Plot: What’s it about?
Do you love to watch the highlight reels on those sports shows? If so, then you’re in luck with this release, which chronicles The NBA’s 100 Greatest Plays and of course, that means awesome moves from start to finish. So just how does the league decide on these plays as being the greatest? Is a thunderous dunk more impressive than a smooth no look pass, or does a buzzer beating three pointer beat all? Perhaps a game saving blocked shot or even a tide turning steal will take top honors, if not a dead on alley-oop effort. In this case, the plays have been divided up into ten categories and then listed in the form of top tens within each one. So no matter kind of moves you like to see, you’ll see some amazing ones on this disc. The categories include dunks, buzzer beaters, alley-oops, steals, clutch plays, hustle plays, teamwork plays, assists, blocks, and of course, smooth moves. In other words, this is a compilation of the best plays you’ll see and as such, even more casual fans will be amazed by this one.
I’ve reviewed a few of these NBA based discs of late and while the others were good, The NBA’s 100 Greatest Plays is fantastic. This is over an hour of the most stupendous moves and plays in league history, all packaged together in a most entertaining form. I’m a fan of the buzzer beaters, steals, and hustle plays, but I was blown away by almost all the categories here, very impressive stuff indeed. The power dunks, lightning fast assists, and even jaw dropping footwork, it all looks great here and will provide a high level of entertainment, even for casual fans of the sport. As usual for these NBA productions, all the action is very well presented and thanks to very high production values, it all looks slick and much better than most sports compilation releases. I had a lot of fun with this disc and look forward to more NBA based releases, especially if some team driven pieces can be released. Whether you’re a diehard fan or just like to watch the fancy moves, this disc is highly recommended and can be had for a reasonable price, so don’t hesitate.
Video: How does it look?
The NBA’s 100 Greatest Plays is presented in a full frame transfer, which is the program’s intended aspect ratio. This looks as good as prerecorded basketball can be, at least that I’ve ever seen. The image is clean and sharp, with no real flaws to speak of, aside from a couple small compression errors. The colors seem bright, flesh tones are accurate, and I saw no contrast problems to speak of, which is good of course. This transfer has some small issues, but I have to say, I think this is as about good as this kind of material will ever look.
Audio: How does it sound?
As this feature uses some powerful moves and such, the included Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a real winner. The surrounds are used for crowd noise, the musical soundtrack, and of course, to add punch to the power based moves. I’ve been impressed with the audio on all these NBA disc until now and this one is no exception, very immersive and effective stuff. The in game material is well presented of course, but the narrator is crisp and clean also, no problems in the least here. This disc also includes a Dolby stereo track, just in case you prefer that option.
Supplements: What are the extras?
In case the feature didn’t offer enough awesome plays, this disc also includes seven minutes of bonus footage, very cool indeed.
