Ball Don’t Lie (2008) “8-Mile meets the And1 Tour” Doc J-Water may need to re-rank his hoop flicks…

May 4th, 2008 – Dr. J-Water

How excited was I when my boy “Biggie” (we call him biggie because he’s….well….big) tells me he’s in NYC the week of the Tribeca Film Festival and he’s going to check out the screening of “Ball Don’t Lie”? He knows I’ve been dying to check it out since I heard it was in production. Of course he’s rubbing it in my face huge. So with a little forceful persuasion I make him call me up straight away after he catches the May 3rd showing. Biggie isn’t the smoothest or most descriptive speaker I’ve ever met, but basically he says, “it’s like 8-Mile meets the And1 Tour, and a whole lotta goodness.” A whole lotta goodness? Okay well I didn’t expect a highly detailed film review given it was Biggie, but how is “a whole lotta goodness” helping me out? Guess it doesn’t really matter, as I would be going to see it eventually no matter what he said about it.

So what’s the hype about Ball Don’t Lie? Here’s the quick breakdown:

“Sticky” (Grayson Boucher) is a skinny 17-year-old high school junior living in Venice, California and has spent his life being abused by pimps who have lived with his prostitute mother. Sticky has been bouncing from one foster home to another, and living on the street between failed placements. But he’s developed incredible hoop skills that have given him considerable social standing among his mostly black peers. He gets a girlfriend named Anh-thu, who loves him and wants to help him reach his dreams. Sticky sees basketball as his way out of his dead-end life and is determined to make the right moves in the game to attain his goal. He doesn’t quite know how to make the right moves in his life, until a bad decision leads him to confront his dark secrets.

Ball Don’t Lie (2008) starring Grayson Boucher a.k.a. “The Professor”, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Nick Cannon, and Rosanna Arquette

I don’t know about you, but I’m hyped to check it out!!! I spoke with the production company and they are still in the process of finding the right distributor, so the release date is still unknown. Reading about it got me thinking about Basketball Movies. If you love hoops and you love movies, most of you probably grew up on the classics like the documentary Hoop Dreams or the cult classic Heaven is a Playground. I can still remember takin’ road trips for tournaments, beggin’ my old man to drive us around town lookin’ for a movie store where we could rent Michael Jordan’s Playground or Above the Rim to hype us up the night before a big game. Sure nowadays there are tons of Hollywood flicks with basketball as a backdrop, but there are still only a rare few that have pure unadulterated ballin’, where a true playa doesn’t have to spend the whole movie picking apart the hoop scenes that don’t seem realistic.

For those of you who want to know what hoops movies to rent, and what to avoid. Here is Dr. J-Waters Hot or Not list:

HOT

1. Hoop Dreams (1994 Documentary) – This documentary follows two inner-city Chicago residents, Arthur Agee and William Gates, as they follow their dreams of becoming basketball superstars. Beginning at the start of their high school years, and ending almost 5 years later, as they start college, we watch the boys mature into men, still retaining their “Hoop Dreams”.
2. Hoosiers (1986) – Starring Gene Hackman this is based on the true story of a small-town Indiana team that made the state finals in 1954, this movie is about the attempts of a coach with a checkered past, and the town drunk who loves hoops, to lead their high school team to success.
3. Above the Rim (1994) – Starring 2Pac in this fictional story of Kyle-Lee Watson, a promising high school basketball star, and his relationships with Birdie, a powerful drug dealer, and Birdie’s brother, Thomas ‘Shep’ Sheppard, himself once a promising high school star at Kyle’s school, now employed as a security guard
4. Rebound: The Legend of Earl ‘The Goat’ Manigault (1996) – Starring Don Cheadle this is the true story of a talented but drug-addicted basketball player from Harlem who cleans up his act and devotes his life to teaching Harlem children to play the game.
5. Heaven is a playground (1991) – Set in Chicago, this movie is about an inner-city basketball coach and a young lawyer who set out to save a group of teen-aged boys from crime and drugs by giving them athletic scholarships and teaching them about the game.

** Honourable mentions go to “White Men Can’t Jump”, “He Got Game”, “Blue Chips”, and “Glory Road”

NOT

1. Space Jam (1996) – Aliens called the Nerdlucks uses their strange powers to steal the talent of five NBA stars such as Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Mugsy Bogues, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley which they’ll ultimately transform themselves into a team called the Monstars. It’s up to Michael Jordan to help the Looney Tunes play a basketball game vs. the Monstars. But if the Monstars win, then the bad guy Swackhammer gets the Looney Tunes, and Jordan to slave away on Moron Mountain! Nuff said, wow!
2. Love and Basketball (2000) – Starring Omar Epps this is a love story with basketball used as the backdrop. Chick flick, with not much hoops action. If you get forced into a date movie, this isn’t a bad option to keep her happy. Not a recommended flick for you and the boyz.
3. Basketball Diaries (1995) – Decent acting chops shown by young Leonardo DiCaprio in this one. But if you are looking to get your high-flying hoops fix, this certainly isn’t the one. This movie is more about a teenage basketball player that gets a couple of bad breaks and turns to heroin. Follows his struggle with the addition.
4. The Air Up There (1994) – Jimmy Dolan (played by Kevin Bacon) is a college basketball coach who wants a big promotion. He ends up deep in Africa, hoping to recruit Saleh, a huge basketball prodigy Jimmy glimpsed in a home movie. But Saleh is the chief’s son and has responsibilities at home, since the tribe’s land is threatened. It was all a little bit hokie for me.
5. Celtic Pride (1996) – Starring Daman Wayans and Dan Akroyd this is about two over-loyal Celtic fans who kidnap their opponent’s star player in order to guarantee their team the championship. This one is an embarrassment to loyal Celtic fans everywhere.

**Honourable mentions go to “Sunset Park”, “Eddie, “Teen Wolf”, and “Air Bud”

You’ll notice I didn’t mention any of the amazing NBA player documentaries. Don’t worry though I keep those in a separate category all their own. I regularly throw in a Michael Jordan’s “Air Time”, or an Allen Iverson’s “The Answer” for a pump up session. If you got a H-O-T basketball flick not mentioned you want people to check out, drop a note in the comments section below.