Celebrate Opening Day with Great Baseball Flicks

Yesterday the Blue Jays played the longest game in Opening Day history and, after 16 innings, won the game 7-4. To celebrate, film critic Kirk Baird has put together a great list of baseball-themed films for your to display at your library.

• Bull Durham (1988): Writer-director Ron Shelton’s masterpiece, an ode to the great game, features terrific turns by Kevin Costner as career minor leaguer “Crash” Davis, a catcher with smarts, but not enough talent; Tim Robbins as Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, a pitcher with fire in his arm and mush in his head; and Susan Sarandon as small-town baseball groupie Annie Savoy who can’t choose between the two. 
• Field of Dreams (1989): The second of Costner’s baseball classics, it’s the fantastical story of an Iowa corn farmer compelled to build a baseball field in the middle of nowhere, and the lives it touches. And just like that, the lasting meme “Build it and they will come” was born. 
• Eight Men Out (1988): Writer-director John Sayles fields an impressive cast (John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney) for the true story of the Chicago Black Sox scandal, when underpaid players took bribes to deliberately throw the 1919 World Series. This fascinating drama offers a far more empathetic view of the players than history, which has vilified them and their deeds for decades.
• A League of Their Own (1992): With men serving overseas during World War II, our national pastime grounded to halt until a group of athletic women took up bats, balls, and baseball mitts to keep the game alive. Gina Davis stars as ace catcher and power hitter Dottie Hinson; Tom Hanks is the drunken but lovable manager; and Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell are a pair of star players. 
• The Bad News Bears (1976): Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) is a former Major League Player-turned pool cleaner. He drinks too much. Smokes too much. And curses too much. He makes the perfect Little League baseball coach. Buttermaker teams up with his ex-girlfriend’s teenage daughter (Tatum O’Neal), who has a rocket for an arm, to change the baseball fortunes of the perennially bad Bad News Bears. A comedy that’s unabashedly non-politically correct, The Bad News Bears proved to be the blueprint for underdog films. (See Slap Shot, The Mighty Ducks, and Little Giants.) 
• The Pride of the Yankees (1942): Gary Cooper was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as legendary baseball player Lou Gehrig. A classic biopic of a beloved baseball player’s life cut tragically short by disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease), the drama features several real-life New York Yankees teammates as themselves, including Babe Ruth. And who can forget the famous farewell address to players and fans by “the luckiest man on the face of the planet”?
• The Natural (1984): Robert Redford stars as a once-promising baseball pitcher whose career is derailed by tragedy. He claws his way back to the majors and with his special bat, makes a comeback for the ages. The cast is loaded—Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Barbara Hershey, Joe Don Baker, Richard Farnsworth, and Wilford Brimley—and director Barry Levinson delivers a roaring crowd-pleaser featuring an iconic score by Randy Newman.
• Major League (1989): The Cleveland Indians are a down-on-their-luck franchise, and the new owner wants to make things even worse so she can relocate the team to another city. She assembles a group of past-their-prime veterans and quirky misfits to ensure a losing season. Then the team—led by the catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) and pitcher Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (Charlie Sheen)—begins winning. This comedy classic spawned two sequels: Major League II (1994) and Major League: Back to the Minors (1998).
• The Jackie Robinson Story (1950): The triumphs and pitfalls of the first black Major League Baseball player is chronicled in this biopic by the man who knew the story best, Jackie Robinson. Not only did Robinson play himself, he provides a better than you’d expect performance as well.
• The Sandlot (1993): In this funny and touching film, friendship and adventure are key themes in a nostalgic look at a group of neighborhood boys in 1962 Los Angeles bonded by baseball and a baseball-eating dog known as “The Beast.” 
• Bang the Drum Slowly (1973): Robert DeNiro gained his first acting accolades—followed quickly by his role later that year in Mean Streets—as a terminally ill baseball catcher. Michael Moriarty plays the team’s star pitcher who befriends him and helps him through the season.
• The Stratton Story (1949): A hunting accident costs star pitcher Monty Stratton (Jimmy Stewart) his leg. But Stratton refuses to give up the game he loves, and fights to play on with an artificial wooden leg. Based on a true story, the drama won an Oscar for its screenplay.

And let's not forget some great baseball documentaries:

• Baseball (1994, 2010): Famed documentarian Ken Burns focuses on America’s National Pastime in this acclaimed PBS series. At nearly 19 hours long, this remarkable documentary is exhaustive in historic details and rich in insight. In 2010, Burns revisited his film with a two-part update entitled “The Tenth Inning,” which addressed baseball’s major stories since his first film: steroids, a strike, and a league championship for the ages.
• The Lost Son of Havana (2009): Luis Tiant was 20 when he left Cuba in 1961 to play professional baseball in the United States. A pitcher with an arsenal of weapons to confound batters, Tiant played in the big leagues for 19 seasons. More than 45 years after he left Cuba, Tiant, accompanied by a documentary film crew, made an emotional return to his former home and family.
• When It Was a Game (1991, 1992, 2000): HBO’s acclaimed trio of documentaries features mostly color home movie footage of classic-era baseball games and its iconic players from the 1920s through the 1960s. 

The following flicks might not be the ones you immediately think of when it comes to baseball movies. But they're definitely worth checking out.

• 61* (2001): Roger Maris, Mickey Mantel, and the story of their electrifying home run race. 
• The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Movie Kings (1976): A comedy about Negro League-era baseball starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor. 
• Damn Yankees! (1958): Based on the Broadway musical about a Washington Senators fan who makes a pact with the Devil to help his team win.
• The Pride of St. Louis (1952): The story of famed pitcher “Dizzy” Dean.
• Fear Strikes Out (1957): Anthony Perkins stars in this true story of a baseball player who battled mental illness.
• Chasing 3000 (2008): Two brothers drive cross-country to see Roberto Clemente get his 3000th hit.
• Cobb (1994): Tommy Lee Jones gives life to baseball legend and polarizing player Ty Cobb.
• The Bronx is Burning (2007): This critically-praised ESPN mini-series examines the 1977 New York Yankees, its roller-coaster regular season, and winning the World Series.
• For the Love of the Game (1999): Kevin Costner plays an aging pitcher who flashes back through his life while playing his final game. 
• The Rookie (2002): Dennis Quaid plays a Texas high school baseball coach given one final opportunity to make it in the big leagues.
• The Slugger’s Wife (1985): Neil Simon’s story of a baseball phenomenon whose career year begins to fade with his relationship troubles. 
• Soul of the Game (1996): Three Negro League stars—Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Jackie Robinson—compete to be the first African American in Major League Baseball.
• This Old Cub (2004): Filmmaker Jeff Santo explores the life and career of his father, Chicago Cubs great Ron Santo.

Happy Opening Day!

Awards Shows Galore

Written by Karan Davey, CD Marketing Specialist

This past weekend was full of Award Shows, for kids, for country enthusiasts in the U.S., and for Canada's music industry. It was fun to catch all the music artists receiving awards as well as performing at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, The ACM American Country Music Awards, and the annual Juno Awards in Canada.

The night was full of green slime at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. Hosted by Will Smith, the show featured a myriad of performances from Katy Perry to the new UK boy band New Direction. Big Time Rush, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and LMFAO walked off with Nickelodeon's blimp-shaped award in the music categories. U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama presented singer Taylor Swift with the Big Help Award for all her charity work over the past year.

Taylor Swift continued her busy weekend by attending another award show, The ACM American Country Music Awards. For the second consecutive year, she won the Entertainer of the Year Award, which was the last award of the evening. Earlier, Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum also repeated wins for Female vocalist and Vocal Group of the Year categories. American idol winner, Scotty McCreery, took home the New Artist of the Year prize while Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton once again hosted the award show.

The Juno Awards, Canada’s biggest night in music, was hosted in Ottawa, Ontario. William Shatner served as the master of ceremonies, singing his opening monologue while playing a Les Paul guitar. Nickelback opened the show with fancy pyrotechnics, and a relatively unheard of group from last year, The Sheepdogs, won three awards. Feist was the big winner of the night, snagging three awards including the coveted Artist of the Year and Adult Alternative Album of the Year for her album Metals.

Definitely a big weekend! And we've got collections for all three shows. Click the links below to browse now.

• 2012 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award Winners
• 2012 ACM American Country Music Award Winners
• 2012 Juno Award Winners

IMAX and The Hunger Games

Last year we took a look at the emergence of 3D and IMAX in cinemas and home theatre. Now, heading into this year’s blockbuster summer season, let’s take a fresh look at where those technologies stand.

3D and IMAX
First, the bad news for the film industry: moviegoers are staying away from the theatre in droves, with the number of tickets sold in 2011 at their lowest level since 1995.¹ Box office numbers have been in decline since 2002, and it seems the proliferation of 3D films has been a contributing factor in that decline. The feeling is that 3D is seen as gimmicky with audience members being put off by both the glasses and, more importantly, the higher ticket prices 3D demands.²

However, despite the frightening numbers, it’s not all doom and gloom in regards to the box office. There’s one area in which ticket sales are booming, and that’s IMAX. During the first six weeks of 2012, IMAX ticket sales totaled $55 million, a 45% increase from the same time period in 2011.³

One reason IMAX sales are growing is that the giant-screen experience is one that cinema lovers simply can’t replicate at home, unlike standard theatre and even 3D. Also, IMAX generally dedicates itself to blockbuster “event” movies to make the experience really worthwhile. IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond himself describes their core audience as “fanboys and fangirls,” which explains why even a movie like John Carter, which has generally been seen as a flop, made 17% of its box office gross from IMAX screens.⁴

The Hunger Games
And of course, those promising 2012 numbers for IMAX were measured before the really big 2012 films came out. Like Titanic, the second highest grossing film of all time, which returns to theatres (including 3D and IMAX) this week. Oh, and another one you may have heard of called The Hunger Games, the hottest ticket so far this year, which opened recently to the fifth highest opening day of all time.⁵ IMAX screenings of the film brought in $10.2 million during its opening weekend, an IMAX record.⁶ That being the case, it will be very interesting to see the IMAX numbers at the end of the year, when they will include such films as The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, and Marvel’s The Avengers.

What Do You Think?
Are IMAX films worth the premium ticket price? How do you feel about 3D? Let us know in the comments section below.

¹ http://moneyland.time.com/2011/12/28/thumbs-down-2011-saw-least-movie-tickets-sold-since-1995/
² http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/analyst-pirates-was-hurt-by-3d-as-consumers-tire-of-high-ticket-prices/
³ http://business.time.com/2012/03/26/can-imax-save-the-movie-business/
⁴ http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/imaxs-gelfond-on-andquothunger-gamesandquot-and-global-growth/2012/03/28/gIQA7f9ygS_video.html
⁵ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=hungergames.htm
⁶ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lionsgates-the-hunger-games-breaks-opening-weekend-records-in-imax-theatres-2012-03-26

Hunger Games-Like Movies on DVD

Written by Kirk Baird, film critic and Detroit Film Critics Society member

Given the record-breaking popularity of The Hunger Games at the theater—$152.5 million for the film’s opening weekend, the largest for a non-sequel—fans of Suzanne Collins’ book-to-film as well as those wondering what the buzz is all about are sure to pack theaters for the next several weeks.

To sate the appetites of those who have already seen the movie and want more, or are simply not yet ready to brave the lines, here are some similarly themed films about dark future societies that feed on life-or-death contests:

• The Battle Royale Complete Collection: These controversial Japanese films were released in 2000 but are finally making it to the U.S. for the first time. Set in a near future in which our world is nearly in ruins, each year a ninth-grade class is sent to a remote island to hunt and kill each other until there is a single survivor. 
• Series 7: The Contenders: Released in 2001, this media/pop culture satire has developed quite the cult following. The film focuses on a reality show where randomly selected contestants must kill to earn freedom and fame.
• The Running Man: Stephen King wrote two stories about games of death set in the future, but so far only one has been adapted into a motion picture—1987’s The Running Man. This Sci-Fi actioner set in 2019 stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in his movie-star prime as a framed prisoner given one chance at freedom by participating in the gladiator game-show spectacle known as The Running Man. 
• Death Race 2000: Roger Corman’s film posited a dystopian future where participants in a cross-country car chase earn points by running down innocent pedestrians. The 1975 film stars David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone. The 2008 remake stars action-film extraordinaire Jason Statham and Ian McShane.

Every Title Plus Original Artwork Now from Scholastic

In December, we excitedly announced that we had begun carrying every title, including exclusives, all with original artwork from Random House, Books on Tape, and Listening Library.

Great news! The best in audiobooks has gotten even better! We here at CVS Midwest Tape are excited to announce our partnership with Scholastic. We now offer every Scholastic audiobook with their original artwork. These titles are available for order at www.cvsmidwesttapes.ca and will ship in our exclusive SoundSafe™ case.

CVS Midwest Tape Offers Collection of Described Videos

Described video, or Descriptive Video Service (DVS)—pioneered by WGBH Media Access Group—provides audio descriptions of key visual elements within such visual media formats as TV and film to visually impaired and blind audiences.¹ WGBH, the Public Broadcasting Station in Boston, Massachusetts, developed its Media Access Group roughly 30 years ago with the mission of creating and delivering captioned and described media “to people in their homes, classrooms, at work, and in the community.”² With over 20 million people in the U.S.—12 million of them movie watchers—possessing some form of significant visual impairment, major studios have really stepped up to enhance the public’s media-viewing experience.³

Such studios as PBS Home Video, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and Universal Studios Home Entertainment provide described video on select DVD titles. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also provides described video on select Blu-ray Disc™ releases.

With the increase of described video-enabled DVDs and Blu-rays, CVS Midwest Tape has created a collection of DVS titles to help libraries fulfill the needs of their patrons. To shop our collection of Described Videos, click the image below or follow this link.

¹http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/resources/the-abcs-of-dvs.html

²http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/mag/about/

³http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6687351.html

Dragon Tattoo Has Unique DVD Design

We would like to address some confusion caused by the DVD version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Upon opening the case, librarians and patrons will find what looks to be a burned DVD-R with the movie’s title scrawled across it with a marker, as seen below:



If you have ordered The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on DVD, rest assured that you did not receive a bootleg copy of the film. This is the authentic DVD direct from Sony Pictures. Sony designed the DVD and its packaging to reflect the theme of the movie and its popular hacker protagonist, Lisbeth Salander.



We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact us at info@cvsmidwesttapes.ca or 866.698.2231.