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Not just another basketball flick...Review created: 11/20/00
by: ltrain -- a member of Epinions
Pros:
Well acted, logical plot, deep characters, just plain interesting.
Well acted, logical plot, deep characters, just plain interesting.
Cons:
Takes some plot sidetracks that lead to a 3 and 1/2 hour run time.
Takes some plot sidetracks that lead to a 3 and 1/2 hour run time.
When He Got Game came to my neighborhood theatre it made for plenty of jokes but no ticket sales. It didn't sound all that great to me so I certainly didn't rush out and drop $7 on it. So recently when the FX network decided this movie should be shown daily I thought I'd give it a try.
The plot:
To be honest, the blurb epinions posts about this movie is more than I normally expose about a plot. I don't like to give a movie away, but I will say a little. The main character is Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by NBA star Ray Allen). Jesus is the number one high school prospect in, no surprise here, basketball. Expecting an "on court" movie like Blue Chips or White Men Can't Jump? Read on, it's not either of those.
The movie follows Jesus' interactions with his greedy uncle, baby sister, convicted felon father, and his friends. Temptations and trials await Jesus around every corner. Also, his father is out of jail for only one weekend to try to convince him to attend Big State University.
This plot puts characters in situations you can believe. You may stretch your imagination twice in the film but you won't be stretching it very far. Every plot angle is believable, and even more so if you believe in conspiracies.
Basketball is almost secondary to this movie. In the three and a half hours that this movie runs I think I saw twenty minutes of basketball. There are just enough scenes in the beginning to remind you why Jesus is so special and what all the fuss is about. In the end there is a scene to help push home the message of the movie. More on that in a minute.
The main characters:
I know after reading my plot section this movie probably sounds cheesy. Don't let it. This movie features more main characters than many I've seen recently.
Let me say, that unless I say otherwise these characters are all very three dimensional. Change is the name of the movie and every character does some. They are believable and by the end of the movie they will have you caring about what happens to them.
Jesus is played, as I said, by Ray Allen. You'd expect a basketball player to stink in a lead role, right? Wrong. Everything from inflection of the voice in different situations to the look to the body language are convincing. This man can act, his basketball skills don't really even matter.
Denzel Washington plays Jake Shuttlesworth, Jesus' father. The interactions between these two men are so much like a real father and son that it makes you forget they are only actors.
That's all the names of actors I know (sorry) but the next important character is Jesus' uncle. He is the typical greedy leech who is trying to cash in financially and materially on Jesus' skills with no regard to the consequences for Jesus.
Jesus' little sister, Mary, is unchanging through the movie. She is a little saint, protected and loved by Jesus.
The message:
This movie looks, on the surface, like a warning about the temptations that great athletes are presented with. If you look deeper (and not much deeper for that matter) this is more of a life movie. It's a statement on the fleeting nature of life and the way people will always try to attach to your success for the benefit they can reap from it.
The soundtrack:
This is unusually done as well. Every song is by the rap group Public Enemy. There aren't more than a few songs used in the movie but the ones that are really set the mood and prepare the viewer for the mindset the visuals are going to put in place.
The downside:
The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that Spike Lee, it's director, tried so hard to seperate it from basketball that he went in too many different directions. He took the time to develope every character into a three dimensional person. That's fun to watch but it makes for one looooong movie!
Overall:
This one is well worth the price of renting. It's solid to say the least, nearly great if you are in the target audience. There is nothing dumb about this film, it's well thought out and well played.
Gritty and rough apply to this movie but not unnecessarily so. This one is probably OK for kids, and the message it screams out clearly needs to be spoken to the youth of the nation.
The plot:
To be honest, the blurb epinions posts about this movie is more than I normally expose about a plot. I don't like to give a movie away, but I will say a little. The main character is Jesus Shuttlesworth (played by NBA star Ray Allen). Jesus is the number one high school prospect in, no surprise here, basketball. Expecting an "on court" movie like Blue Chips or White Men Can't Jump? Read on, it's not either of those.
The movie follows Jesus' interactions with his greedy uncle, baby sister, convicted felon father, and his friends. Temptations and trials await Jesus around every corner. Also, his father is out of jail for only one weekend to try to convince him to attend Big State University.
This plot puts characters in situations you can believe. You may stretch your imagination twice in the film but you won't be stretching it very far. Every plot angle is believable, and even more so if you believe in conspiracies.
Basketball is almost secondary to this movie. In the three and a half hours that this movie runs I think I saw twenty minutes of basketball. There are just enough scenes in the beginning to remind you why Jesus is so special and what all the fuss is about. In the end there is a scene to help push home the message of the movie. More on that in a minute.
The main characters:
I know after reading my plot section this movie probably sounds cheesy. Don't let it. This movie features more main characters than many I've seen recently.
Let me say, that unless I say otherwise these characters are all very three dimensional. Change is the name of the movie and every character does some. They are believable and by the end of the movie they will have you caring about what happens to them.
Jesus is played, as I said, by Ray Allen. You'd expect a basketball player to stink in a lead role, right? Wrong. Everything from inflection of the voice in different situations to the look to the body language are convincing. This man can act, his basketball skills don't really even matter.
Denzel Washington plays Jake Shuttlesworth, Jesus' father. The interactions between these two men are so much like a real father and son that it makes you forget they are only actors.
That's all the names of actors I know (sorry) but the next important character is Jesus' uncle. He is the typical greedy leech who is trying to cash in financially and materially on Jesus' skills with no regard to the consequences for Jesus.
Jesus' little sister, Mary, is unchanging through the movie. She is a little saint, protected and loved by Jesus.
The message:
This movie looks, on the surface, like a warning about the temptations that great athletes are presented with. If you look deeper (and not much deeper for that matter) this is more of a life movie. It's a statement on the fleeting nature of life and the way people will always try to attach to your success for the benefit they can reap from it.
The soundtrack:
This is unusually done as well. Every song is by the rap group Public Enemy. There aren't more than a few songs used in the movie but the ones that are really set the mood and prepare the viewer for the mindset the visuals are going to put in place.
The downside:
The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that Spike Lee, it's director, tried so hard to seperate it from basketball that he went in too many different directions. He took the time to develope every character into a three dimensional person. That's fun to watch but it makes for one looooong movie!
Overall:
This one is well worth the price of renting. It's solid to say the least, nearly great if you are in the target audience. There is nothing dumb about this film, it's well thought out and well played.
Gritty and rough apply to this movie but not unnecessarily so. This one is probably OK for kids, and the message it screams out clearly needs to be spoken to the youth of the nation.
Review ID: 10000000000397737
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