High-spirited, lots of laughs

Rating: Null/10 (26 May 1999)

There were two forces at work which kept me from seeing this film for a great long while. One was the trailer, along with all the other promotional stuff. They gave off the idea that this film was going to be self-conscious, obnoxious, and unfunny. The other force was the saccharine R.Kelly tune, "I Believe I Can Fly". Pop music written for movies has been on a deep decline since "The Morning After" from "The Poseidon Adventure", so I won't elaborate on that any further.
Having finally seen it the other day, I was pleasantly surprised. Many things are right with it, and I will list a few.
First, it's very funny. The directors and writers (who were, without a doubt, yes-men for the studio execs, but no matter) have the rare gift of being able to achieve and sustain the perfect comic pitch for most, if not all, of the picture. Many sight-gags abound; some are old-fashioned, and they remind us of why we laugh at decades-old Looney Toons when we see them today; some are well-placed pop culture references (the one for "Pulp Fiction", with Yosemite Sam and Elmer Fudd in the Vince and Jules outfits, is the best one). The sub-plot, with a half-dozen real-life NBA players dealing with the mysterious, supernatural larceny of their ball-handling skills, provides quite a few laughs--if you have a minimum knowledge-base on "The Holy Game", you will get the jokes.
Second, the darned thing works. The special effects are startlingly innovative, and not over-done. Michael Jordan, despite not being the world's greatest line-reader, has a great screen presence, and works well against the (invisible, during the filming) cartoon characters--that's harder than it looks. The games, set in the animated universe, are well staged. Bill Murray is funny just by BEING, and Wayne Knight is...well, forget it, he's kind of annoying.
In the final analysis, "Space Jam" doesn't quite do it as well as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", but for what it is, it's got game.