No basketball fan - or, for that matter, Los Angeles Lakers fan - should be caught dead without watching Spike Lee's Kobe Doin' Work. They won't only enjoy the film for its inclusion of slickly shot and edited basketball footage but will crave and embrace the commentary of the Lakers' star athlete Kobe Bryant, as he recalls tense moments of the game, interactions with teammates and opposing players, and certain motivations as he runs up and down the court.This documentary has the ability to captivate die-hard basketball and Lakers fans, but I question how it will hold up for the moderately curious viewers, like myself, who were halfway expecting a documentary concerning Kobe off the court and a day-in-the-life scenario. Almost anyone could turn on a TV, walk into a local bar (if people still do that anymore), or pull up on their phone a Lakers game and see Kobe in action. The first issue with Lee's Kobe Doin' Work is it gives us something we could already see and misses the golden opportunity of giving us something we otherwise couldn't.The film's selling point is the fact that Bryant himself recorded a commentary track for the game we're watching, which is against the world champion San Antonio Spurs on April 13, 2008. Lee tells us in a two-minute opening scene that Kobe permitted thirty cameras to capture his moves on screen and then proceed to record an engaging commentary about everything that occurred in that game. Lee seems so fascinated with Kobe when speaking about how he went about making this documentary and hanging out with Kobe, smitten by his kindness and his passion for the game. One wonders if anybody bothered to ask Lee would he act surprisingly out of the norm or in any other way except for positive if he had thirty cameras watching him and a documentary about to premiere on a huge network. While the access is pretty grand and the commentary is rather unique, one wonders how much of it is fabricated for the camera and if Kobe's thoughts are still fighting to get out, but are repressed thanks to better judgment on his behalf.What we have left to rely on is eighty-nine minutes of some fairly solid basketball footage, captured at multiple different angles and edited together with the unsurprising crispness I've come to expect with Spike Lee's documentary joints, especially after watching his most recent, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. But crisp editing and slick footage fades when you realize what's being edited together and slickly captured is of little interest to you as a whole. Kobe Doin' Work did nothing for me in the long run, and will surely be forgotten in passing days. Despite considerable efforts by Spike Lee to make this film broadly appealing, I can't help but feel this was a rejected idea for one of those brilliant ESPN 30 for 30 documentaries that Lee went along and made anyways.Directed by: Spike Lee.

Kobe Doin' Work is not your typical Spike Lee joint and it's not your typical documentary. However, it totally delivers because it stays true to its title: It simply lets you see what a game day is like from the eyes of Kobe.Needless to say, this joint is only for basketball fans. And if you love basketball, then you're gonna enjoy this a lot because you'll finally get a glimpse of what it takes to play at such a high level. Also, it was very interesting to see all the talk in the bench and in the locker room.Yes, Kobe comes off a bit too good in the film, but who cares? I didn't view this film to see Kobe on trial or something. And I wish there could be more films like this for other great players. Who wouldn't want Mike Doin' Work for example? Overall, a very interesting film.

Kobe Doin' Work is a sports documentary film directed by Spike Lee.It focuses on Kobe Bryant during one day of the 2007–08 Los Angeles Lakers season.The documentary follows Kobe Bryant during the 2007–08 NBA season throughout the April 13, 2008 game against the San Antonio Spurs. The 83-minute documentary ran on ESPN commercial free. Bryant granted filmmaker Spike Lee and 30 cameras unprecedented access to his life for one day.The documentary also focuses on Bryant and the team in huddles and during time-outs.Bryant provided the voice-over for the documentary on February 2, 2009, hours after he scored 61 points against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, a single-game record at the arena.You really have to like basketball to appreciate it. It's basically replaying a game with Kobe "mic'd" up and explaining how Lakers "do work". Shows Kobe's true leadership on the team.But still,one can be turn off on how talkative Kobe can be when narrating about himself and his experiences as an NBA player. One must really a big fan not only of basketball but of Kobe himself to appreciate it.

Here's the deal with Kobe Doin' Work: if you're just a basketball fan, let alone a Kobe Bryant fan, this is mandatory viewing. After seeing this at the Tribeca Film Festival it was clear who this document of a basketball game, not even so much a documentary, was aimed at. For example, my brother would watch this and be hooked minute one, while my wife would steer clear faster than you can say blueberry pie. Spike Lee had a goal here and he executed it masterfully, but it's not an all-around crowd-pleaser unless, as mentioned, the whole crowd digs the Lakers and Kobe Bryant and the methods and sportsmanship of basketball in general. As someone who is neutral I had a good perspective of it, enjoying it and being interested for what it was, even as I knew I might not watch it again when it comes time for its airing on ESPN.This is to basketball what Scorsese's Shine a Light did for the Rolling Stones - setting up dozens of cameras, we're given so many points of view and angles and set-ups on a straightforward 4-quarter-long basketball game between the Lakers and the Spurs. That it also gives unlimited options for editing and creating texture and speed and variance is a bonus for the interested viewer. At the same time there's another twist Lee implements that is clever: an audio commentary from Bryant (with occasional snippets of questions or observations from Lee) on the game, all of the decisions made in strategy and the practicality of the game, or just some of the little things that one wonders about how a player does the work on the court, the cues the player picks up from the others, the cues gaged from the opposing team, little lessons learned, mistakes, and of course goofs. On top of this, Bryant has a microphone on his jersey so we hear everything he says, from mundane to down-n-dirty leadership, throughout and even in the locker room.I was never bored by any of the action, and Lee's little flourishes of style added some verve (and of course that typical jazz score as well placed about during the game) but, again, it's a niche thing. The same viewer who was fascinated by Inside Man may not immediately go to Kobe Doin' Work. And yet I can recommend it without a doubt in my mind for its intended audience, the sports geeks and guys and girls who live for basketball. It's made by a fan for the fans. For everyone else, it's a fun viewing once, with a little of the personal side of Bryant sprinkled at the end. It is what the title says, and it's damn proud of it. 7.5/10