Director: David Zucker
Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Ernest Borgnine
Tagline: "Two guys invented a game... and turned the sports world upside down!"
Random Trivia: The word "dude" appeared in the script 39 times... but was used 98 times in the final cut of the movie. Matt Stone and Trey Parker agreed to do the movie assuming South Park would be canceled. It wasn't. BASEketball is a real game, created by director David Zucker and friends.
I think the concept here goes a little something like this: you know how you have that basketball net over your garage, that you rarely use, because you suck? And every now and then you play Horse, or some other game that you come up with spur of the moment, with your own bass-ackwards rules and little or no consistency? Well, what if that game actually took off and went national?
Given how lame baseball is, and how much crying there is about fouls in basketball, taking those two pro sports - the two wussy ones - and combining them makes sense. Remove the athleticism from basketball so that it's just free-throw shooting; any fat guy can do that. Remove the... the... leave baseball the way it is, and combine the free throw shooting from basketball, stick it in a driveway, and let it catch on in the neighborhood.
Joe Cooper and Doug Reamer (Trey Parker and Matt Stone, respectively, of South Park fame) do just this, creating the game on a whim to win a bet at a party. The game takes off, and, due to America's distaste for overpaid professional athletes, garners far more attention than it deserves.
Confession time: I like South Park, but the first time I saw BASEketball, years ago, I stopped watching after about fifteen minutes. Looking back, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a comedy, because the movie actually is funny, and, while absurd and offensive, it does have a point: overpaid athletes and greedy owners are KILLING pro sports. Do you hear me, MLB? I stopped watching after the strike year, so there's proof enough for me. Whatever happened to playing for the love of the game?
Soon enough, Coop and Reamer form a team, with "friend" Squeak (Dian Bachar, a pal of Parker/Stone who's done some voice work on South Park), a neighborhood league - and soon enough find themselves going national.
With national attention, of course, comes the temptation of greed, stardom, etc.: As Coop tries to stay true to his dream of a sport where regular guys get paid regular wages, Reamer is drawn to sponsorships and big money.
The usual relationship subplots pop up - and the heartwarming story of Coop dedicating some home run shots to a sick boy - but the funny stuff comes in the "psych-out" aspect of BASEketball (the game itself), where anything goes when it comes to distracting your opponent.
Maybe it's the high talking but I probably should have given BASEketball a better chance on the first viewing. At the very least, it's aged pretty well, and given how barren the comedy arena is today (does crap like Epic Movie even count as a comedy?), it's definitely a nice change of pace.
Oh, and keep your ears open for some South Park voices...
P.S. - nice job on the cheerleaders, guys!
Overall Rating: Half-Baked (3 out of 5)
No comments:
Post a Comment