DVD Corner

Linsanity DVD Review

“Linsanity” is an inspiring documentary.

At first glance, “Linsanity” might seem like a cheap cash-in on the popularity of Asian-American NBA star Jeremy Lin, but that’s simply not the case. This Daniel Dae Kim narrated documentary film was actually filming before AND during the Linsanity craze back in 2012. While the film expectedly covers his wildly successful era with the New York Knicks, “Linsanity” explores much more than that. Director Evan Jackson Leong interviews Jeremy and a host of others (including Yao Ming and Jeremy’s mother Shirley Lin) as the film navigates his childhood, family, faith, high school success, his college years playing for the Harvard basketball program, and his initial struggles in the NBA prior to getting picked up by the Knicks.

One could argue that “Linsanity” could have dug a little deeper into the life of the California native Jeremy Lin, but throughout the course of the 89 minute run time, there’s still a lot to absorb here. Yes, Lin’s story is still being written as his professional basketball career continues to unfold with the Houston Rockets, but as the documentary shows, there’s already a story to be told. Lin’s story is an inspirational one about dreams, achievements, passion, and perseverance. We as an audience get to see how Lin got to where he is now after having a series of ups and downs. It’s an undeniably touching and remarkable story and it’s really quite impressive that director Evan Jackson Leong managed to capture this epic journey on film as it occured.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: Widescreen. How does it look? As with any documentary, the picture varies in quality. Naturally, the newly shot interviews and footage of Jeremy Lin are crisp and clear whole some of the archival/home video footage is of lesser quality (which is to be expected).

Audio Track: Dolby Digital 5.1. How does it sound? The music and interviews sounded sharp to this reviewer.

Extras:
* Arc and Ketchup Entertainment trailers.
* A “Linsanity” trailer.
* “Kickstarter”- A Kickstarter promo reel by director Evan Jackson Leong that features clips from the film.
* “Behind The Scenes” is a very brief 90 second extra that contains behind-the-scenes footage (obviously) and an interview with Jeremy Lin.

January 2, 2014 - Posted by nicklyons1 | DVD review | Houston Rockets, Jeremy Lin, Linsanity DVD Review, New York Knicks, Yao Ming