More than a Game

2009 "The incredible true story of LeBron James and the Akron Fab Five"
7.6| 1h45m| PG| en
Details

This documentary follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his talented teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Ohio and James' journey to fame.

Director

Producted By

Harvey Mason Media

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Cleveronix A different way of telling a story
Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
SnoopyStyle It's 2003. LeBron James, Dru Joyce III, Romeo Travis, Sian Cotton, and Willie McGee are preparing to play the National Championship Game. The documentary takes a look at these five teenagers in Akron, Ohio growing up and rising up to be one of the best high school teams. They were a shoe-string unknown team playing in the AAU tournaments with teams from across the country. In 1999, they lost the championship game by two points on a final miss by LeBron. LeBron is the future NBA star dubbed the Chosen One. Dru is the undersized kid with a chip on his shoulder. Romeo is the angry addition in the sophomore year. Dru Joyce II takes over after their coach abandons them for a college job.This is more or less for fans of LeBron. It has his cooperation. It's mostly basketball with some personal revelations. The most important aspect seems to be their close-knit friendship and loyalty of belonging to the group. It has some insights and drama even for non-fans of LeBron. It doesn't really have anything too dramatic with the exception of LeBron's suspension. More than anything, this is about LeBron's nature and his connection to his home town.
jdesando Remembering Michael Jordan is feeling no player in basketball history could ever approach his skill and charisma. The smooth documentary More Than a Game offers the possibility that Le Bron James is everything Jordan was and maybe more. Yet it succeeds in deflecting James' glory by showing how his "Fab Five," as they called themselves at Akron's St. Vincent, St. Mary's in Ohio, overcame difficulties to become national champions.Although the documentary follows the usual arc of win, lose, win for sports stories, similar to Hoop Dreams, I had satisfaction that I witnessed a phenomenon of history—a team that survived briefly without James(who later won a court decision to be reinstated), qualified for the nationals, lost the national championship only to come back the next year victorious. Clichéd as that might be, it's interesting history. The impact of media coverage, especially the growing awareness of James's transcendent talent, is never fully explored in favor of spreading the story amongst the five star players and coach.Because James is a producer of this film, it's easy to see how it slides over the controversies such as his mother's financing a Hummer for him. There may be other more egregious acts, yet it's hard not to like the self-effacing star, even harder to discount the emotional challenges facing a coach who must coach his own son. Indeed the story of Coach Dru Joyce is every bit as interesting as that of the players, neophyte as he was to coaching basketball and with his son in the starting lineup. This is where director Kristopher Belman is at his best as he carefully reveals the difficulties such a situation brings.The sly comment about James at the end of the obligatory "what happened to whom" may be the best indicator that as manipulative as this doc may be, it has a sense of humor about a serious sports story.
dumsumdumfai is there More in this movie?And I thought 'Real Shaolin' was average. This exceeded my lows of TIFF08 on a documentary.The "catch" of this one is of course Lebron. And they do have a story about the team and the life long friends he played with. But it's basically a story - plot together like the Hooser movie, with videos and home movies added with current interviews and looking backs.Mind you there is message, loud and clear and lebron is NOT the main reason behind this doc - which I suspect as much and applaud the decision. But I thought the director would have had a deeper inside look ????A story could have been 45min... but told in 1.45?
benl-4 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