12 Mighty Orphans - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

12 Mighty Orphans



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
Growing up in a family of athletes and engaging in multiple sports over my formative years, I’m a sucker for a good sports story. There’s something perfectly exciting about a rousing football under dog story, utilizing the mythical heroism of American past and pulling at the heart strings in all the right places. Now, I know the basics about the Mighty 12 orphans that the original true story is based off of, but very few details and never did research the story before watching the movie, so this review will just be based off the film itself from a completely blind perspective.

Based upon the novel of the same name by Jim Dent, 12 Mighty Orphans tells the story of Rusty Russell (Luke Wilson), a down and out football coach who moves down to the Masonic Home for Orphans down in southern Texas to teach mathematics and foster a football program there. At first he’s met with resistance from administrator Frank Wynn (Wayne Knight, playing a deliciously sleazy character), but is welcomed by Doc Hall (Martin Sheen, who also acts as the films narrator) and boys hungry for something to give them purpose. His goal of a football team seems to be dead in the water due to the other class A football teams not really wanting them, but they get in by the skin of their teeth, and now it’s up to Russell and the 12 boys who made the cut to from a team.

The film covers your typical sports tropes. Hardy Brown is the tough as nails kid who doesn’t want to be there and be part of a team, Snoggs (Jacob Lofland) is the 16 year old joker, and Doc Hall (who acts as defensive coach) is a drunk despite his good nature. But bit by bit, piece by piece the team beings to form midst a sea of lone wolfs playing tug of war in the system. As the team begins to win game after game, they garner the attention of not only the football league, but the entire nation who watches a rag tag team of underdogs come up and go toe to toe with the best teams that Texas has to offer. And come hell or high water, nothing will stand in their way.

12 Mighty Orphans is rote and typical, but it’s a solid football story. I don’t think it will ever rival films like Rudy or Saturday Night Lights, but I thoroughly enjoyed the scrappy little film. Luke Wilson is great at these “awkward leader” type of roles and he is solid in his role as mentor for the boys. Martin Sheen is great in everything he does, so no shock to see him do a solid job. However, I loved Wayne Knight as the sleazy administrator. The guy has this incredible ability to ooze creepy and grimy in his villain type roles, and him getting his comeuppance is wonderful to see.

Now, the film is pedestrian in it’s take on the real life story of the Might Mites (their team name), but I’ve seen much worse too. It’s wholesome family movie with a good story and solid acting. I will admit that the more “inspiring” moments came across as really cheesy. The speeches told towards the camera of never giving up and heroism felt like they were pulled from a Hallmark sports movie and not a blockbuster. It’s not enough to pull the whole movie down, but those moments did make me sort of roll my eyes and cringe just a little bit.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, some suggestive references, smoking and brief teen drinking




Video:

The film’s 1080p encode is given a very stylized and weathered looking image meant to simulate the age of the great depression. Hazy and filled with browns and tamped down yellows it feels like the old yellowed images of the dustbowls you might see in the history books. Whites are pushed to the point of blooming (sometimes excessively, which causes glowing halos around faces and body parts), while other parts are much more clean and clear. Fine details are generally very good, but the stylized grain and muted colors tend to keep it from being super duper sharp and clean. Black levels sometimes crush, but I did notice quite a bit of shadow detail to enjoy. Stylized, not as gorgeous as your typical digital movie, but completely intentional and well done.






Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA is definitely less stylized. It’s a very front heavy movie for most of the film with tons of dialog centric moments, but it does open up here and there. The game scenes get the surrounds cooking with fans screaming in the crowds, or the roar as the boys slam into each other like a ton of bricks. LFE is mild and usually used for ambient support along with the score, but the war flash backs that Rusty suffers from gives a few explosive moments to work with. It’s a solid all around dramatic track with some spicy elements here and there to keep it interesting.









Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Trailer

Final Score: ​

12 Mighty Orphans isn’t as special as the story that it was taken from, but it’s a solid family movie that does enough right for me to forgive some of it’s more pedestrian qualities. The movie looks solid enough and the audio is good as well, but the extras are near nonexistent, which is a bit sad as I would have liked to have seen some back story on the real story of the Mighty Mites, or a director’s commentary. But still, at the end of the day I’d say the film is worth a solid rental if you’re a fan of family sports movies.


Technical Specifications:


Starring: Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, Wayne Knight, Martin Sheen, Jake Austin Walker, Scott Haze, Treat Williams, Ron White
Directed by: Ty Roberts
Written by: Ty Roberts, Lane Garrison (Screenplay), Jim Dent (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1, German DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English French, Spanish
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 118 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 31st 2021

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I do like historical films and this one looks good to see. Will check it out.

 

[Epoxy1]

I enjoyed this one as well.