The Birth of a Legend isn't going to push the boundaries of Hollywood biopics. No, in fact it's going to strip the genre down to the most pedestrian indie roots. But, in those roots there is some honesty, goodness, and a damn fine story..Pistol Pete Maravich was a true outsider who became much more than just a play maker… Maravich became iconic. When I was young there was John Havlichech (sp?) in the pros and Pistol Pete playing for LSU. Other than these two guys, and maybe Lew Alcindor,, I was oblivious to basketball superstars. What made Maravich more prescient was that he was a kid who another kid could relate to.Let me preface my review. I was a kid in junior high school when Pete was making his name at LSU. I wasn't particularly good, but I could relate to Pete because he was everything a kid wanted to be.. He gave me hope and I was an instant fan.Birth of a Legend is, often, noticeably, a shoe-string budget film. More often than not, however, it rises above it's humbleness and delivers. Not unlike the subject it weaves the story of. This movie has it's heart in exactly th right place, and the special period in which it all transpires somehow is lovingly brought to life. This was a transitional period in basketball. The old guard ruled, but the brashness, later exemplified by those born out of urban playgrounds, was just peaking it's head. And in all places this was happening with a very structured, and coached, player with uncanny natural instincts. Pete Maravich had something otherworldly. He had amazing ball handling talent to be sure, but he had a knack for amazing assists brought about by making amazing passes to open players never seen before. Maravich could literally score using another player to actually make the basket simply by making an impossible, and totally unexpected, pass only he could see as possible. Maravich invented a new style of basketball which was, at the time, almost impossible to defend. e of what this magic was all about. For all others I'd simply say see this humble film. It gets the "high points" right and has it's heart in exactly the right place. Pete Maravich was simply a other wordily player whose flame cast a long shadow. It bears mention that even in much smaller physical stature the young man playing Pistol Pete was amazing in this movie. That an the portrayal of his father deserve special mention. "The Birth of a Legend" transcends it's money-strapped simple roots and delivers a bigger message. A recommended watch.As a high school basketball player I must say I saw a bit of the magic that was Pistol Pete when a player named David Hall transferred from Indiana to our north Alabama rural team school when I was in the ninth grade. A player who could pass like no other and make those impossible hip shots. I caught a glimpse of this ethereal talent. For all others I simply say see this film.

I'm in a weird position with this movie. I watched it when it first came out, when my boys were still quite young, and remember liking it immensely. Now, all these years later, I saw it on Neflix Instant and thought it would be fun to watch with my eleven year old stepson. Wow, what a difference 20 years makes! I could hardly stand to watch this show through (Actually, I didn't. I got a call part way through and used it as an excuse to miss a large part of it!). I have to second what others have said about the god-awful acting by everyone in this film. It just all grated on me...the moralizing speeches by the father, the rants of the coach, and, to the greatest extent, the horrible performance by the lead. Another reviewer mentioned the whispering narrator. Listening to him made the hair on my neck bristle! In this era of Hollywood "rebooting" movies (i.e. The Hulk, Spiderman, etc.), this is a story worthy of a new -- and much more refined -- look. Pistol Pete's story is inspirational and I'd love for someone to put it in a movie that doesn't make me want to run an ice pick through my right temple.Side Note: My stepson actually seemed to like the movie. Perhaps one of the reasons I appreciated it all those years ago was because it was so squeaky clean and, as a parent, I didn't have to cringe my way through any of the subject matter.

I mention the Omega Code because it is my personal benchmark of bad movies promoted by Christian ministries (i.e. Paul & Jan Crouch of TBN).I had never heard of this movie until recently receiving a promotional e-mail from the American Family Association (Don Wildmon), which by the way, had bad (404) links anyway.With the NBA finals going on, I decided to rent it from NetFlix. I have to agree with most of the comments from the last two posters and disagree with most of the comments from other admirers who must be suffering from 1 Corinthians 13:12 ('seeing dimly').The film was a big disappointment. The acting, writing, and more importantly -- the directing, was some of the worst I have seen. I had hoped to see a true biography of Maravich's life and accomplishments -- not a snapshot of one year (8th grade) in his life.Certainly none of the content is offensive in the movie (unless you consider 'butthead' vulgar), and if your child is involved in PIP and/or Upward Basketball, you'll recognize many of the drills.

I'm beginning to think that every other person (save one) who posted on this movie's board has sustained some sort of serious head trauma. I looked this film up with hopes that I could enter into some fantastic and deeply ironic conversation on this film's utter lack of merits. Imagine my surprise when I found that some people seem to enjoy this terrifyingly bad piece of rubbish.The acting is atrocious, particularly from the slow child in the title role. He seems ruefully aware of the fact that there is a camera in his face. The script seems less to have been "written" then compiled from a book of clichés by an illiterate night manager at Wal-Greens. The screenwriters hope to trick the audience to accepting comments like "you don't want people to think you're light in your loafers, do you?" as homespun wisdom or, at the very least, something that normal loving families say.Maybe I'm just a purist, you know, with wanting healthy relationships to be sustained by something more than a game. But apparently, according to a few posters, a shared love for basketball is a healthy and loving way for a father to relate to his son. One wonders what sort of relationship Press would have had with his boy had he been, say, a dancer. I'll leave that to your imagination.In any case, this movie blows. Hard. Don't ever ever ever ever ever watch it.