Murderball

It's like Mad Max mixed with Rollerball and it has a touch of Rocky and some elements of Cool Runnings.

Sounds like the power pitch from hell doesn't it?

So what kind of mess would we expect from a violence-filled, fighting-against-adversity, whooping-for-the-underdog epic? Well, as it turns out, one of the best films of the year.

Not a no-brain Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster but a Sundance Festival storming documentary about the rivalry between the US and Canadian Quad Rugby representatives at the 2004 Paralympics in Greece.

Murderball has all the elements for a doc with substance and, like its protagonists, it sure delivers.

Here's the science bit: Quad Rugby (referred to by players as the far less marketable Murderball), is a full-contact sport played by quadriplegics in armoured wheelchairs.

Players have to pass the ball within ten seconds or face being penalized and the object is to smash pass the opponents until the end zone is reached. The game is split into four eight-minute quarters and virtually no holds are barred.

If you thought disabled people are wusses, these guys are here to dispel the myth while rolling over your asses.

Not wheelchair-bound sportsmen who play the game to gain sympathy, Murderballers are athletes who won't let a little thing like lacking mobility keep them from bringing home the gold.

And that's what makes Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's epic tale such a success.

At no point are we asked to feel sorry for the players. They are presented warts and all, from the overbearing fathering of sports-obsessed Canadian coach Joe Soares to the womanising ways of the beer-swilling American contingent, these are people primarily and the whole disabled thing is an afterthought.

That's not to say there aren't some heartstring-tugging moments - there are plenty of times where the lump in the throat threatens to grow as large as the ball on the court.

The film's emotional core concerns Keith Cavill, a young man paralysed following a motocross accident.

Following him from desperation as he struggles to tie his own shoelaces to unbridled joy as he hares around in his tricked-out wheelchair, the feeling of emancipation coupled with his contagious cheesy grin is impossible to ignore.

From hot-wheeler Mark Zupan, the coolest guy on the court, to Soares' transformation from win-at-all-costs coach to proud father, this is lifeaffirming, soul-boosting, adjectivespewing stuff.

Quite simply unmissable, rather than feeling sorry, it's far more likely you'll be booking your tickets for Beijing in 2008.