I missed the weekly telecasts of HBO's Pacquiao-Margarito 24/7 right before their November 13 fight and it was only when I returned from Jakarta that I picked up the official DVD of the mini-series and fight. I have all four of the Pacquiao series that has been released -- Oscar dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, and now Antonio Margarito -- and it is really interesting to see how the HBO crew has managed to make the features on Pacquiao still interesting in spite of have featured him four time already.
I used to think that the Yankeeography series of the New York Yankees was the best in sports documentaries but the HBO 24/7 series beats them by a mile.
Another one that I really like is the USA Redeem Team series. What makes these series good is not the use of HD cameras but more of the writing and the cinematography that goes so well with one another. In the 24/7 series, Narrator (and actor) Liv Schreiber does a great job in taking the viewer through the lives of the two boxers. There are parallelisms and differences. But somehow they all connect and when woven through it just makes you go, "Wow!" The creative team working on this is simply brilliant. And the scenes where Manny interacts with other people, it is evident that he is more relaxed and he actually is speaking the English language better. Watching those scenes brings a smile to my lips.
The DVD (the 24/7 series and the actual fight) is now available locally for PhP 450. This makes for a great gift for people into sports, Manny Pacquiao, or great drama series.
Someone asked me which of the four documentaries is my favorite? The Manny Pacquiao-Oscar dela Hoya 24/7.
is the USA Redeem Team series also on DVD?
ReplyDeleteThere are websites that sell homemade DVDs of the matches. Not sure of the quality though. As for the mini-series, I was able to get it from Nike USA. But they were burned on a DVD-R.
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