Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 137
Fresh: 134 | Rotten: 3
An entertaining and gripping documentary that shows being confined to a wheelchair doesn't mean the fun has to end.
Average Rating: 8.4/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 0
An entertaining and gripping documentary that shows being confined to a wheelchair doesn't mean the fun has to end.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 10,332
Better known as Wheelchair Rugby, Murderball is a game created by quadriplegic athletes that is every bit as aggressive as the name would lead one to expect; played with bone-breaking intensity, a typical game of Wheelchair Rugby involves plenty of trash-talking, a few head-on collisions, and the occasional player being thrown from his modified wheelchair. The game has become an official event at the Paralympics, a worldwide competition for handicapped athletes, and the United States and Canada
R, 1 hr. 25 min.
Documentary, Sports & Fitness, Special Interest
Jul 22, 2005 Limited
Nov 29, 2005
$1.3M
ThinkFilm
All Critics (140) | Top Critics (36) | Fresh (138) | Rotten (3) | DVD (25)
Murderball is no Rocky-esque hymn to the human spirit. It's more like a prison movie...
An honest, down-to-earth account of how life goes on for people with disabilities.
This offbeat documentary is inspiring and jaw-droppingly original.
The frank lack of condescension and mean moments of Murderball make it more than a film about sports or quadriplegics: It becomes a movie about life, about struggle, about pain, bitterness and pushing forward.
Wheels us through an emotional obstacle course so rigorous and satisfying you'll be gulping for air by the end.
I don't know whether directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dan Adam Shapiro set out to show the jock mentality with such clarity, but that's precisely what their gripping movie does.
There's little room for tears in the testosterone-riddled territory of quadriplegic rugby. "Murderball" spat on that power of the human spirit stuff and rolled along to a kick-ass showcase of not what spinal injury excluded, but what it enabled.
a triumph of filmmaking: of structure, character development, and pacing
The quadriplegic rugby sport referred to as "Murderball" is lovingly examined in a well-crafted documentary that goes a long way toward showing the mental and physical fortitude of these wheelchair bound athletes who insist on living life to the fullest.
Arguably the greatest sports movie since Hoop Dreams and When We Were Kings.
Rowdy and inspiring documentary for older teens and adults.
Filmmakers Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro wisely chose a high-energy aesthetic to portray quadriplegic rugby (a.k.a. "Murderball") through the story of Mark Zupan and his American teammates battling for Paralympic gold.
Even when the movie tries to shoe-horn its stories into the standard documentary mold, it serves to drive home the point: these guys aspire to the same clichés as the rest of us.
What emerges is more interesting, thankfully, than a linear offering of sporting triumph in the face of adversity.
All of the men are striking examples of the indomitable human spirit.
A leftfield sports documentary that's as insightful and thought-provoking as it is fast and furious.
Além de revelador e interessante, sua inteligente montagem prende a atenção do espectador através do desenvolvimento de seus "personagens" e do conflito entre os dois times principais.
It's an ode to the indomitable stubbornness of people, really, to pursue what gets them off, no matter what it takes.
Murderball is a good sports documentary and a great look at living with a disability. On the surface, this film unabashedly celebrates defiant machismo and the competitive spirit but underneath I sensed a more speculative investigation of human motivation, in many different arenas. Murderball is very well
May 11, 2007Super Reviewer
This is a very interesting and memorable documentary blending sports, humanity, and living with being handicapped. These guys may be in wheelchairs, but they take they are badass, and take their brand of rugby, or rather, wheelchair rugby, very seriously. In fact, the film's title comes from the sport's nickname-
May 12, 2011Super Reviewer
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