BEFORE: OK, enough aliens that look like humans - what about aliens that look like cartoons?
THE PLOT: Michael Jordan agrees to help the Looney Toons play a basketball game vs. alien slavers to determine their freedom.
AFTER: Ugh, I don't know where to start with this - there's no point arguing over the reality of this, when it's not meant to be realistic at all. Cartoons don't have to be cartoonish, but this one certainly is.
Remember when Michael Jordan decided that, having conquered the basketball world, he would go and play baseball? It lasted about a half a season, I think. Well, the folks who made this film had the unfortunate timing to make a film about Michael Jordan during this awkward time - so the first half of this movie is a very convoluted plot designed to explain why Jordan would play basketball again, after being semi-retired.
Once again, aliens have come to Earth, but this time they don't want salt, or water, or classic black-and-white films - they want our Warner Bros. characters! Why they don't hire intergalactic attorneys to take over the character rights, I don't know - but they want to enslave our beloved Bugs Bunny and friends, to perform in some space theme park (I know, I know...it doesn't make much sense)
The only hope is to challenge these tiny aliens to a contest, and the Toons try to outsmart them by making it a game of basketball (would it have been hockey, if Wayne Gretzky was available instead of Jordan?) - but the aliens cheat by siphoning off the talents of 5 notable (OK, 3 notable + 2 relatively unknown) NBA players.
NOW the only hope is to transport Air Jordan into the cartoon world, and convince him to play on the TuneSquad - a clear violation of the rules of the contest, since he's NOT A CARTOON! We expect the villains to cheat, but aren't the heroes of the film supposed to play by the rules?
It's great to see our old pals, the Looney Tunes, still being used in the 1990's and beyond, but unfortunately there was a lot of overlapping chatter from the toons, and a lot of little sight gags that went nowhere. All this in addition to a plot that starts with farfetched, zigzags through crazy town and ends up just being completely unbelievable. Watching Jordan interact with characters that weren't really there during filming doesn't help...
The message of the film, as I see it, is that you can achieve whatever you want to do in life - play baseball, battle aliens - as long as your name is Michael Jordan.
Also starring Bill Murray, Wayne Knight, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, with the voices of Billy West, Danny DeVito, and June Foray - and cameos from Patricia Heaton and Dan Castellaneta
RATING: 4 out of 10 personal fouls
No comments:
Post a Comment