A Strong Film From Spike Lee

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2017)

A basketball player's father (Denzel Washington) must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter sentence.
I have mixed feelings about Spike Lee's movies. Some are pretty good, some are rather awful. Even "Do The Right Thing", his masterpiece, did not really impress me the way it apparently impressed many other people. But I have to say I generally enjoyed "He Got Game".
I think what sold this was Denzel Washington. Obviously, he is one of the bet actors of this generation (possibly ever). He sells everything, and can even make bad movies seem good. And, overall, I think the story is rather strong. The idea of the kid being named "Jesus" seems like it was done just for the endless ways the dialogue can be wrapped around it, but at least they offer a plausible reason that he has that name.