Michael Jordan to the Max

Michael Jordan is not only the greatest basketball player who ever lived, but a man of high character with few of the behavior problems we have come to accept, even celebrate, in professional athletes, but the truth is, that’s not enough to fill even a short documentary film. Directed by James D. Stern and John Kempf and narrated by Laurence Fishburne, this unabashed promo for the NBA feels like one of those cooing, heart-tugging profiles of athletes shown every four years as part of the Olympics—except that here, blown up to the massive IMAX screen and stretched out to the standard 45-minute length of an IMAX feature, it feels bloated and self-important. Jordan himself, of course, comes off well, modest, self-assured, and as poetry in motion on the court.