Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

'BORG VS MCENROE': Four Stars (Out of Five)A biographical sports-drama flick based on the classic rivalry between tennis players Björn Borg and John McEnroe, during the 1980 Wimbledon Championships. It was directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, and it was scripted by Ronnie Sandahl. The movie stars Sverrir Gudnason and Shia LaBeouf, as the two title characters, and it costars Stellan Skarsgård, Tuva Novotny and Robert Emms. The film has received mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's won multiple prestigious awards as well. I enjoyed it, especially for it's intense climax. Björn Borg (Gudnason) was a professional Swedish tennis player who was number one in the world in 1980. John McEnroe (LaBeouf) was a professional American tennis player, who was also number one in the world at one time. Borg was known for being really calm and robotic, while McEnroe was well known for having a really short temper and being extremely crude. The two became classic opposites, and rivals, at the 1980 Wimbledon Championships.This movie intensely depicts that rivalry. The film is a great character study, highlighted by two outstanding lead performances (especially LaBeouf) and an awesome sports climax (I really enjoyed the ending). It's also educational, for anyone who didn't know the real story (like me), and it's an interesting look at professional tennis as well (especially at that time). I was also really fascinated to learn what became of the two famous athletes, after the events of the movie. If you're a sports flick fan, I'd say this is definitely the movie for you.

There's something missing in this film. I'm still wondering what would be as the performances were solid, and the "life" segment we follow were interesting. Mostly I felt that the characterization, both of Borg and McEnroe, were to simplistic and lacking depth, as they were presented in one dimension only. Borg is presented on flat way as "the" cold ice block and McEnroe, as the emotional volcano always near of erupting, Just disappointing...

In full disclosure, I am a tennis player and as a boy I idolized McEnroe. I admired Borg a great deal as well. What made this match and all of their matches so great and so riveting was their completely opposing approaches to the game. Borg was the greatest baseliner to play the game. It was nearly impossible to get get the ball by him. His steadiness and zen-like approach to the game gave birth to many baseliners in his wake, most notably someone like Andre Aggasi. McEnroe was was the first ever punk rock athelete. No player in history had shown so much anger and rage, but mostly so much desire to win. It was raw rock n roll. It was a bit of a paradox because though he was a punk rocker in his attitude and in his passion, his game was a throwback to Rod Laver. He was an artist on the court. On any given point you might see topspin forehands, slice backhands, drop shots, lobs, breath taking volleys, and backhand overheads. He had a complete game. While Borg was content to outhit his opponents, McEnroe was eager to cut the points short. He would take every opportunity to come into the net and display his artistry. Of course none of this is apparent in the film. The problem with sports films is that most actors are not atheletes. So a director has to be inventive in his camera work to cover the fact that his actors don't know how to play. A rally with Borg might go 15 Strokes. Tennis is about court position. For McEnroe to beat Borg he had to chose his spots. When is the right time to approach the net? Where do you hit the ball when you are there? Shia was quoted as saying that he despised tennis and he hopes to never play again. He clearly chose this roll, not to impress us with his tennis skills, but because he wanted to play McEnroe the man. This film unfortunately climaxes with the finals match at Wimbledon, normally something I would enjoy because after all this film is about tennis, but it is shot so horribly that you never see Borg hitting back 10-15 groundstrokes. You never see his unquie at the time, 2 handed backhand Vs Mac's classical one handed. You never see Borg trying to pass Mac at the net. You never see the tennis artistry of McEnroe at all in this film. The way it is shot you really only see the the players heads and quick 2 stroke rallies which is like going to see Miles Davis play Mary had a Little Lamb for 2 hours. I feel bad for tennis players because they will feel cheated like I did by this film, but I feel worse the non-tennis fans because they will walk away from this film and completely miss how revolutionary and inspiring these two great athletes are. They might just shrug and say "what's the big deal?"That is a crime.

I really enjoyed this. I thought both actors did a great job and both of them nailed their characters. The film lags a tad with the childhoods; however, overall it's just about the games and the tennis up to that epic final. And what a final! Thumbs up from me.