a famous basketball player in this film
351578
what a great movie the young man (can't think of his name right now) that played cornbread his movie appearance was fantistic and this also was a tragic movie it was so real and the point made about race relations was by far outstanding even though this was not a true stoy fantastic actors and actresses
1136582
This film automatically received at least 4 out of 5 stars after they referenced The Dunkin Dutchman himself, Rik Smits. I could not care less whatever else happened in the film after that. Whenever you mention one of the greatest Indiana Pacers players of all time, you get thumbs up from me. But so you know, the actual story was tremendous. Shailene Woodley is one of the best young actresses of today and she simply shines as Hazel. You simply could not have asked for a better counterpart for Woodley than Ansel Elgort. They made it very difficult to look away from the screen even for a split second.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
1237540
Aside from creating a different character as his late career coach, it was actually the well-known Franz Stamfil, this ESPN movie "Four Minutes" (2005) is excellent. The actor looks and feels like Bannister and tell his story of a young college student who proceeds to become a dedicated and well regarded student of medicine while initially training only part time yet still running excellent competitive times. The film captures Bannister's primary concentration of his studies along with his budgeted pursuit of his favorite distraction, running. Excellent scenes of his dedication to studies providing incite to his great cerebral mind and his accelerated success as a runner. The film contains amusing scenes of his first college mile with no warm up running against muscular bullies on the track nearly winning while unaccustomed to spikes and a cinder track. The film picks up speed quickly showing his graduated success, frustration at the 54 Olympics, difficulty with a challenging press and the wonderful portrayal of his great friends and teammates Chris Brasher and Christ Chataway who set him up with their excellent pace of the four-minute mile. Highly exciting film as it builds toward the great achievement and the film race is orchestrated perfectly and looks and feels like the actual race. The film captures the period well as night races are shown run in poorly lit condition soften making it difficult to determine who is leading. The DVD also includes the film of that actual first sub four minute race with interviews with Chataway, Bannister and Bannisters'' two great challengers for the four minute mile back in 54, Australian John Landy and Wes Santee of the U.S. This is a film comparable on a low-key scale to Chariots of Fire and it is  `well done". Ironically, Harold Abrahams (gold medalist in the 100 in Chariots of Fire) narrated the actual race. Brasher later wins the steeple in a contested finish at the 56 games. Might have been a touch better if it included the Vancouver race between Landy and Bannister but Landy's injury may have diminished that ending. This film, however, leaves off on a very high note.
3299474
A great film of the life and times of an amazing spirit and the times, people and place around him.
2117392
Good sports movie with generally authentic football scenes with players flying through the air to embellish the dramatic effect.  Would have liked to have seen more character development, particularly of the star, cocky running back who was injured early in the season which ended his stardom.  His story was undeveloped and begs the question:  "What will you be if not a star athlete".  This theme is much better explored in the documentary "Hoop Dreams".
Also of note is the marginalization of players on the all-black Dallas-Carter team who were just big, fast, mean, dirty and not a one of them was given any dialogue.  The touch-pick totin' head coach was the only character from that team given a few lines.  This type of characterization works for the us vs them contrast but rendered Dallas-Carter just one amorphous mass of savagery (sound like a familiar black stereotype?).
Of course, creative license was taken in that the two teams actually: 1)played one another in the semifinal and not for the championship, 2)the game was played outdoors in the rain before 10,000 fans, not indoors before 50,000, 3)Permian held the lead for the majority of game only to be overtaken by a miraculous go-ahead drive by Carter late in the 4th quarter.  Permian lost in a low scoring affair 14-9 perhaps because the quarterback instead of running for the goal line (as depicted in the movie's final play) instead threw an incompletion and 4)Carter was never ranked higher than 3rd in the state while in the movie they were depicted not just as #1 but completely dominant.
2626271
I am not a sports fan. Period. I'll watch the occasional few minutes of Michael Jordan in a tense playoff or a fantastically close Super Bowl on occasion, but beyond that, I have no interest.

  I do find  few movies about the fanatics who drives themselves to excel interesting or the fanatics who drive people to excel, to go far beyond what they themselves thought possible.

  That's what "Miracle" is all about, a coach named Herb Brooks who drove a group of mostly collegiate hocky players to fuse into an Olympics winning team, trumping the Soviets, who had won four consecutive championships.

  Kurt Russell plays Herb Brooks. What we see is a narrow, driven man who has only one goal: to produce an Olympics winning hockey team through his coaching. And Russell conveys that image beautifully, leaving us with an impressiona of a guy we probably wouldn't want to spend any time with (and, likewise, we would be of no interest to him) who ignored his family and browbeat 20 some kids into submission until they became a functioning team.

  It's a great movie about a coach. The players, as they were in the real incident, were submerged to the coach's will and ego. The hockey scenes are exciting. I don't know enough about hockey to comment on their authenticity and, frankly, I don't care.

  In the end, it is the story of a driven, selfish man demanding that his recruits obey his every order and become, to a large extent, automatons until they fuse into a single whole, a team. Look closely and you will see the techniques of every successful army since the beginning of time: slavish obediance while preserving the capability to make individual decisions. It worked for Alexander the Great, Julius Ceasar, George Patton and Herb Brooks, when he applied it to hockey.

  A lot of the film centers on rah-rah American patriotism which needed a boost after feckless Presidency of Jimmy Carter who cancelled American participation in the 1980 Summer Olympics to "protest" the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It is a nice feeling to see the United States portrayed positively in a Hollywood movie, for a change.

  Overall, "Miracle" is an entertaining movie about an eccentric coach, the team he built and the results they acheived. Best of all, it's a true story.

Jerry
3670523
This is a book that you just can't put down . It is a story of determination, courage and drive all expressed on a basketball court. It is a story of a young man who was destined to become a world class NBA basketball star but nature dealt him a bad card from the deck. A serious knee injury ultimately changed the direction of his life from a kid in the streets of LA to a spectaular college star and an NBA player until the injury and the incredible mismangement at the NBA coaching ranks sunk his dream and promise. This young man could not catch a break although his skills were outstanding.  What is noteworthy is that he still managed to move forward to recover his life as detailed in the remarkable story written by Eric Brach. This has to become a movie!

Neil Solomon PhD
2953465
Clint Eastwood's latest film may be set against the backdrop of a post apartheid South Africa, but above all else it is a testament to the power of sports to bring people together and provide something to believe in.  In tis sense, it is one of the director's simplest works to date.  But that doesn't mean that it isn't a stirring film that offers much to think about.

Invictus follows Nelson Mandella after his election as South Africa's president at the end of apartheid and his struggle to unite his country.  He finds his opportunity with the nation's rugy team; a group of mostly white players that have been exhibiting poor play and are on the verge of being disbanded by the nation's non-white majority who view them as a reminder of the oppression that they endured for nearly 50 years.  Mandella speaks up for the maligned group suggesting that keeping them intact would serve as a gesture of peace and forgiveness to the country's white minority who have lost their power and may fear reprisal.

Mandella also reaches out to the captain of the rugby team (a beefed up Matt Damon) and encourages him to inspire his teammates to be more than they think are capable of.  Without saying so, he asks the team to win the 1995 world cup.  His hope is that his racially divided nation will come together to support a team that represents them all, not just the white minority.

And so the movie follows the team as they undertake their overwhelming task of winning the world cup. They also take on the role of ambassadors to the angry and povery stricken citizens by traveling to the slums and teaching the game to children.  Since the story that the movie is based on is true, there is no need to bring cheap sentiment or melodramatic sub plots into the picutre.  Eastwood simply lets the story tell itself with predictable yet uplifting results.

The performances are strong everywhere.  Morgan Freeman is the epitome of grace under pressure as Mandella and Matt Damon nicely captures the mixed emotions of a man who is put in the difficult position of inspiring his teammantes  and serving as a bridge between the nation's racial divide.  It is naive, of course, to believe that the team's improbable run and victory solved the nation's problems, or that Mandella was as infalible and saintly as he is portrayed here.  But it is easy to believe that for a brief time, a nation stood together and supported their rag-tag rugby team as they made everyone forget about the ever present problems that were continuing to rip them apart.  That is the ultimate power of sports; to provide something to believe in, even if for a brief period of time.  That is ultimately what Invictus accomplishes.
2144694
Jordan dunks from the free throw line...'nuf said!!! I loved this movie as a kid and adult. Anyone who even mentions the other wanna-be 23 from Cleveland knows VERY LITTLE about basketball and is what I call a "media fan" - someone who likes whatever or whoever the media is trying to cram down our throats.
329501
This movie chronicles the beginning of the Portland Trail Blazers to their first round draft pick in 2007.  I have seen this movie many times and I can tell you that it really moves me when I do.  What makes this movie really special is the way the director tells the story from the fans and players point of view.  It seems as though you are having a conversation with the people being interviewed. I highly recommend this movie if you have not already seen it.
1398580
If you like basketball at all, you're going to love this movie.  If you like to make fun of your friends, you're going to love this movie.  Witty comedy that doesn't offend (that's hard to come by these days).
Billy  Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) is a street-wise basketball player with something  to prove.  He heads to Venice Beach to hustle big-time players for money.  Hoyle bites off more than he can chew when he meets up with Sydney Dean  (Wesley Snipes) and becomes the victim of a hustle himself.  However, Dean  and Hoyle can't deny the bond of friendship between them, no matter how  hard they try.  When Billy loses his girlfriend because he loses all of  their money and Dean's home is robbed they turn to each other for the  solution...the ultimate pick-up game vs the legends:  Eddie "The  King" Farooq and "Duck" Johnson.  $2500 to play, winner take  all.  Do they win?  Well, as Gloria would tell you, "Sometimes when  you win, you really lose.  Sometimes when you lose, you really win.  And  sometimes when you win or lose you actually tie.  And sometimes when you  tie, you actually win or lose."  Yeah, it's confusing.  But that's the  way it ends.
Classic comedy.
4921078
I urge people to buy this video. Before I saw this movie, I really had no idea bout the Goat or about his skill (like that double-dunk he does). Full marks to Don Cheadle on playing him, and Eriq La Salle for doing such a fine job in capturing the legend on film. Other than the ball aspect, it touches on drugs and how not all greats made it to the NBA.  The film leaves u wondering...what woulda happened if Earl made it to the big-time?
3656732
I will be honest and say that I am not a large fan of basketball, however I have heard a lot about this player and was intrigued by his life. This is not a terribly long book but it does give a pretty detailed account of his life growing up from child to basketball court. He was the only son in a home full of sisters and it sounds like his family took that into consideration and took great measures to keep him safe. By the time he had gotten to high school he was emerging as one of the greats in basketball, racking up many awards. This was excellent considering his size, he defied the odds against him. He continued playing basketball through college and was very successful at that as well. Once he entered the NBA he was selected as a first round pick, it doesn't get much better than that. Through the injuries, his size working against him he was able to still remain at the top and one of the more relevant players in the NBA. There is so much more to this player, I highly recommend this book. It was well written and a decent length without being over the top long or unrealistically short.
361196
At this price it's a no-brainer for Bird/Celtic fans.  The documentary is good but dated as others have said.  The 60 point game is a really nice selection because it shows how unselfish a guy can be and put up sixty points, pretty amazing.  The '92 game is also good as the aging Larry knocks down a lot of big shots to get the Celts past an excellent Portland team.  It's funny how the announcers are so dismissive of Bird in the '92 game as he scores 40 points or whatever.  I think maybe there was some feeling at that time that Bird had been built up to an unrealistic level in the eighties and maybe there was guilt that Larry had been lifted up as a great white hope while the game was passing him bye.  Maybe that kind of sentiment continues and explains why this package seems sparse for Larry "legend".  If you forget the hype and take his performances at face value there is much to be savored here.  Makes me wonder how things would have been for him if he had entered the NBA at a younger age rather than 24 (Kobe had 3 titles at 23).  He played all out and didn't seem to live the kind of lifestyle to extend his career like so many did later.  He probably peaked around '84 and had diminishing physical skills (which were not so much to begin with) each season thereafter.  Kudos to Larry Bird for maximizing his potential and setting such a good example for any kids to learn from yesterday and today.
4868030
An iconic figure from the basketball world who is, and has been thru so much more than the typical superstar athlete... a great read, and a great inspiration.
928308
Was nice to get perspective of Jordan's life from different perspectives.  Personally I think too much emphasis on negative things in his life as opposed to the positives he gave to millions and millions of people.  Jordan's accomplishments allowed a generation of kids to  dream to be on top of their game no matter what game that may be.  Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever play.  I don't need hundreds of quotes from a guy like Krause who apparently had a personal vendetta against him.
4472133
As a child I grew up adoring the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA.  I almost adopted basketball as a second religion, watching and analyzing games and players while also trying to teach myself the game.  However, there were  those moments where even the stingiest of statisticians had to just sit  back and watch.  This video exemplifies those moments.  From last minute  (or second) heroics to complete and utter domination, this video covers the  pride and passion for the game of basketball with the talent and tenacity  of those who contributed to making it something special.  The years of  Finals games that were recorded visually are had their special moments  where certain players or teams stepped out of the shadows and broke the  mold to dare and accomplish mighty things.  This is a teaching tool for  those who want to be an avid fan and is a source of validation for those  who already are.  The average fan gets to see only what is present, but  this video helps re-establish the legacy of the past as well as setting the  stage for future surprises.  For the past couple years in the NBA Finals, I  contemplated that those majestic moments of sheer will and desire had  passed as the game deteriorated into slugfest after boring slugfest,  offering only the comfort that stars of character like David Robinson and  Tim Duncan achieved their ambitions but never offering an insight into what  makes the game worth watching.  Then, after this year's Laker's/Pacer's  series, I was consoled with fine basketball and the hope that another 100  greatest plays are in the making.  Until that compilation is constructed,  however, I still love to see this movie and re-live the previous one  hundred.