More Than A Game
First of all, I don't own a television and don't watch any sports. But with the recent coverage of Lebron James in the media, I happen to see this video on the shelf and gave it a try. The movie was started as a class project and after 7+ years, the movie came to be as we see it today.
This is more than a movie about basketball. This is a story of kids that became long-time friends and possibly the best high school basketball team of all time. It is a documentary that wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the persistence of writer/director Kristopher Belman. He was able to film the year of this spectacular team and at the same time tell the story from the beginning.
This is what sports is all about and what life is all about, too. No one kid was bigger than life and everyone respected each one's ability on the court and off the court. It is great that they have all still remained friends and can still cherish the moments when they all were in high school.
THUMBS UP/DOWN (1-5): 
Riding Giants
You don't have to be a surfer or know anything about surfing to enjoy this great documentary directed and co-written by Stacy Peralta. This video was released in 2005 and it is a classic surf movie about BIG WAVE SURFING.
I happened to surf for 35+ years, so I did know most of the information in the video, but that is not the mission of the video. The video wants you to participate, as an observer, of surfing at its best. Feel the power of the waves and also experience what goes into the minds of the surfers when they paddle out to catch waves of 80+ feet, taking their lives at risk.
I followed the world of Greg Noll when I was growing up as well as Mickey Munoz, Mike Stang and Ricky Grigg... some to the first BIG WAVE SURFERS (part 1). This is the beginning of Southern California and Hawaii's start of the surfing lifestyle. All they want to do is surf and they don't care about money, a home, possessions, etc. It is the story of Makaha, Sunset Beach, The North Shore, Waimea Bay, Pipeline, etc.
Part 2 is dedicated to Mavericks... a surfing spot that Jeff Clark surfed for 15 year alone, paddling out about 1/2 mile through cold water, large rocks, huge currents, fog and more. What an amazing feat when you witness the power of Mavericks.
Part 3 is about Laird Hamilton, probably the best big wave surfer of all times. He pursues the tow-in jet ski to catch 80+ waves using a very short surfboard at Jaws.
You will be sitting at the edge of your seat everytime a huge wave crashes in front of your eyes. The power and noise of these waves are incredible.
The documentary makes use of old surfing photos, film and more to put together an awesome documentary. I highly recommend this movie.
THUMBS UP/DOWN (1-5):
Brooklyn's Finest
Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida has discovered there's no line he won't cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. And Clarence ''Tango'' Butler has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz, one of Brooklyn's most infamous drug dealers.
With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world's most difficult jobs. When NYPD's Operation Clean Up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn's gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals.
During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny.
THUMBS UP/DOWN (1-5):
Green Zone
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Jason Isaacs, Brendan Gleeson, Antoni Corone, Khalid Abdalla
Director: Paul Greengrass
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93) re-team for their latest electrifying thriller in Green Zone, a film set in the chaotic early days of the Iraqi War when no one could be trusted and every decision could detonate unforeseen consequences.
During the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad in 2003, Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) and his team of Army inspectors were dispatched to find weapons of mass destruction believed to be stockpiled in the Iraqi desert. Rocketing from one booby-trapped and treacherous site to the next, the men search for deadly chemical agents but stumble instead upon an elaborate cover-up that inverts the purpose of their mission.
Spun by operatives with intersecting agendas, Miller must hunt through covert and faulty intelligence hidden on foreign soil for answers that will either clear a rogue regime or escalate a war in an unstable region. And at this blistering time and in this combustible place, he will find the most elusive weapon of all is the truth.
THUMBS UP/DOWN (1-5): 
Shutter Island
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Jackie Earle Haley
Director: Martin Scorsese
Two U.S. marshals, Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, are summoned to a remote and barren island off the coast of Massachusetts to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a murderess from the island's fortress-like hospital for the criminally insane.
THUMBS UP/DOWN (1-5):
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