Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

l_rawjalaurence 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.

balevanti Words couldn't have described how I felt after I first saw this film. Grant you I had seen this picture a grand total of ten views of the amazing "Murderball" in one week and I thought to myself, "I don't see anyone bitching, moaning complaining or feeling sorry for themselves. I was amazed at the competitive wrath that these men show. Mark Zupan has to be the most intense man I have seen in sports with his will to surpass all obstacles and do it in a way where he can come back to earth and show such a shy side when introducing youngsters and newcomers to the sport. For every cocky arrogant and ungrateful athlete in professional sports where they don't get their million dollar signing bonus, each of those athletes should be shown this film and see how bad their life could be. Maybe then would they know what hard work and devotion is. Yet then again, maybe they might still not understand.

Randolph James (Solipsisticblog) This recent documentary about quadrapalegics playing a violent form of rugby never found its expected audience. It was expected to be a breakout hit of last summer and was even released under the MTV Films label. It was eclipsed by last summer's surprise hit doc "March of the Penguins." Is it any good? The scenes in which we follow the players in their day to day lives are great. One portion of the film follows a recently paralyzed motorcross racer and his excitement in discovering the sport. These moments are touching, inspiring, and the doc's best moments.The sport, though, is either filmed poorly by the directors or its just not that exciting. These moments are reminiscent of Oliver Stone's football scenes in "Any Given Sunday"--I can see a lot of bodies of banging together, but don't ask me what the heck is going on. It appears that who ever has possession of the ball is likely to score meaning that winning the game comes down to having the ball in the closing seconds.As a sports doc, it falls short. It greatly succeeds, though, in exploring the lives of the athletes.Recommended.Read more at http://solipsisticblog.blogspot.com/.

xevagottenx Murder ball was a good movie kept me watching, being a documentary and all. Was well written and portrayed. It was about quadriplegic playing quad rugby. It showed how many of them are quite good at playing. The movie portrayed their lives quite well with what they went through. Mark Zupan was one of the better players on the team. It showed about the Paralympics and how many people compete in games even after they have had accidents paralyzing them or causing them to lose function of there limbs. I think it's amazing how well they work with what they have. Being a documentary it was quite true to the fact it showed it "How it is" if you will. It shows how hard there lives can truly be and how they have many physical and emotional barriers that they have to overcome.