My All American appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a positive presentation.
No real issues related to sharpness. A few wide shots seemed just a tad soft, but those popped up infrequently. Instead, the vast majority of the movie looked concise and accurate. Jagged edges and shimmering failed to appear, and edge haloes remained absent. Source flaws also caused no distractions.
Colors were fine. The movie went with a palette that favored amber, orange and teal, which made its choices predictable. Still, the hues looked full and rich within those stylistic selections. Blacks were dark and tight, while shadows demonstrated good clarity. I expected a positive transfer and that’s what I got.
One shouldn’t expect sonic fireworks from a drama such as My All American, and the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack remained moderately subdued. The mix featured good stereo music and decent environmental information but little more substantial than that.
At least the football games showed some pizzazz, and general ambience was fine. The mix offered the expected levels of involvement but didn’t excel in any way.
Audio quality was good. Speech appeared natural and concise, with no problems on display. Music sounded vivid and full, and effects were perfectly acceptable, with good clarity and range. I thought this was a good but not great mix.
Two featurettes appear. The Spirit of Freddie Steinmark runs two minutes, 57 seconds and includes notes from friend Bobby Mitchell, writer/director Angelo Pizzo, and actors Finn Wittrock, Juston Street, Aaron Eckhart, and Sarah Bolger. We get some thoughts about Steinmark. This is a fluffy piece with little substance.
A Look Inside My All American lasts two minutes, 39 seconds and involves Eckhart, Pizzo, Wittrock, Street, Mitchell, actor Rett Terrell and football coordinator Mike Fisher. We find a basic movie overview that lacks much worthwhile content – it exists to sell the movie.
The disc opens with ads for The Young Messiah, Woodlawn, Big Stone Gap and 90 Minutes in Heaven. No trailer for All American shows up here.
A second disc provides a DVD copy of My All American. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.
Whatever potential emotion that can be mined from My All American fails to emerge due to the movie’s relentlessly one-dimensional portrait of its subjects. We get no depth or nuance in this thin, forgettable experience. The Blu-ray brings us good picture and audio but lacks notable bonus materials. This ends up as a flat, uninspiring tale.