This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Lack of good storyline.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

In Alan Clarke's memorable movie SCUM (1979), the inmates of a young person offender's prison play Murderball on a basketball court. A game sans any real rules, it provides the chance for them to vent their frustrations through legitimized violence: anything goes, apparently.Filmed in the early years of this century, Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's documentary makes similar claims for the game of wheelchair rugby. Also played on a basketball, the game offers the chance for young quadriplegics to express their aggressive instincts in a sport that might have its own set of rules but seems extremely violent, much more so than rugby for able-bodied players.The action follows the fortunes of the American team, which had won most of the major tournaments prior to the film's beginning, but failed to win the World Championship held in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2002. The film examines the team's preparations for the Athens Paralympics two years later, while profiling the struggles of many team members to deal with their disability as well as learn how to become successful members of a match-winning unit.We have to admire the sheer dogged persistence of many of the young men featured in the documentary, as they negotiate the almost daily struggles to maintain their self-esteem, as well as improving their rugby abilities through training. Success is essential for any team; but perhaps more so for the wheelchair rugby unit. What the players achieve over the time-period covered by the film is, quite simply, wonderful.And yet, and yet ... The film also shows the subjects trying to conform to the aggressively masculine identities associated with rugby players: tough, uncompromising, sexist. Anyone who has played the game to any standard knows that such stereotypes are found everywhere. Yet rugby has evolved a lot over the last two decades: sophisticated training methods have discovered the importance of less aggressive behavioral forms, for example, trying to understand the opposition's psychology without trying to bash the living daylights out of them. Players have now been encouraged to look into themselves and admit their shortcomings in public, or (better still) acknowledge their sexualities. That does not make them any less brilliant on the field; in fact, such strategies can even improve their performance. What spoils MURDERBALL is the directors' reluctance to think of rugby as anything else other than a violent, aggressively male sport. It isn't; women's rugby is as popular both for able-bodied as well as disabled players. As Clint Eastwood's film INVICTUS (2009) has also shown, it is a game whose significance extends far beyond the field, as it becomes a means by which individuals can deal with trauma. Would that MURDERBALL had taken a little time out from its obsession with violence and examined that aspect of the game.

Having been in the hospital and seeing some of these athletes,I'm not too sure that they didn't put on an act for the camera. I enjoyed the humor but some of it is really a lot of hype. I think it was amazing when it showed the guy from Texas giving a chair to the young guy.That was really very cool. I think some of it was realistic and important for people to see some of what life in a chair is about,at the same time I think it puts all people in a chair in the same class,and were not.Overall I felt it was a good movie,but perhaps could have done without the jackass stunts. Just my opinion. Great athletes!and obviously a great group of guys who share a zest for life. I think they could have shown more in detail of what life is like when you go home from the hospital. I hope some of them get their medals.

Tonight I finally made time to watch the incredible documentary Murderball - a truly exceptional film. Through the introduction of action, conflict, and tension, the directors and editors compose a telling film that transcends athletes and disability. Murderball also blends an almost perfect three act structure with a natural arc for each character as well as the overall story. Not only is this film a hard-core doc packed with unfolding drama and arrogant and funny characters/people, it is also a surprise to anyone with stereotypes about disabled athletes. Despite the machoism and crude behavior of many of the people in the film, the documentary is as honest as I've seen in a few years. You don't have to like the characters to love the story. The film-making crew deserves every credit and reward that has resulted from this film. Kudos!

My thoughts on this film are that this film was well done, considering it was a Documentary. It was better than I expected, I expected it to be a boring old Documentary on some sport, although it wasn't. It was based on real people and how they live their lives having being in a wheelchair. It's not necessarily "action packed" if you will, but it has enough action to keep the viewer entertained. It's not only filled with action, but it carries with it emotion as well as confidence,strength, difficult challenges, and humiliation. It also takes a look at accomplishing your goals, and working towards that completion. I loved this Documentary because it displays a lot of truth to the facts of being a Quadriplegic. By: Steph