He Got Game

The movie is a volatile combination of ambitious mythmaking and nasty reality, and like most of Spike Lee’s work, it is also an inextricable combination of good and bad.

Basketball, bold urban landscapes, larger-than-life characters and red-hot visual pyrotechnics are the strong points of Mr. Lee's biggest three-ring circus, not to mention the central presence of Denzel Washington.

He Got Game seems to cheer for integrity, honesty and hard work while playing up its own cheap thrills.

Uneven, ludicrous, but--oh man!--fun to watch.

The film is gorgeously shot (slow-motion basketballs spin in the air like Kubrick's spaceships), and the majestic Aaron Copland score helps some of the images to soar, but Lee's screenplay, heavy-handed and didactic, gives the actors little room to convey any real emotions.

Lee makes a great looking film, though the soap box message about greed becomes exhausted and overplayed early on.

There's not a relationship in He Got Game that feels right, especially the one between Washington and Allen, and if that doesn't work, neither does the film.

He Got Game is an alright to pretty good film. Denzel Washington is at his best as a convict who has to convince his son to go to the governor's favorite school in order to get out of jail early. Ray Allen also turns in a shockingly good performance in Spike Lee's film that is very interesting. It is a very compelling look at the real life issues recruits face and what gifts they are tempted with in order to go to certain schools. That said, the film does have a few problems that are quite major. First off, it is too long. At nearly two hours and twenty minutes, He Got Game overstays its welcome by a little bit. The story is over-the-top and Lee's flair for theatrics is ever present here and he can never help himself but indulge in sillier and sillier plot points (really, the premise is a bit far fetched to begin with). Additionally, character motivations are deeply unclear, namely Ray Allen's. Things occur unnaturally and is a very movie type of way, in that they occur because they have to in order for Lee to try and make a point and for the plot to move along. Though the film can be quite interesting and is an enjoyable experience, He Got Game is a cheesy sports movie with a father-son element that occurs very unnaturally.