Decent

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2004)

First of all, I'd just like to make clear that I haven't seen any other Spike Lee films, and I mainly saw it because of Milla Jovovich. Maybe that's why I found it to be decent at best... maybe I should have seen some other Spike Lee films first, to get used to his style. Or maybe I shouldn't have expected Milla to have a big or important role(because she certainly didn't seem to have that here). Actually, I believe one could edit out all of her scenes without actually taking anything important away from the plot... without having an impact on any aspect of the movie, apart from its length. Of course, I'm not unhappy Milla had a role in the movie(if she hadn't had one, I probably wouldn't have seen the movie at all)... I'm just a little disappointed that her role was so empty and seemingly pointless. The plot is OK, but nothing too impressive... maybe it's my lack of understanding of black culture, but I really don't get the whole hysteria surrounding basketball. And this, lets not beat around the bush, is a movie about basketball. Concordantly, I don't see what the big deal is. The pacing is bad... but then again, maybe it's just that I'm not used to Lee as a director. But I was bored most of the time. Some of the dialog is OK, a little of it is even halfway good... but most of it isn't. The characters are well-written but not always credible. The acting is OK... Denzel turns in a great performance, as usual. Apart from him, though, the only impressive actor in the lot was Milla Jovovich. She portrayed her character really well. The lead playing opposite Denzel was a poor actor... I know that he's a basketball player in real life, but couldn't they at the very least have done about his acting skills, or replaced him with an actual actor? He did a terrible job of carrying half of the movie on his shoulders... had it not been for Denzel, I wouldn't have been able to watch any of it, I think(apart from Milla's scenes). You want to see a good something-other-than-actor-turned-actor giving a great first-time performance? See 8 Mile. Check out Eminem. Now that's acting. The film as a whole just isn't interesting enough, I think, and has far too few worthwhile moments to make it worth sitting through. The only redeeming factor of the movie is, you guessed it, Milla Jovovich. I bought the film(low-price, don't worry... I'm not a complete idiot) because she's in it, I saw it(well... some of it... didn't manage to pay attention for the whole thing) because she's in it, and what I liked of it(which was very little) was because she's in it. I don't know... maybe Spike Lee is just one of those directors/writers that you have to get used to before you can really enjoy their work. I recommend this to fans of Denzel Washington and Milla Jovovich. Fans of Spike Lee might want to see this too(I assume, but I have no idea how this is in comparison to his other films). 5/10