starring Duane Martin, Tupac Shakur, Bernie Mac, Marlon Wayans, Leon
directed by Jeff Pollack
96 minutes
Kyle Watson (Duane Martin), star point guard for his high school basketball team, hopes to get an offer letter from Georgetown. He thinks he’s got it all figured out but he runs into a few speed bumps along the way. One of them is Birdie (Tupac Shakur), the local gang leader who wants Kyle to work for him. Kyle is down with Birdie’s suggestion, at first.
Tommy Sheppard (Leon), Birdie’s older brother, is one of the security guards at Kyle’s high school. Tommy was a star basketball player years before but the death of a close friend has caused him to retreat into himself and not pursue his dream. Kyle doesn't really give Tommy much thought until his mother starts dating Tommy.
Kyle’s coach encourages Tommy to be a mentor to Kyle but the star point guard rejects him. He doesn't change his attitude towards the security guard until he finds out that Birdie killed Flip (Bernie Mac), a homeless man, on a whim. Kyle wants to cut his ties to Birdie but the gang leader threatens to reveal that Kyle was hanging with him and his posse. Everything comes to a head during a neighborhood basketball tournament where Kyle is forced to take a stand that could cost him his scholarship and possibly more.
Thoughts
I like the way the stories of Kyle and Tommy intersect and move on their own at times. They are linked by Birdie, Tommy's younger brother whom Kyle idolizes for a time.
One thing I didn't care for was the way that the basketball games during the tournament were shot. There were way too many shots of players dunking the ball without any sense of how the games (or the tournament for that matter) were going.
Duane Martin is the only one of the lead actors in this film with whom I was unfamiliar. I saw Tupac, Shakur in Poetic Justice (1993) earlier this year. I've seen Bernie Mac in a few other things but this movie is the only one he's been in that I have seen recently. I saw Marlon Wayans in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) a couple years ago but he wasn't the star of that film. I'm probably more familiar with his older brothers (Keenan Ivory, Damon) than I am with him. Leon I know from the first season of Oz. Wood Harris and Michael Rispoli are a couple other familiar faces that among cast of this movie.
This was much better than I feared it would be. I didn’t think it was great but it is very good. It’s complicated enough and the performances are all good. I like the story, the pacing, and the characters
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