Drazen

I'm from Hungary, grew up playing basketball in the 90's and 2000's so Drazen was a little before my time, but we knew about the yugoslavian dream team of the early 90's and all their great world class players, especially Drazen. He was truly a trailblazer for european basketball, the first who proved in the NBA that the best of Europe can compete with the very best the NBA has to offer.

This movie was sadly quite a disaster, nowhere near the quaily that such a legendary athlete would deserve. I was expecting something like the recent Disney movie of Giannis' life, but this is a low budget movie with a terrible choice for the lead actor. It's one thing that the guy doesn't have the phisique of an NBA star, but it's quite ridiculous that the real Drazen was much better looking than the actor portraying him. Like come on, couldn't they find someone who at least doesn't have a round face with a double chin? It was very distracting, but even worse, the story was boring although it could've had much more action and insteresting stuff. E g. They completely left out the 92 olympics or how the yugoslavian propaganda turned serbian and croatian players against each other before that. Only good thing I can say about the movie is that the ending was done tastefully, it was a nice touch.

Maybe one day a more talented croatian director will do a better work, until then we at least have the 30 for 30, Once Brothers ESPN docu which is a very good tribute to this legendary basketball player.

It's hard to imagine a more uninspired take on one of the most inspiring athletes in history. "Drazen", a film that should have been a moving tribute to the "Mozart of Basketball," is instead a lifeless and shallow portrayal that does a disservice to its subject.

The film makes an effort to show Drazen Petrovic beyond the basketball court - through his relationships with his parents, his brother, and a love interest - but every attempt at emotional depth lands with a dull thud. There's no spark, no tension, no feeling. Scenes that are clearly meant to be heartfelt come off as hollow and mechanical, like emotional checkboxes being ticked off without any real understanding of what makes a human story compelling.

The romantic subplot in particular feels dramatically empty. The relationship unfolds with all the emotional intensity of a phone commercial, and ultimately adds nothing meaningful to the film or to our understanding of Drazen Petrovic as a person.

The direction is uninspired, and the script seems written by someone with no understanding of character, pacing, or storytelling. Even the most basic emotional beats fall completely flat. There's no sense of triumph, no heartbreak, no intimacy. Watching this film is like reading a Wikipedia entry aloud, only with worse writing and less insight. It's hard to believe that the life of such an electric, driven and charismatic figure could be turned into something so emotionally sterile. Credit (or rather blame) goes to the director and screenwriter, whose utter lack of vision and storytelling talent reduces an extraordinary life into a bland slideshow of facts.

With source material as rich and compelling as Drazen Petrovic's life, the failure to create a meaningful, moving film isn't just disappointing - it's astonishing. This was a chance to honour a cultural icon, a global talent, and a deeply human story. Instead, we got a film that feels like it doesn't understand or care why Petrovic mattered at all.

"Drazen" isn't just a bad film - it's a wasted opportunity of epic proportions.

The film begins in such a detailed, warm way, it immediately draws you into the story, however, as the film progresses, something like a kind of holes in the script itself is visible. He abruptly switches from one to another (completely unimportant) part of Drazen's life. You get a detailed account of Drazen's love life, but you leave out what made Drazen world famous, which is his basketball success. The first part of the film (Drazen's childhood and teenage days) looks pretty good, while the second part of the film (Drazen's professional basketball career) looks like a longer movie trailer. Such a capital work with a capital title had to be done in much more detail and more carefully, this is the grade, in my case, drawn by the opening part of the film.

The second half of the movie feels like you're reading a book, skipping 10-20 pages after each page you read.

The movie looks like Drazen's mother was written the script. So many aspects of his professional career are missing, especially his success with Yugoslavia basketball team, whyle trying to tell some romantic story about the girl nobody knows about it. As a neutral, I know that Croats and Serbs has many problems because of breakuo of Yugoslavia, but you cannot just skip those things just like that. That's the untergral part of Drazen's life and career.

Also the acter and his Afro haircut looks ridiculous, and he doesn't resemble to Drazen at all. From the cinematic and production side, movie looks good.

I can't say I'm being objective here-but honestly, I don't want to be. Drazen touched something deep in me, and made me cry like I hadn't cried in a long time watching a film. Because this wasn't just cinema: it was reliving someone who has always been more than a basketball player to me. Drazen was my idol, my reference, my hero. And this movie, despite its flaws, brings him back to life on screen.

This is not a documentary or a sports chronicle. It's an intimate portrait, focused on the man rather than the legend. It works best when it dives into his family relationships-especially with his mother-and when it captures that almost obsessive passion he had for training, for improving, for achieving the impossible. Seeing him as a child, so stubborn and so full of heart, broke me. We already know how his story ends, but here they choose not to show the accident-instead, they remind us of what he was: light, not tragedy.

The main cast performs well, but Zrinka Cvitesic deserves special mention as Biserka Petrovic. What strength, what tenderness, what nuance. And Romina Tonkovic, as Renata-Drazen's great love-plays her with such softness it hurts. Their story is simple, but it moves you. And although the script doesn't always go deep, it leaves an emotional mark.

It's not perfect. Some major games and key moments-especially with the national team-are missing, and parts of the film feel more like obligatory steps than emotional beats. The U. S. part is the weakest, and the ending is a bit too sweet. But even so, the film achieves something rare: you leave the theater with a tight chest and a full heart.

Drazen isn't just a biopic. It's a love letter to someone truly one of a kind. A film that, while it may fall short historically, hits the mark emotionally. And for that-because it made me cry, remember, and love him even more-it's already something special to me.