The Redeem Team

⭐ 7.0/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

Saw this one advertised after I watched the Malice at the Palace doc, and I had laundry to fold, so why not?

I didn't love this one either. The thing about documentaries on events one is familiar with is that all the small details really start to annoy. The whole thing about getting bronze just felt over-dramatized. They lost two games, and the documentary made it sound like they were the worst team there. It was just small things like this, emphasising things over others for narrative sake, that just felt weird and biased.

I actually liked the Kobe stuff despite being a known Kobe hater. I thought it did a pretty good job of painting him as a weirdo, but also someone who is maniacal about his work ethic. The story of him working out at 5am while the rest of the team partied kinda summed up what everyone loved about him and I'm glad he was heavily featured here.

I also thought the other interviews were interesting and gave a cool idea of what they players are actually like. Carmelo being so invested in this was funny because it was essentially the height of his career, while LeBron being more relaxed made sense because I'd say winning gold was one of his lesser achievements. It was cool to see them interact in a bit more of a natural way.

All that said, Coach K totally ruined this documentary. This dude was so incredibly cheesy, so lame, and I just wanted him off my screen. All the stupid motivational tactics had me constantly rolling my eyes. We don't need a 3 minute clip of him showing the team a recording of the National Anthem. Do Americans even like this?

And yeah, in general the assumption that the audience is cheering for the US seemed lame as well. Why am I cheering for Goliath? During the final gold medal game, I definitely found myself wishing that Spain could have completed the upset.

TL;DR: it was fun seeing clips of these young stars, but this was too cheesy and dramatic.