandross' rendition should continue to be used, not a new version by Jennifer Hudson.) --David

Let the Madness begin: College-basketball films

If I weren't working today, I'd be watching the Washington Huskies play their first-round NCAA tournament game against Marquette University. I admit that I don't know a whole lot about Marquette's current team, but when I think basketball I remember that Marquette was the team William Gates played for after he was one of the subjects of the great documentary Hoop Dreams. So that naturally brings to mind at this time of year: What are your favorite films about college basketball (or high school, in some cases)? Below are some of mine. --David

• The aforementioned Hoop Dreams, about a pair of inner-city kids (Gates and Arthur Agee) struggling to make a career out of basketball. Followed by a sequel, Hoop Reality.
• Hoosiers: The ultimate underdog story--Gene Hackman plays the coach of an Indiana high school team competing for an unlikely championship.
• Blue Chips: Future NBA stars Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway play high school hoopsters involved in the underbelly of the college recruiting scene.
• He Got Game: Spike Lee directs Denzel Washington as a convict working on a deal to maneuver his son (another future NBA star, Ray Allen) into college.
• Glory Road: Memorializes the historic game between Texas Western University and Kentucky.
• The Heart of the Game: A fascinating documentary about a high school girls' basketball team.
• High School Musical 3: Will high school teammates Troy and Chad take their partnership to the same college, or will a girl separate them?  Singing and dancing helps them decide.

NFL Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh Steelers Champions (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray]: Best DVDs of March 2009

What is it: NFL Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh Steelers Champions (Amazon Exclusive) [Blu-ray] highlights all of the thrilling moments of Super Bowl XLIII and the Steelers' 2008 season from Opening Day to Super Bowl XLIII.  On February 1st, 2009 the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first franchise in NFL history to win their sixth Super Bowl led by second-year head coach Mike Tomlin.  NFL Films tells their story with all the season highlights, along with exclusive sideline and locker room sound from Pittsburgh’s record-setting season in perfect HD clarity.

Why it's Significant:  For the first time ever you can watch one of the most exciting Super Bowls in high definition, exclusively sold at Amazon.com.  Relive all the memorable moments, from James Harrison completing the longest scoring play in Super Bowl history to Ben Roethlisberger's winning pass to Santonio Holmes.  This Blu-ray is also packed with bonus content including, HD Gamecast of the 4th Quarter of Week 14 game against The Cowboys- just as it sounds, the Fox broadcast of the 4th quarter is presented in HD without commercial interruption.  Celebrate all the action and get beyond the field with the Super Bowl XLIII Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- Sara Lange

Super Bowl XLIII: Harrison's marathon run

Santonio Holmes made a great catch of a Ben Roethlisberger pass to win Super Bowl XLIII, but the play that most of us will remember is James Harrison's interception return for a touchdown, the longest scoring play in Super Bowl history. You remember the situation: Arizona was trailing 10-7 but knocking on Pittsburgh's end zone in the final minute of the first half.  Some kind of Cardinal score--and valuable momentum going into halftime--seemed inevitable. That's when the play happened, and you can watch it again below, courtesy of NFL Films.  If you want to see Holmes, Larry Fitzgerald, and the other players and big plays of the Big Game, pick up Super Bowl XLIII Champions: Pittsburgh Steelers on Blu-ray or DVD.  --David

Super Bowl XLIII hits Blu-ray in Blu Monday

(Blu Monday is our roundup of what's new in Blu-ray...)

About a month ago I was talking about sports on Blu-ray and speculating whether the big one, the Super Bowl, was going to be released on Blu-ray. No need for speculation now: Commemorating this year's game between the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl XLIII Champions will be on Blu-ray and only at Amazon.com.  It makes perfect sense: how many people have jumped into HDTV specifically for football?   Whether sports works as a collectible product is of course out of a studio's hands: who's the winning team, and how good of a game/series is it?  We'll have to watch the game this Sunday to find that out. --David

New Blu-ray pre-orders that have recently hit the catalog:

• Transporter 3
• Bolt
• Gigi
• An American in Paris
• The Kite Runner

Blu Monday: Sports in High Definition

(Blu Monday is our roundup of what's new in Blu-ray...)

One high-definition question that comes up a few times a year is when will major sports be available on Blu-ray?  We love to watch live games in high definition, but keepsake DVDs are only in standard definition.  Just this year, though, we've gotten our first Blu-ray releases for the Big Four, meaning MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL (I'm not counting wrestling, swimsuit stuff, etc.).  For the Philadelphia Phillies, the World Series highlight film came out on both DVD and Blu-ray (the Blu-ray came out three weeks later), and the Boston Celtics' NBA championship film also came out on DVD and Blu-ray (the Blu-ray was almost four months later).  Major catch: both Blu-ray discs are the highlight films only.  If you want to watch the actual games, you'll have to stick with the standard-definition DVD sets Philadelphia Phillies 2008 World Series Collector's Edition and Boston Celtics: 2007-2008 NBA Champions Special Edition.  And of course the big prize is the Super Bowl.  Perhaps that will be released on Blu-ray in 2009.--David

New Blu-ray pre-orders that have recently hit the catalog:

• Changeling
• The Secret Life of Bees
• South Pacific
• 2010: The Year We Make Contact
• Pride and Glory
• Akira
• The Robe
• Primal Fear

Freebie Watch: Are You Ready for Some Football?

I love NFL Films. The booming voiceover. The super slo-mo. I swear, they could make turf toe seem majestic. So I'm feasting on their handiwork in the form of a bunch of free past-season recaps in our NFL Network store -- even the ones that aren't about my team, the Seahawks (hurry, they're only free through Tuesday). The New York Giants' story has the happiest ending, of course, so I've attached a preview of that one (you can get the whole thing here). -- Stephanie Reid-Simons, Unbox TV Freak

Watch the trailer for "Wild China"

In between footage of Michael Phelps and Romanian marathon runners, I've been watching the Olympics and their side stories of panda cubs and beach volleyballers visiting the Great Wall.  Somehow it had slipped my mind (hey, lotsa DVDs coming out, so little time to think about all of them) that I could see more of the same (the China sights, not Phelps--sorry, fans) with a new documentary called Wild China, which was not so coincidentally released this month (there's a Blu-ray too).   Our reviewer says "We see the jumping spiders atop Mount Everest, the winding grace of the Great Wall, and of course some shy pandas that many people equate with China." You can watch the trailer below: