He Got Game

Review: My first ever Spike Lee joint. Love that for me. This is a classic basketball movie that overall is pretty decent. I had a lot of random notes from this movie I wanted to share. I love when they slide the title into the movie and I think having it said by Michael Jordan himself was a fantastic way to do that. I think it’s funny how the two schools we see are ‘Tech U’ & ‘Big State,’ how silly. The revelation (excuse the pun) that Ray Allen’s character is named after Earl Monroe & not Jesus Christ is pretty funny. The cut from Jesus smiling in bed to Denzel’s Jake on the street was great. I really enjoyed Hill Harper as Booger. I like the stylistic choices of having the characters who wrote the letters read them. And my final random note is that it was weird seeing Allen & Rick Fox’s characters eating Chick-Fil-A in a movie from the 90s because in Oklahoma we didn’t get one until like 2010.

High: I’d like to take a second to just shoutout Jesus Shuttlesworth himself, Ray Allen. For a dude with zero acting experience he acted his butt off. At times, yes, it was cheesy, but I really think he held his own and out acted every scene partner he had not named Denzel Washington.

Low: Personally I would have loved to see more basketball, especially since they got an actual NBA player to star. I think the basketball & family storylines were enough and don’t know if the extra storylines with the agents and especially the one with Milla Jovocich’s character were really necessary.

Rating: 7/10