LIKE MIKE
Perhaps the title of this feature-length shoe commercial should have been
"Mike's Nikes." Teenage rapper Lil Bow Wow stars as orphan Calvin Cambridge, a
basketball Cinderella who joins the LA Knights as a promotional gimmick and
ends up schooling teammate Tracey Reynolds (Morris Chestnut) and the best of
the NBA superstars on and off the court -- all thanks to a magical old pair of
Michael Jordan's sneakers (close-up on the Swoosh). Commercials can be very
entertaining, of course, and John Schultz's film is a feel-good comedy with
several big laughs and considerable energy throughout, even when you know who's
going to sink the winning shot. It rides on the bright-eyed charisma of Lil Bow
Wow and the playful representation of every youngster's basketball fantasy: to
dunk over David Robinson, pickpocket Allen Iverson, and stay in fancy hotels
with room service. And the story hardly seems farfetched when you consider that
high-schoolers are annual first-round picks in the NBA draft. Parents might
even enjoy the subtle critique of the league's greed and its players'
lifestyles (probably unintentional since the film's execs head NBA
Entertainment), though they're not likely to cheer the way the reckless
behavior of the 54-inch star is glorified. At the Entertainment, Flagship,
Holiday, Hoyts, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.
Issue Date: July 5 - 11, 2002
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