He Got Game

After a romp in the hay with two naked white college women with porn-star breasts, high-school-basketball phenom Jesus (Ray Allen) mugs for the camera and lets out a cartoonish grin. This silliness is presumably writer/director Spike Lee's over-the-top way of trying to make us laugh as he juxtaposes Jesus's life with that of his father, Jake (a brilliant Denzel Washington), a convicted murderer. Yet if you strip away the gratuitous sex, unfunny recruitment scenes, well-intended but inappropriate Aaron Copland score, pointless NBA player cameos, and moralizing, stilted dialogue, Lee has a compelling story to tell about a difficult character.

Jake is given a week out of jail to try to persuade his estranged son to attend the governor's alma mater, Big State; if he succeeds, the governor will grant him a release. Meanwhile, Jesus is also being hounded by his seedy uncle, his cheating girlfriend, and his pathetic coach -- each hoping to profit from his skills. The pressures Jesus and Jake are under lead to painful father-son scenes that culminate in a gripping one-on-one game. Too bad this small story gets lost between those gargantuan breasts. At the Cheri, the Fresh Pond, and the Circle and in the suburbs.

-- Mark Bazer