well what's interesting about this article is that even after it's inclusion in the Sunday Washington Post, it's actually kind of helped make more people aware of the film, the matinee I saw on Tuesday had about twenty people in attendence, not great but still a decent number of folk checking out a docu film in the beginning of the afternoon.

Just off the top of my head, other docu's that have been extremely popular also include:

Spellbound
Winged Migration
The Corporation
Mad Hot Ballroom

I've heard of Super Size Me. I've heard of Fahrenheit 9/11. I'd even heard of MurderBall long before this thread. However, of the four movies you listed I've only heard of Mad Hot Ballroom, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about it (without guessing). It's just a vaguely familiar title. I don't think they qualify as "extremely popular" outside of the documentary-watching world.

Edit: Wait... I believe Spellbound was about kids spelling bees? Haven't seen it, though.

Lots of really good movies don't do well. I don't see charity threads for all those movies.

This may just be the most terrifying thread in the history of DVDTalk.

I saw it over the weekend. The main guy is form Austin so it has had a lot of press in town. I also say the thing on Real Sports about it a few years ago.

I saw a preview for this in theatres, and it looks somewhat interesting but I don't think any places are playing it near me, which is too bad because I think it would be interesting to see.

I'm not going to see this. I wouldn't even bother to turn on my television if it was playing on every channel all the time. I think they're pushing the limits on what documentaries audiences should be interested in. I'd rather watch pretty much anything Discovery HD plays instead of this movie. I also have no interest in seeing a movie about penguins and I find it absurd that a number of people actually are going to see this. I think I'll go buy a nice camera and film some cute puppies and wait for the millions to roll in.

I had very little interest in this film until I saw the Jackass Murderball Special the other day.

What a cool way to promote this flick.

you have no idea what you're talking about, refuse to see the film for yourself, and yet seem to take pride in your ignorance? march of the penguins was a mediocre film. but to its credit, it explored love, death, abandonment and community in a place few ever considered it to exist. it was not akin to gushing over puppydogs in a pet store window.

as for Murderball, i, like others have formed a preconcieved notion of what this film will be. i could be wrong, i could be right. but until i read or hear in conversation that the film goes deeper than my expectations, i won't see it. to me, it looks rather pedantic.

btw, the rejection of films about "people overcoming adversity" is a trivial excuse. this describes every piece of shit mainstream film discussed on these boards. look deeper, my friends.

While I'm sure the movie does explore those themes, it's marketing and mass appeal is akin to gushing over puppydogs in a pet store window. I'll wait for the HD broadcast.

I loved this movie. The part where the tall scary guy throws that silver ball and spikes and drills come out of it was great. I don't understand how the ball was able to float around and how did if fit all those deadly gadgets in such a small space? I also don't understand why their were Jawas in the movie, unless they were on some kind of star wars theme rugby team.

Still not playing anywhere around here.

one can hope that the HiDef master will be better looking than the ugly 35mm print I saw at Landmark's Bethesda Row theatres.

I could care less about this doc or most docs that came around every year. I go to movies to escape reality, not be immersed in it.

Reality immersion should be left to experts -- TV networks.

One thing that makes me not really care to see this movie is how the guys come across personally, based on what little I've seen of it (i.e. the trailer, ebert/roeper review, Jackass special). They seem like your typical "arrogant extreme sport athletes". I'm glad they have found something meaningful to them, and don't lock themselves away from everyone, but I don't want to watch a bunch of jerks talk about all the handjobs they got from nurses during their recovery.

I would have seen it already if it wasn't an hour away, and didn't require me to pay for parking (I just hate paying for parking for a movie).

He did not get a handjob from the nurse. The sponge bath however did bring it to life. It is pretty funny in the movie he said the nurse got so excited that she went to go get his Mother to show her.

I saw a trailer for it on a flick I rented. It looks good but I've nto seen any info about it being released here(Lansing, MI). I'll probably pick the disc up when it drops.

Well, on the Jackass: Murderball special, they all said that they got handjobs from nurses while they were recovering/in rehab/whatever. (This only refers to the ~3 guys who were on the Jackass special, not everybody on the team).

Watched it yesterday on DVD. 4 star film. The thing is it more about quadrapeligia than playing quad rugby. The quad rugby angle is only a backdrop to the real story of how these guys live and how people deal with tragedy and major life changes.

As for the sex angle of the film, I don’t see what the big deal is. I do think that is one of the main questions people have about spinal cord injury patients; can they have sex. These guys are young and of course sex is an issue for them. I found it interesting that a lot of them did have sex with their nurses and how hot the girlfriends of these guys were. I think a nice extra would be to spend some time with the wives and girlfriends of these guys and really did into their reasons why they even started dating someone in a wheelchair, let alone spending their entire lives with them. It would take a much better person than me to get into a relationship with someone who had such major obsticles to overcome.

This thread, after seeing the film, just nails in the fact that the marketing for this was horrible. This is not a film about overcoming adversity, as all those who think because it has people in wheelchairs in must be. It's about people, who like you and me, are sick of the PC crap and pussy society we live in treating these people special and like delicate flowers...they just happen to have been paralyzed. My favorite line is probably when one said, "My girlfriends mom came up to me and said, 'I hear you are going to the special Olympics' and I immediately went from a man to a fucking retard." But he certainly thinks the world should weep for him...

That's my take on the film at least. And people have made such a big deal about it, because it is an incredibly made film.

While a movie doesn't come to mind off the top of my head, there aren't 50 million Arrested Development thread's in TV Talk?

It could be just lack of interest of subject matter to the movie going audience. I've never heard of Murderball until it's DVD release, and it never played at our local theaters either. Most small independent theatrical films, and documentaries are never engaged at theaters nationwide, due to the expected insufficient gross of ticket sales.

Mark Zupan spoke at my University yesterday, I attended despite not having seen the film, but it was a really good discussion (although not very well attended). He was much more humble than I expected, but also was very funny. I'll probably pick up the movie at some point, especially after hearing a lot about how the film was produced.