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Forever Strong (Blu-ray)
Year:
FILMINK rates DVDs and Blu-rays out of 5
Labouring under the teeth-hurtingly saccharine tagline, "The greatest victories are born in the heart" (ouch!), Forever Strong also has the dubious honour of being a rugby movie set in the US. That aside, fans of sport movies that are so often "based on true events" will likely dig this. Ironically, this will probably get more attention in Australia and New Zealand than America. Ryan Little (who has toiled largely in TV and on straight-to-DVD flicks) directs with all the nuance of a semi-trailer accident, and tells a tale of father/son relationships (as enacted by star player Ryan Faris, who has to line up against a rival team coached by his father, Neal McDonough), the thrill of the win, the gut-punch of the loss, and all the other cliches that get thrown into sport flicks. This Blu-ray is saved from "into the bin" status by the always watchable Gary Cole and the bulk amount of DVD extras. There's a making of, TV footage of the games, an actual game, The Haka, a look at rugby in the USA, a doco about Gary Cole's real life character Larry Gelwix, and more. This is a fat package of extras that actually makes this initially shonky-seeming film worth the price of purchase. Though not as rousing as it should be, Forever Strong is still a mildly diverting film. Rugby nuts should probably add another half star.