He Got Game
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 Really? Good movie if your my generation basketball fan brings me back lol. They actually offered the role first to Allen Iverson who turned it down!  Inner strife and self hatred are the worst enemies This film shows the real crossroads where the Blacks are in America, and I say the Blacks because they call themselves Blacks and not Afro-Americans or African Americans. The mother is dead, killed accidentally in a temper but the father. The father is in prison for a very long time. The son hates his father and has to learn how to get over his hatred. The daughter is missing her father but her brother is isolating her. The uncle and aunt only see the money the son represents. He is a high school star in basketball and he can get directly into making a lot of money if he joins the NBA or he can go to some university and have a scholarship. One more tricky element: the governor wants the kid for the team of his university, the one he sponsors and likes. So why not use the father, give him a week of semi freedom and force him thus to negotiate his son's signing the right papers. What's more the basketball star is invited by some schools to come and visit and there he is provided with everything he may desire, including the girls and the useless other entertainments. The NBA is offering a car to the uncle, though in fact it is for the son to run it. And the high school coach is able to put ten thousand dollars on the table for him to join, guess what, the NBA of course. Immoral. The film is saved from this muddy marshlandish country by the son choosing the only moral solution, the one that will help his father to get out faster, the one that is going to cure him from his hatred, even if that is slightly idealistic, frankly utopian. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne  Lee Got Game "He Got Game" is another solid outing for director Spike Lee. He paints a realistic picture of life for a inner city basketball phenom and its many demands and pressures. Ray Allen isn't as proficient an actor as he is a shooting guard, yet his performance works here. Denzel Washington and a supporting cast of Lee film veterans deliver in their roles, making up for any inexperience Allen has. Washington is impressive as Allen's father, a convicted felon who is given a short work release to try to convince his star son to attend the governeor's alma mater. Revisiting this film about 9 years after its release, I still feel entertained and connected with the main characters. I feel it stands as a triumph for Lee and a good tale of basketball, exploitation, wounded family relations, and redemption (in a way). Wish I saw it in the theater I actually caught this on television when I was flipping channels one day. I didn't even plan on sticking around but this movie kept me watching. The reason why I didn't give it a chance in the theater was because I was growing weary of Spike Lee's style of film making. I thought I'd give it a break and I didn't know anyone else who actually saw this to endorse it. Watching it on tv meant that it was censored so I rented the original version and liked it even more. Denzel is awesome as usual, but the story itself and the trials of the main characters were thought-provoking and interesting. I know a lot of fathers like the one in this film who pushed their child hard. The son ended up living up to his potential so I guess it felt justified. I would've liked this film even if was a sport I didn't like. This is definitely worth a look. | |||||||||||||
