He Got Game

• Above the Rim
• Rebound: The Legend of Earl "The Goat" Manigault
• Malcolm X
• Love and Basketball (New Line Platinum Series)
• White Men Can't Jump
• Juice
• Spike Lee Joint Collection (Clockers/ Jungle Fever/ Do the Right Thing/ Mo` Better Blues/ Crooklyn)
• Dead Presidents
• Menace II Society
• Blue Chips

As an aspring filmaker I always have dreams that my father will come back at a crucial point in my life as Denzel did to Ray in this movie. This a movie that every father and son should see. One of Spike's best films since Clockers. He Got Game hit home for me, because I don't have a father in my life. The cinematography, script and acting are all top notch.

She really understands her character and exploits her weaknesses effortlessly. Jesus is not your typical teenager though. Washington grabs your attention here, not only with his blunt abrasiveness but also with his human and tortured rawness. It centers around Jesus (pronounced like the son of God) Shuttlesworth, a brilliant athlete who is being harassed by every state in the area trying to rally him to their basketball team. Lee has done better work (`25th Hour' for one) and Washington has done better work (`Malcolm X') but to say that these two men are at the top of their game here would be an understatement.

Ray Allen comes off a little stiff in areas but for the most part he delivers a strong performance alongside Washington. He has some pristine moments where you can see his internal struggle. `He Got Game' is not a masterpiece, I won't go that far, but it is an extremely well crafted vehicle for Lee and Washington to shine as brightly as they are able. So, like I mentioned, Washington is Oscar worthy here, but the rest of the cast is more hit or miss for me. I'm not saying that Washington's portrayal of Alonzo in `Training Day' was bad or even mediocre.

Still, Jake decides that it is worth a try. `He Got Game' may on the outset look like just another teen sports story. The underlying story within `He Got Game' is about the path leading to redemption and the sacrifices that we make to get there. Zelda Harris is also a weaker link, but she was young and so I won't lay into her too hard. Now, Jake is presented with a strange and inviting opportunity; namely to convince his son to join Big State University and in return he'll receive a lighter sentence.

She wasn't a central character and so her few flaws are not detrimental to the film. I bring up this point, not because I want to raise my voice in disapproval, but because I want to draw a major comparison in character between Alonzo and Washington's character Jake Shuttlesworth in `He Got Game'. Their father is Jake. Spike Lee brilliantly continues his moral lessons by exposing the corruption and greed within the striving for fame, but Lee never strays away from the purity and admirableness of those who have a clear head and a strong will.

The problem is that since Jake has been locked up Jesus has refused to speak to him, and he has no plans of changing his mind on the matter. He has been raising his young sister since their father killed their mother and was sent to prison. He was a pistol, really electrifying the screen with his commanding presence, and he scores major points for taking himself away from the `dead eye stare' I see him give all too often (watch `American Gangster') and really igniting his face.

Both characters have that swagger, that jive and that fire, yet Jake is a much deeper and more emotionally complicated character than Alonzo, and Washington plays to his strengths in such a fierce way that I am baffled he wasn't even considered in the running for this performance, yet was handed an Oscar for basically doing the same thing three years later to a less impressive extent. Rosario Dawson is breathtaking as Jesus' girlfriend Lala, but even more than breathtaking she is a wonderful actress here. Milla Jovavich is a little miscast here, and she seems to be `acting' too much, which sadly comes off amateurish in many scenes.

That said, he still was not the best of the year. In 2001 Denzel Washington finally won his `Leading Actor' Oscar despite the fact that three of the four remaining nominees put in better performances than he did (those three would be, in descending order, Wilkinson, Crowe and Smith). As Jake tries to reestablish some grounds with his son we can see that he needs this; more than freedom he needs the forgiveness that only his son can extend.

Good movie if your my generation basketball fan brings me back lol. They actually offered the role first to Allen Iverson who turned it down.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne. Immoral. One more tricky element: the governor wants the kid for the team of his university, the one he sponsors and likes. So why not use the father, give him a week of semi freedom and force him thus to negotiate his son's signing the right papers. The son hates his father and has to learn how to get over his hatred. He is a high school star in basketball and he can get directly into making a lot of money if he joins the NBA or he can go to some university and have a scholarship.

The uncle and aunt only see the money the son represents. The daughter is missing her father but her brother is isolating her. The film is saved from this muddy marshlandish country by the son choosing the only moral solution, the one that will help his father to get out faster, the one that is going to cure him from his hatred, even if that is slightly idealistic, frankly utopian.

The father is in prison for a very long time. The NBA is offering a car to the uncle, though in fact it is for the son to run it. And the high school coach is able to put ten thousand dollars on the table for him to join, guess what, the NBA of course.

The mother is dead, killed accidentally in a temper but the father. This film shows the real crossroads where the Blacks are in America, and I say the Blacks because they call themselves Blacks and not Afro-Americans or African Americans. What's more the basketball star is invited by some schools to come and visit and there he is provided with everything he may desire, including the girls and the useless other entertainments.

He paints a realistic picture of life for a inner city basketball phenom and its many demands and pressures. I feel it stands as a triumph for Lee and a good tale of basketball, exploitation, wounded family relations, and redemption (in a way). Ray Allen isn't as proficient an actor as he is a shooting guard, yet his performance works here. Denzel Washington and a supporting cast of Lee film veterans deliver in their roles, making up for any inexperience Allen has. Revisiting this film about 9 years after its release, I still feel entertained and connected with the main characters. "He Got Game" is another solid outing for director Spike Lee. Washington is impressive as Allen's father, a convicted felon who is given a short work release to try to convince his star son to attend the governeor's alma mater.