Borg vs McEnroe (2018)

People are voting emotionally.

Masterful Movie

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It's 1980. Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) is #1 chasing a historic 5th consecutive Wimbledon. #2 John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf) is the bad boy of tennis. On the surface, these two are complete opposites but they have a lot in common. Lennart Bergelin (Stellan Skarsgård) has been Borg's coach since he was an angry young boy. Borg is breaking down from the pressures of his perfection and his fame. McEnroe is isolated due to his reputation. The two would meet in one of the most epic tennis matches in history.Borg's story is compelling. The acting is perfect. The character's internal journey is grand. McEnroe's character journey lacks by comparison. It probably needs a bit more. LaBeouf is great. The most surprising dissection of his tantrums come from Borg. The tennis match is pretty good. The more compelling scenes come from the locker room. This is a very good sports movie and character studies.

There's something missing in this film. I'm still wondering what would be as the performances were solid, and the "life" segment we follow were interesting. Mostly I felt that the characterization, both of Borg and McEnroe, were to simplistic and lacking depth, as they were presented in one dimension only. Borg is presented on flat way as "the" cold ice block and McEnroe, as the emotional volcano always near of erupting, Just disappointing...

IMO the last few years have been quite dull as far as movies are concerned, everything that comes out of Hollywood is just plain bad.That's probably why most people including myself are so enamored with Netflix, it gives us the option to pick and choose films from other places rather than the ubiquitous junk from the West Coast. My only place that I still catch main stream movies these days is when I fly commercially, and so I was lucky enough to catch this little gem.The name gives away the whole plot, but essentially it centers around the rivalry between Tennis Legend Bjørn Borg and Tennis Loudmouth John McEnroe during the Wimbledon finals of 1980. The movie is in many ways very similar to Rush, which portrayed the rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda just a few years earlier.Both Sverrir Gudnason and Shia LaBeouf do an excellent job in portraying their respective characters, when I look at Sverrir Gudnason it's almost like stepping back in time and looking at Bjørn Borg and Shia LaBeouf is just as unlikable as the real McEnroe.Overall it was a very enjoyable movie and I would recommend it to anybody interested in Tennis.

I really enjoyed this. I thought both actors did a great job and both of them nailed their characters. The film lags a tad with the childhoods; however, overall it's just about the games and the tennis up to that epic final. And what a final! Thumbs up from me.