Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

gavin6942 A look at the obsessive world of competitive Scrabble.The interesting thing is that Scrabble is actually a game of math and not of words -- although it appears to be about vocabulary, to win you have to understand how to score. Sure, there is definitely an advantage to knowing how to rearrange letters in your head to make words, but you never actually have to know what any of the words mean -- just whether or not they are valid.One of the players (Marlon) is the least like the others, and has some interesting comments about the English language (and language in general). To add to his mystique, one scene appears to show him being involved in prostitution (though it is somewhat ambiguous).Another guy (Joe) is like a cross between Woody Allen, Larry David and a Buddhist monk... which is more neurotic and less entertaining than you might think.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain An extraordinary band of misfits embark on trying to win a Scrabble tournament. I love seeing people with such eccentricities. I enjoy a good game of Scrabble, but these guys are obsessed. This also damages them as characters. Most don't have jobs, instead deciding to focus on Scrabble. Also, they don't tend to be that smart. They simply memorize what's allowed and what isn't The film takes us to a number of places and events, but never gets exceptionally interesting. It also doesn't build up the tension of the games, just simple notes on who's winning pop up on screen. A nice piece as a simple observation of a strange world, but doesn't explore the subject.

MartinHafer This film is about a small group of professional Scrabble players. Well, professional in that they play in tournaments for money and occasionally play each other for money, though the money they actually win is almost always minimal--certainly in most cases NOT enough to pay rent or have a family. Despite this very limited payoff, these folks travel the country participating in very, very serious games--at least as serious as any high-stakes poker game! As a psychology teacher, I probably got a lot more out of this documentary than the average person. That's because instead of focusing on the games, I was fascinated by the personalities of the players, as the elite players were NOTHING like I'd expected. I had expected that they would all be great intellectuals--such as professors, Nobel Prize winners and brainiacs. However, the opposite was usually the case. Many were unemployed or worked dead-end jobs. None of them were successful in a traditional sense with jobs or family. Instead, the players were usually misfits--people lacking social graces, having severe personality disorders, filled with anger and in a few cases the players seemed on the edge of sanity. How this game dominates their lives and thinking is amazing and all-consuming--and it's truly an obsession. For the most part, I found the players to be very unlikable (especially, but certainly NOT excluding Marlon) and lacking a fully formed personality--and, interestingly enough, this didn't seem to bother these hyper-competitive players. I was also surprised to see that many didn't even seem to like the game--and one, in particular, was physically miserable during the tournaments! Yet they still played--day in and day out even though there was almost no financial compensation for doing this--even with the top players!! Fascinating, but also ultimately very sad.By the way, the language is pretty rough in spots--parents might want to think about this before letting kids watch this documentary.

Tilly Gokbudak Films are won and lost in the editing room. This fact is even more apparent with documentaries. I think the subject is amusing, but the film does not have the suspense of the spelling bee doc "Spellbound" nor does it capture the humor of those who are ultra-obsessive about their hobby as well as "Barbie Nation." I think better editing would have raised the quality of this film. And, there is too much emphasis on Stephan Fatsis. I think there could have been more interviews with neutral observers, such as hometown reporters who have covered the respective subjects. The film does however show a degree of objectivity, which at times had to be a challenge given the overwhelmingly ridiculous lifestyles of those in the film. I think the bigger question, which was better addressed in "Barbie Nation," is what drives this obsession? Is the nature of our commercial society, that some people will just never know when to 'say when?' On the other hand, one must also admire the determination of the subjects to achieve what they have. In the most competitive country in the world, perhaps there is no other way to win!