BEFORE: A last-minute addition to the list, this is the OTHER film based on a Shakespeare play that's set in a high-school and stars Julia Stiles, who carries over from "10 Things I Hate About You". When I reordered the list a few weeks ago, I found I had 10 empty slots for 2013, but I figured I'd find a way to fill them. I've since found 5 more films that were relevant to already-planned topics, and I'm saving the others for films like "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty", which should be premiering on cable soon. It seems like a solid plan, I should have no trouble filling those last five spaces.
THE PLOT: An update of Shakespeare's 'Othello' with a young cast, set in a high school and centered around basketball player Odin.
AFTER: Admittedly I should probably have learned a bit more about "Othello" before watching this, but I think I know the rough outline. Still, I found this film to be very confusing, it was hard to often hard for me to figure out what each character's motivations were for doing what they did. I get that Hugo (Iago) was jealous of Odin (Othello), but just because Hugo's father, the basketball coach, named Odin player of the year, that didn't seem like enough motivation for Hugo to seek such a strong revenge. Even if I add in the envy over Odin having a beautiful girlfriend, and feeling ignored by his father, it still doesn't seem to add up.
That's where the team sports angle starts to feel like a bit of a mistake - you don't expect to see such competition among teammates who are playing for the same school. (What do they think this is, an a cappella sing-off or something?) If the team is doing well, does it really matter who gets the MVP award? I mean, these are GUYS. I expect jealousy and cattiness from the girls - bros are more supportive of each other, right?
Then again, I never competed for an athletic scholarship, so what do I know? But I'd think that someone who was looking at the possibility of playing college basketball would be a little more aware of his actions - Hugo, that is, not Odin. Hugo's using steroids and playing mind-games with everyone - but Odin's secretly dating the dean's daughter, so he's not entirely blameless, either. There's nothing wrong with inter-racial dating, but if that's the case, why be so secretive about it?
It's possible that I erred by watching this on Fox Movies - it may have been edited for content, and there's some chatter online about a graphic sex scene that some people equated with rape. Even so, I doubt this film would have made much more sense if I had seen the unedited version. It's just kind of all over the place, and the other female characters feel sort of like afterthoughts, like somebody didn't know what to do with them.
Also starring Mekhi Phifer (last seen in "Imposter"), Josh Hartnett (last seen in "Hollywood Homicide"), Andrew Keegan, Martin Sheen (last seen in "The Amazing Spider-Man"), John Heard, Elden Henson (last seen in "The Mighty Ducks"), Rain Phoenix.
RATING: 3 out of 10 white doves
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