Sports

What’s the Count?

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: 21
  • IMDB: link

“In Vegas you can become anyone you want.”

21-movie-poster

The movie centers around Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), a promising mathematican at MIT who has been accepted to Harvard Medical School but lacks the funds to enroll.

Ben is approached by one of his professors (Kevin Spacey) and offered a unique opportunity to join a team of talented students (Kate Bosworth, Aaron Yoo, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts) who count cards in Vegas during the weekend.  At first Ben refuses the offer, but the temptation is strong, especially when the girl he has lusted over for months, Jill (Bosworth), begs him to join the team.  And after all Ben can always stop after he earns enough for school.  Yeah, right.

When the film deals with temptation, it works amazingly well.  Ben is thrust into a world, despite his intelligence and talent, he is ill-prepared for.  He becomes disconnected from his best friends (Josh Gad, Sam Golzari), lies to his mother (Helen Carey), and becomes completely infatuated with winning and the new lifestyle which comes with it.

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Semi-Pro

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Semi-Pro
  • IMDB: link

semi-pro-poster

I’m not a huge Will Ferrell fan.  I usually prefer my Ferrell in small SNL skits or films which aren’t built entirely around him acting as silly as possible (check out my review for Stranger Than Fiction).  There are exceptions to this rule however as I though Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy was a very strong comedy.  Semi-Pro, to me, isn’t as good a film, but for those who enjoyed Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and/or Blades of Glory this one should be right up your alley (oh wait, that’s bowling).

The movie centers around the Flint, Michigan Tropics, a struggling ABA team and their owner/player/coach Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell).  Moon is hit with the news that the ABA is disbanding and only four teams will make the transition to the NBA.  Trading the team’s washing machine for a washed-up point guard (Woody Harrelson), Jackie tries to will his team into fourth place, and into the NBA, before the end of the season.

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Hoosiers

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Hoosiers
  • IMDb: link

“Welcome to Indiana basketball.”
 

Hoosiers DVD review

Loosely based on the true experiences of Milan High School’s basketball team’s championship in 1954 the film tells the story of Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) who lost his last head coaching job due to his temper and a violent outburst directed at one of his players.  Now considered untouchable Dale is given the opportunity by an old friend (Sheb Wooley) to coach a small high school in Indiana with barely enough players to field a team.

What Hickory, Indiana does have however is a vocal local fanbase of knowledgeable basketball fans who aren’t too keen on the new coach or his system of team ball.  Earlier on the coach spends more time deflecting, and ignoring, their unsolicited advice than actually coaching.

With support of the town’s best player (Maris Valainis) and the knowledge of an alcoholic assistant coach (Dennis Hopper), Coach Dale manages to keep his job long enough to start winning some games and make a run at the state championship.

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Beware of the Phog

/ / Essays

For more tha 50 years Allen Fieldhouse, named after former Kansas head coach Dr. Forrest “Phog” Allen, has been the home court of the Jayhawks.  There’s just something about old basketball arenas in general, and Allen Fieldhouse in particular.  If you’ve never seen a game there you haven’t seen basketball as it was meant to be played.  As part of our Basketball Week I thought I’d share this little poem, written by yours truly, about the the mystery, the wonder, and the Phog, of Allen Fieldhouse.  Check it out in the Full Diagnosis.  Oh, and Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk!

“Beware of the Phog”
N/A

 

Beware of the Phog

A warning to all, beware you who enter,
For this is no normal gym, nor expo-center.
Here in the heartland where this game was born,
And championship banners on rafters do adorn.
The ghosts are still strong, for here legends were made,
Here, the Dean bled, and here Wilt played,
Where Danny and the dreamers first emerged,
And all purple has long ago been purged,
Big Country was shut out, and Norm can only sigh.
Listen carefully and you might hear the cry,
From the rafters it comes, softly at first,
Then rising until the fieldhouse will burst,
Rock…Chalk…Jayhawk in deafening sound,
Here is where true champions are to be found,
Coaching legends these sidelines have seen,
Naismith, Brown, and Williams, just to name three.
This is Allen, a fieldhouse of universal renown,
For here the Jayhawks of Kansas are to be found.
A warning to every Tiger, Cowboy, Tarheel, or Hog,
Beware you who enter, Beware of the Phog.

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Love & Basketball

/ / Home Video

Love & Basketball mixes sports and love by following two friends through their lives on the court and with each other.  It’s not a great film, but it is the type of film that bridges the gap and provides a sports flick which couples can enjoy together.

Love & Basketball
Custom Rating

“It’s a trip, you know.  When you’re a kid you see the life you want, and it never crosses your mind that it’s not gonna turn out that way.”

Love & Basketball follows the lives of two children (Kyla Pratt, Glenndon Chatman) who grow-up to be best friends and share a love for the game of basketball.  As they reach maturity Quincy (Omar Epps) struggles with the stress to reach the NBA and prove himself as a better man than his womanizing father (Dennis Haysbert).  Monica (Sanaa Lathan) struggles through playing college ball to near empty auditoriums before graduating and moving overseas to follow her dreams.

One of the film’s strengths is the dichotomy it shows between the men and women’s game and the perception and reality of each.  Quincy, a second-generation player is courted and recruited to play for sell-out arenas and Monica struggles to make a name for herself in a game with a far smaller following, all the while fighting expectations of those, including her mother (Alfre Woodard), who just want her to leave her aggression and the game behind and grow into a successful and demure young woman off the court.

Whether she’s a better actress or just given the better role Lathan’s half of the movie seems to have more resonance than Epp’s storyline.  Perhaps it’s her constant struggle not just with her circumstances and the expectations of others, but the expectations of herself which help round her into a more interesting character.

Of course the film is also cursed with cliches from two genres – sports dramas and romantic comedies.  The film weathers most of these scenes pretty well, even the awkward other love interests the story throws in from time to time, and an ending which is a little too weak (and far too cute) for the rest of the film and includes a short speech which is guaranteed to get squeals from the women and earn equally loud groans from the men.  Some things are too corny, even for film.

I wouldn’t argue that Love & Basketball is a great sports film, but it’s far better than the insipid chick flick I expected going in to view it for the first time.  It has both heart and brains, and tells a compelling story of two people (though Monica’s story is the more interesting) struggling to live their dreams, make their careers, and find love.

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