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The Movie: A film that, despite a great deal of press, came up somewhat short at the box office, one can only hope that "Murderball" will finally find its audience on home video. An inspirational and often fascinating documentary, the feature focuses on a group of handicapped (quadriplegic) players who play rugby - dubbed "Murderball" (or at least that's what it used to be called, until one realized that getting sponsors for a sport called "Murderball" isn't exactly easy.) Whatever you might imagine the games to be like, you'd be wrong. The game is surprisingly brutal, as the players go around in specially designed wheelchairs and generally attempt to go at the player with the ball at full ramming speed. A shot from under the chair of one player gives us, in no uncertain terms, a feeling of the kind of speed that the competitors hit one another with, occasionally knocking over chairs. To say that the sport appears to be "take no prisoners" appears to be pretty accurate from the footage here. Interestingly, we're told that the players are given a number ranking according to their mobility, and that no team can have more than eight points on the court at once. The film mostly focuses on Mark Zupan, the intense star of the American quad-rugby team. On the other side is Joe Soares, a former all-star in the sport who was dropped from the American team and attempts to show up his former team (who don't exactly take too kindly to their former teammate) by heading North and becoming coach of the rival Canadian squad, who we see take on the USA squad in both the 2002 and 2004 Paralympic games. While the scenes on the court are absolutely riveting, the film also does a fine job trying to show the off-court lives of the players and the people who care about them. We see Joe come to terms with the fact that his son isn't interested in athletics and attempt to improve his relationship with his family. The players visit a recently injured young man to provide encouragement, and at the end of the movie, the squad meets with troops injured in the Iraq war. "Murderball" is inspiring in a way that doesn't involve any manipulation or sappiness. These are guys who have gone through incredible hardship and absolutely don't let it limit them at all - not only are they still doing things for themselves, but they're being absolutely badass while doing it. The DVD VIDEO: "Murderball" is presented 1.85:1 by Thinkfilm. The presentation quality is about as best as one can expect from the rather low-budget documentary feature. Sharpness and detail are mostly okay, although some wide shots, interior scenes and other moments could look even a bit softer in comparison to the rest. The picture does show some slight shimmer and a few minor artifacts, but otherwise, appears clear and clean. Colors generally look natural, but can appear a tad flat at times. Overall, considering the material, I thought this presentation looked fine. SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation offered fine audio quality, as the punk/metal music was nicely spread across the front speakers and sounded fairly dynamic. Otherwise, this was essentially "documentary-style" audio, focusing mostly on dialogue. EXTRAS: The DVD offers two commentaries - one from the players (Featuring Mark Zupan, Scott Hoggsett and Andy Cohn) and one from the filmmakers (Featuring Dana Adam Shapiro, Henry-Alex Rubin and Jeff Mandel). We also get MTV's "Murderball" special, which features Zupan and other players meeting up with the "Jackass" crew (Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Steve-O and Wee-man) in order to have a bit of fun, pull off a few stunts and talk about the movie. Additionally, we get a lengthy interview with the stars on Larry King Live, the "Murderball: Behind the Game" featurette, an interview update with Joe Soares, NYC premiere footage, 6 deleted scenes, an MTV PSA weblink and trailers. Final Thoughts: "Murderball" made a little over $1.5m at the box office, but it deserves a much wider audience than that. Here's a movie about people who not only didn't let their handicap stop them, they push ahead with an amazing attitude. It's an uplifting and inspirational movie that's about as unsappy as it gets. Thinkfilm offers a very fine DVD presentation, with good audio/video quality and a good helping of supplemental features. Fans should seek a purchase and those who haven't seen it yet should definitely at least give it a try as a rental. 
Film Grade The Film A- DVD Grades Video 86/B Audio: 87/B Extras: 84/B |