Funny, empowering Murderball one of the year's best

A tense moment from Murderball.

By Peter T. Chattaway

One of the surprisingly lamest recent examples is Bad News Bears, in which the normally creative Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Waking Life) proves that he, too, can make a movie utterly lacking in energy, enthusiasm and inspiration.The film concerns some foul-mouthed junior athletes, one of whom plays in a wheelchair.

It suffers from unfortunate timing, because it came out just a week after Murderball, a superior film about a unique kind of sport - in which people who have lost the use of their legs and at least part of their arms race about a basketball court in specially modified wheelchairs, trash-talking each other and knocking each other over.

Ironically, the sport was renamed 'quadriplegic rugby,' because it was felt that 'murderball' would not appeal to corporate sponsors; and yet this documentary, despite its politically incorrect title, could do more to boost the sport's profile than any other initiative to date.

Also ironically, this sport was invented in Winnipeg - by a man, Duncan Campbell, who now lives in Vancouver - but the film focuses on the rivalry between Team USA and an American athlete who is so competitive that, when he could no longer play for them, he became the coach of the Canadian team just so that he could get back at them!

The coach in question, Joe Soares, is one of several interesting characters who populate this film. Soares' family came to the United States from Portugal when he was 11, and he considers his success a tribute to the "American dream," even as his former teammates accuse him of "betraying" his country by coaching the Canadians.

Soares is so obsessed with his sport that he marginalizes his own family. He seems to be disappointed by the academic success of his brainy son, who isn't very interested in athletics. When he and his wife celebrate their wedding anniversary, she drinks a toast to him - and he replies, "To Team Canada, hopefully." But then his story takes an interesting turn, which evokes the closest thing this film has to religious language.

Murderball is remarkably funny and empowering, and easily one of the best films of the year. It also ends on a very poignant note, as the athletes - mostly men in their late 20s or 30s who lost the use of their limbs to disease and accidents years ago - visit some Iraq War veterans. These amputees seem to be a lot younger, yet they lost the use of their limbs in situations that were more serious, and more deliberate.

There's a lot more in this film that I could talk about - the girlfriend who misses her job at the morgue because she misses "the people," the child who wonders how a quad with no hands handles his pizza, and so on - but it's better if you experience the film for yourself.

Be warned, though, this isn't a family film; there is some profanity, as well as an excerpt from an instructional video on quadriplegic sex.

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It's bizarre how some of the cheesiest films can raise some of the most important questions. Take The Island, a film about two clones (Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson) who escape from the lab in which they were created, and who hope to blow the whistle on the scientists who engineered them as a source of 'spare parts' for the rich and famous.

Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor in The Island.

Some mainstream critics have already expressed concern that this movie might play into the hands of social conservatives, because it seems to be taking aim at the real-life exploitation of human embryos for medical purposes. But these critics needn't worry; the message is ultimately lost in a series of overblown and over-edited action scenes, many of them ripped off from director Michael Bay's previous film, Bad Boys II.

Then there is Stealth, in which a plane designed to fly without a pilot gets a mind of its own and becomes a bigger threat than the terrorists it is supposed to kill. On one level, this film is about little more than blowing stuff up real good. And yet, all sorts of themes are tucked into the script: the relationship between authority and autonomy, the way leadership can compel people to set good examples, and so on.

I can't say I'd encourage anyone to go out of their way to see these particular films, but if you see them with the right people, you could have some very stimulating discussions afterwards.

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Mel Gibson is making another movie - and no, it won't be about the Maccabees, St. Francis or any of the other subjects it was rumoured he was considering. Instead, Variety reports he will use the profits from The Passion of the Christ to produce Apocalypto, a non-religious action movie that takes place 500 years ago. The film will be shot in Mexico, and all the dialogue will be in "an obscure Mayan dialect." Seriously.

In other news, it is interesting to compare the trailers for the upcoming Narnia and Harry Potter movies. Despite complaints that the Potter stories are shallow or even evil, the trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ends on a rather moralistic note, with the voice of chief wizard Dumbledore talking about choosing between what is good and what is easy.

The trailer for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, on the other hand, promises nothing but action and adventure - battle scenes, scary monsters and the like. Because that's what really sells!