Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Year of the Yao, The

EMAILPRINTFine Line Features

Year of the Yao, The reviews
62
7.3 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by:

Directed by: Adam Del Deo
James D. Stern

Release Date:
Theatrical: April 15, 2005
DVD: March 14, 2006

Running Time: 88 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Language(s): USA / China

Summary

RATING: PG for some mild language

Starring Yao Ming, Colin Pine, and Shaquille O'Neal

This documentary is an exciting, inspiring chronicle of Yao Ming's tumultuous first year in the NBA. (Fine Line Features)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A skillful and winning piece of honest booster portraiture.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

A surprisingly layered portrait.

Read Full Review >
75

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Corny as it may sound though, it's all true-except, of course, for that mythical movie last-second championship bit.

Read Full Review >
70

Variety Joe Leydon

Slickly entertaining documentary.

Read Full Review >
70

Chicago Reader Fred Camper

Engrossing.

Read Full Review >
67

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Even if you know or care little about the sport, it's a fascinating saga.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Co-directed by James D. Stern (who made another NBA promotional documentary, "Michael Jordan to the Max") and Adam Del Deo, the story of the Americanization of Yao is determinedly upbeat.

Read Full Review >
60

The Hollywood Reporter Andrew Sun

What emerges is that Yao is a fascinating individual with great humor and modesty, as well as the potential to be one of the greats. Unfortunately, that's all we really find out about the guy.

Read Full Review >
60

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

With their fawning documentary Year Of The Yao, directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo unreflectively buy into the spin on charismatic 7'6" basketball center Yao Ming, but on a certain level, who can blame them?

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Provides little insight beyond hanging out with its super-sized star and would not be out of place as halftime filler except for its nearly 90-minute running time.

Read Full Review >
40

LA Weekly Tim Grierson

This glorified infomercial glosses over the underlying tension of a young man's introduction into a society whose materialistic, capitalist tendencies are diametrically opposed to his country's values.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Susan M. gave it a2:
Thanks for making basketball boring.

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | Olympics | Lost | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use