A fun comedy about a couple of losers who invent a new sport

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2019)

As children friends Joe "Coop" Cooper and Doug Remer dream of growing up to be sports stars... when they grow up they are just a couple of losers. Then one day they crash a party and a challenged to a game of basketball... when they realise their opponents are much better they tell them that they play a new game... BASEketball. They quickly make up the rules and soon its popularity spreads. After a while they are approached by wealthy businessman Ted Denslow, he is keen to set up a National BASEketball League. He wants to create a pure sport without corporate sponsorship, teams moving cities and trading of players. The boys agree and soon the game is a national sensation. Then Denslow dies, leaving the team to Coop. It isn't long before the Dallas Felons' team owner Baxter Cain starts scheming to take over the game and introduce ways to make money. While this is going on both Coop and Doug fall for the same woman, Jenna Reed, who runs a charity of dying children.
Given to plot it is not surprising that this film is fairly silly; that doesn't matter too much though as it provides more than enough laughs. Some of the humour is fairly crude but nothing is really offensive. The rules of the game are fairly well thought out and the fact that distracting the opposition is part of the game it is also funny. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are solid as Coop and Doug; I can only imagine they have acted in so few films is because they are busy with 'South Park'. Dian Bachar also impresses as their friend Squeak Scolari, who they treat fairly badly. There are also some well-known faces, including Ernest Borgnine as Ted Denslow and Robert Vaughn as the delightfully unpleasant Baxter Cain. My only mild problem with the film was that it got a little mawkish towards the end. Overall though I'd recommend this; it might not be a classic but it provides plenty of laughs.