Review Fix Exclusive Tribeca Film Festival Coverage: Best Last Best Plane Ride Ever Review: Special

April 26, 2016 Patrick Hickey Jr. Film 0

When the ’86 Mets come to the mind of any hardcore baseball fan, calm, cool and collected are simply not what they think. Chaotic, charismatic and cocky, that championship team may not have ever been if not for a wold inning in the NLCS against the Astros that got them to their first World Series in over a decade.

What ensued after the win, in the clubhouse, bus and then infamous plane ride is the subject of James Blagden’s “Best Last Best Plane Ride Ever” and without holding any punches, it tells a wild story that would have been a scandal if it happened today. In the ‘80s though, it was just damn cool.

Narrated by Dwight Gooden, Lenny Dykstra, Kevin Mitchell, and Darryl Strawberry, the ten-minute animated short has it all, good baseball stories, fun animation, a solid score and the type of pacing that keeps everything moving at an awesome pace. Hearing Mitchell talk about drinking champagne in the whirlpool (with his uniform still on) after Game Six against the Astros and Dykstra talk about groupies is the type of stuff that’ll make any long-time baseball fan want to watch this over and over again. These are tales of baseball’s past, before steroids, before sex scandals, before social media. As a result, you get a look behind the curtain that is impossible to escape from.

Where it thrives the most however is the small “side” stories from Mets manager Davey Johnson’s insistence that his players not be held responsible for their action because they just won a pennant, to Roger McDowell making and eating a salad off a drunk Barry Lyons’ bald head on that crazy plane ride. Add in some debauchery between players’ wives and you’ve got a tale for the ages.

This film is much more than few cool baseball war stories though. In the end, it’s Blagden’s animation that makes this film so much better than the sum of its parts. Known for his work on the Sundance classic “Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No,” Blagden’s realistic, but distorted “Beavis and Butthead” looking animation is the perfect accompaniment for the rude and crude Mets, making this short something truly special.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13856 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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