More Than a Game

If you know or care anything about high school hoops on a national level, there's one stretch of the truth that will jump out at you near the end of this movie -- that being the assertion that St. Vincent-St. Mary is playing in a national championship game in what was the senior season for LeBron James and the rest of the "Fab 4/5". Of course, there is no national championship game for high school hoops, at least, not like there is in college. LeBron and his crew won the Division II Ohio state championship as seniors, then would have had to be voted national champs in one or more polls. And I don't remember if they were consensus national champs; since it's all done by polls, it's possible one or more polls had some other team as its national champ that season.

Maybe that only means something to me because I'm a basketball fan. For everyone else it probably suffices to say that this is an entertaining film, if a bit thin on details and questionable at times in its accuracy. As basketball documentaries go, More Than A Game can't hold Hoop Dream's jock, but seeing action clips of LeBron as a youngsta make it worth the rental.

One last basketball junkie point: For my tastes the film makers should have gone into more detail about the LeBron-Carmelo Anthony HS matchup. It's glossed over a bit in this film so you don't get the sense of what a battle that game was between two good teams and two future NBA stars (36-8-5 and six steals for LeBron, 34-11-2 for Carmelo). Nor is it emphasized that LeBron and St. Vincent-St. Mary lost the game.

To be honest, one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. A truly feel good movie. I'd heard about Lebron James, but never really knew much about him. Then my son and me watched the movie. To say it was inspiring (especially for the little guy) would be a gross understatement. The best part of the movie was finding out that Lebron became who he is today, because of a small group of people that became his extended family. As a parent, and a fellow human being, its hard not to have tears well up at the end of this one, because we all want to be loved. They all found that love - in each other. The side effect was an amazing basketball story.

I was told to watch this documentary for my screen writing class. I must say, horrible, horrible movie. All around, one of the worst things I could have watched. I must admit that I am not a big sports fan, but there are many sports movies and documentaries that I do really enjoy. But those films had, well, a story to them. I know what writer/director Kristopher Belman was thinking. 'Let's just throw a bunch of crap together and star LeBron in it and it'll sell big. Hell, it worked for the Justin Bieber documentary!' I don't know who's rating this movie so high... It's insane.

More than a Game is a movie starring LeBron James during his high school years, and some other unmemorable, annoyingly cocky basketball players who just dominate everyone they play basketball against in. Then, of course, they get to play in the national championship game. As a side note, to captivate us as a movie audience, we need to cheer for an underdog in movies. Movies such as Miracle, Rocky, Rudy, The Mighty Ducks, Major League, Warrior, etc, were all movies about the underdog and out-heart the competition. It's what makes a movie enjoyable! No one cheered for the overly cocky champ Apollo Creed in Rocky. No one cheered for the Russians in Miracle. I don't even think the Russians did!

As an added bonus, we get to hear each of the kids struggles of growing up in the ghetto, and their courage to keep playing basketball against all odds. I'm not sure if anyone cares about that, because I sure do not. Maybe I'm heartless, but these guys make it so easy to cheer for their opposition. There really is not one good quality I could find in any of these kids, besides not being crack addicts. But if they were, I'm sure this film would be much more enjoyable.

I gave this movie a 2 out of 10 simply because I got to watch the whole thing in one sitting without jabbing my eyes out of my skull. Though i was quite tempted. Only the biggest LeBron fans will enjoy this movie. Don't waste your time.

What a stroke of luck to undertake a basketball documentary about a grade school team that includes the undiscovered future NBA star LeBron James!

Using film and game video footage interspersed with computer effect enhanced photographs, excellent editing and well-mixed music we get a compelling revealed story about four boys turning into men under increasingly intense public scrutiny.

I particularly liked the way the director "animated' photographs by extracting layers and changing the focus. This was probably a necessary technique to extend limited early footage, but it brought in a dimension that many documentaries are lacking

Loved this documentary. The way the community helped the James family was inspiring and so was his giving nature, never say die attitude on and off the court. Watching a promising high schooler turning into the GOAT in real time is incredible. Ms Gloria has an incredible spirit as well. Kids can learn a lot from this documentary.