From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Nov 15 18:33:18 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!howland.erols.net!nntp.crl.com!news.pbi.net!cbgw3.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SPACE JAM (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Nov 1996 22:30:34 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 98 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <56di6a$81c@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: srenshaw@leland.stanford.edu (Scott Renshaw) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06337 Keywords: author=Renshaw Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5727 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1109 SPACE JAM A film review by Scott Renshaw Copyright 1996 Scott Renshaw (Warner Bros.) Starring: Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Bill Murray, voices of Danny DeVito, Billy West. Screenplay: Leo Benvenuti & Steve Rudnick and Timothy Harris & Herschel Weingrod. Producers: Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck, Daniel Goldberg. Director: Joe Pytka. MPAA Rating: PG (mild profanity, adult humor). Running Time: 85 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw. Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny share top billing in Warner Bros.' live action/animation extravaganza SPACE JAM, but I'm going to go out on a limb to suggest that it was made more for those who grew up with His Airness than for those who grew up with His Hareness. Jordan is a superstar in an era where the line between entertainment and marketing is more like a faint smudge, and SPACE JAM is a film which defines the state of the art in tie-ins: action figures, Happy Meals, clothing, soundtrack albums and on and on and on. That kind of emphasis on merchandising made it a long shot for artistic merit, but I hoped the Looney Tunes could make for some genuine lunacy. No such luck, Doc. SPACE JAM is a sporadically amusing cartoon for a rapid-edit audience with too little of the classic Warner wit. The story involves an extraterrestrial entrepreneur named Swackhammer (voice of Danny DeVito), owner of an outer space amusement park called Moron Mountain which is in need of a new attraction. Swackhammer thinks earth's wacky Looney Tunes characters are just the thing, so he sends five diminutive henchmen to bring them back. Head Looney Tune Bugs Bunny (voice of Billy West) cleverly convinces the tiny aliens to play a basketball game for their freedom...at least he thinks it's clever until the aliens steal the talent of NBA players including Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson and become the Monstars. In an attempt to even the odds, Bugs recruits Michael Jordan, currently in the middle of his basketball retirement and playing baseball for the minor league Birmingham Barons. Thus begins the Space Jam, with Michael lacing up the high-tops again to save his two-dimensional pals from intergalactic slavery. Anyone who has seen Michael Jordan in any of his several thousand commercial appearances (McDonald's, Gatorade, Nike, Hanes) should not be surprised to hear that he has very little screen presence. Jordan has exactly one facial expression when trying to act -- eyebrows raised, lips pursed in a wrinkled smirk -- and he runs the gamut of emotions from affable bemusement to amiable bemusement. That makes it challenging enough for him to work with another human actor, weighing down an otherwise amusing scene where a star-struck catcher feeds Jordan information about what pitches to expect. When he is expected to react to animated characters, he is utterly lost. It isn't that much of the comedy involves interaction between Jordan and the 'Tunes; mostly he is asked to be pleasant and dunk in slow motion. There just seems to be no particular reason why Jordan couldn't have been animated himself, where an artist could have made him more...well, animated. Of course, the animated segments have their own problems. Make no mistake, SPACE JAM is going to be entertaining to 10-year-olds, relying on the slapstick violence which has always characterized Looney Tunes. What's missing is the subversive, adult-oriented humor of the Looney Tunes of old, and not "adult-oriented" in the sense that it was crude. The classic Warners cartoon capers took the time to build both visual and verbal gags, but director Joe Pytka doesn't believe his audience will have that kind of patience. SPACE JAM's idea of sharp satire is a reference to the Disney-owned Mighty Ducks NHL franchise, and it is disspiriting to find the 'Tunes scraping for laughs by uttering lines like "Nice butt," or "We're getting screwed." It also seems strangely appropriate that Bugs Bunny is voiced by Billy West; with its bodily functions humor, SPACE JAM seems less like a vehicle for Bugs than one for West's other cartoon voice roles, Ren and Stimpy. SPACE JAM only really comes to life when Bill Murray appears as himself. Murray's comic persona is the human descendent of Bugs Bunny, a wiseacre rebel unfairly smarter than his adversaries, and he is a riot in his scant minutes. He is also virtually the only reason for an adult to slog through SPACE JAM. For the kids, it provides well-known 'Tunes; for the teens, it provides well-known tunes (covers of "Fly Like an Eagle" by Seal and "Basketball Jones" by the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction pairing of Barry White and Chris Rock); for both, it provides perhaps the most well-known athlete on the planet. SPACE JAM is a commercial construct, and it feels like it. How sad that a brilliant comic creation like Bugs Bunny has to ride shotgun with a wooden basketball star, all to provide a set of collector's cups. On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 err Jordans: 4. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw Subscribe to receive reviews directly via email See details on the MoviePage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 09:23:00 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!newsfeed.sunet.se!news00.sunet.se!sunic!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.bbnplanet.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.pbi.net!cbgw3.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: good@pixar.com (Craig Good) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SPACE JAM (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 18 Nov 1996 19:12:35 GMT Organization: Pixar Lines: 65 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <56qcf3$1j0@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: good@pixar.com (Craig Good) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06350 Keywords: author=Good Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5748 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1112 SPACE JAM A film review by Craig Good Copyright 1996 Craig Good Here I was, all pumped up in my best Gomez Addams "Let's watch a train wreck" mood, and all "Space Jam" could deliver was a fender bender. No, it couldn't deliver the kind of down-in-flames badfilm experience of a "Star Trek V", "Hudson Hawk" or "1941". Instead it's just a humorless, overdesigned and underscripted bowl of soggy Wheaties, breakfast of champions. Imagine a movie in which Bill Murray isn't funny. Well, that's not quite true. Bill did get me to laugh once with his line right after Michael Jordan gets sucked down a golf hole. But by the end of the movie I couldn't remember the line anymore. I'm not going to blame Jordan for being a bad actor. As an actor I'm no better, and if someone dangles that kind of pay check in front of me I'll do "Space Jam II". Besides, even though pro athletes are professional entertainers, we wouldn't be too hard on Placido Domingo or even Kenny G. if it turned out they couldn't play basketball in the NBA. And asking Jordan to carry a movie is every bit as absurd. No, Michael walks away from this pretty unscathed. It's the Warner Bros studio which needs to hang its corporate head in shame. If there were laws in the world of art, what they did to their own legacy would be a felony. Someone really needs to send them a telegram and let them know that Mel Blanc is dead. None of the voices, except Tweedy and a couple of mice, came anywhere within the ballpark of the old classics. Worse, none of the animation can hold a candle to them. The character design of the new characters is so unreadable and indistinct that it makes Don Bluth's work look like the Renaissance. The style of the staging is straight TV generation garbage: Extreme angles and manic movement with absolutely no sense of character. Not once did I think that any of the animated characters was thinking. Rather, they were yanked around by a vacuous script which could only have been written by a committee of ten year olds. At several points in the show we glimpse clips of the old Warner Brothers shorts. I had the same reaction to them as to the baker's dozen of "homages" in ID4: "Are you *sure* you want to be reminding me of what a *good* movie is like right now?" Not only did they not understand their own short films, but in their headlong rush to throw money on the screen they lost the whole conceit of their "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" -- uh -- homage. When we get into Loony Tune Land or whatever the heck it was called, Bugs and the gang are running around with fancy pseudo-3D tone mattes on them. Shouldn't they only look like that in the "3D woild" as Bugs calls it? Oh, well. This is just the tip of a frustrating iceberg which waits anybody who sets sail in a sea of thought anywhere near this movie. And speaking of money, where *did* it go? I know that animation is expensive, but for half the price of the rumored budget of $140 million they could have done some good computer graphics instead of those inflated balloon guy effects which can surely be done by teenagers on home computers these days. So if you were hoping for either a good movie or one that was so bad it was good, save your money and see "The English Patient" or rent "Star Trek V", respectively. --Craig good@pixar.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 09:23:18 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.webspan.net!ix.netcom.com!netnews.worldnet.att.net!anchor.cis.att.com!cbgw1.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SPACE JAM (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Nov 1996 19:24:49 GMT Organization: - Lines: 99 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <56t1i1$53a@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: berardin@bc.cybernex.net (James Berardinelli) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06358 Keywords: author=Berardinelli Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5752 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1113 SPACE JAM A film review by James Berardinelli Copyright 1996 James Berardinelli RATING (0 TO 10): 6.0 Alternative Scale: **1/2 out of **** United States, 1996 U.S. Release Date: 11/15/96 (wide) Running Length: 1:30 MPAA Classification: PG (Cartoon violence) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Cast: Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, Wayne Knight, Bill Murray, Theresa Randle, voice of Danny DeVito, Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wylie Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley Director: Joe Pytka Producers: Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck, Daniel Goldberg Screenplay: Leo Benvenuit & Steve Rudnick and Timothy Harris & Herschel Weingrod Cinematography: Michael Chapman Music: James Newton Howard U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers Joe Pytka is known best as a TV commercial director. He's the man behind the "Thank you for your support" Bartles & James ads, the "Bo knows" Nike ads, and the Ray Charles "Uh huh" Diet Pepsi ads. In fact, according to his bio, he has directed some 5000 commercials. With SPACE JAM, his second feature film, make that 5001. This movie, which could just as easily be called THE MICHAEL JORDAN WORSHIP SHOW, plays like a 90-minute homage to His Airness, selling his every virtue. By the end of this picture, Jordan, whose status as a pop icon has never been in dispute, has been elevated to the level of a demi-god. It was inevitable that Jordan would eventually get into the movies. After all, Shaquille O'Neal has already made the move, and Jordan has more charisma and presence both on and off the court. The decision to have him play himself is the right choice, since Jordan's acting range seems to be on par with that of Steven Seagal. SPACE JAM's problem isn't that Jordan is the star, but that the tone is sickeningly reverential. There are only a few times when SPACE JAM dares to poke fun at its leading man, and, on those occasions, it does so gently. Opportunities for satire exist, but Pytka pulls nearly every punch. The bland results lead to a movie whose entertainment value is fine for kids, but marginal for adults. On the other hand, any movie that features the delightful Looney Tunes characters can't be all bad, and, indeed, the writing for Bugs Bunny and friends is as crisp as ever (except when they're bowing and genuflecting before His Airness). Just about everyone from the Warner Brothers cartoon world is there, from Bugs and Daffy to Foghorn Leghorn and Marvin the Martian. There's even a new character, Lola Bunny, who gives Bugs a love interest and adds a little sex appeal to the otherwise all-male cartoon character roster. Road Runner and Wylie Coyote are on hand as well, the latter chasing the former. I wish there had been more of these two -- they were always the funniest the Looney Tunes had to offer. The story, which would like to follow in the footsteps of the groundbreaking WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, mixes live-action and animation. Technically, the film isn't quite up to ROGER RABBIT's standards, but it's a huge improvement over Ralph Bakshi's COOL WORLD, which mingled Gabriel Byrne and Brad Pitt with a bunch of sleazy cartoon creations. Certainly, from a visual standpoint, there's nothing wrong with SPACE JAM. In fact, a few sequences are positively dazzling. SPACE JAM is about a big-time basketball game between the Looney Tunes team and the Monstars, a group of aliens under the lead of the evil Swackhammar (voice of Danny DeVito) who have stolen the powers of NBA stars Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsey Bogues, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley. In order to stand a chance against this seemingly- invincible team, Bugs summons Michael Jordan to Looney Tunes land and explains that if the good guys lose, they'll be taken back to the Monstars' home planet as slaves. Jordan, who has been playing baseball on Earth, agrees to help, although he wonders how rusty his basketball skills are. He is soon put to the test as the contest begins. There are a number of exceptionally clever moments in SPACE JAM, some of which are visual and some of which lie in the dialogue. Several of these pass quickly or occur in the background, so it takes a keen eye to spot them. A couple of the better, more obvious ones include a nod to PULP FICTION and a biting dig at Disney. Bugs, in response to Daffy's suggestion that they name their basketball team after his species, quips: "What kind of Mickey Mouse organization would name their team the Ducks?" Bill Murray, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, and a host of real-life sports figures have cameo appearances. Aside from Jordan, the only human with any significant screen time is Wayne Knight, who plays an irritating baseball publicist. Strangely, however, amidst all the two- dimensional cartoon characters, the flattest figure of all is Jordan. The basketball star's power might be the drawing card for SPACE JAM, but the Looney Tunes group steals the spotlight -- at least as often as Pytka will let them. - James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Nov 26 09:23:51 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!eru.mt.luth.se!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!hunter.premier.net!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.webspan.net!ix.netcom.com!netnews.worldnet.att.net!anchor.cis.att.com!cbgw1.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: legeros@pagesz.net (Michael J. Legeros) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SPACE JAM (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 19 Nov 1996 19:25:28 GMT Organization: none Lines: 50 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <56t1j8$53g@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: legeros@pagesz.net (Michael J. Legeros) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06361 Keywords: author=Legeros Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5753 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1114 SPACE JAM A film review by Michael John Legeros Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros (WB) Directed by Joe Pytka Written by Leo Benvenuit, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, Herschel Weingrod Cast Michael Jordan, Bugs Bunny, Wayne Knight, Bill Murray, Theresa Randle, voice of Danny DeVito, Lola Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wylie Coyote, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley MPAA Rating "PG" Running Time 88 minutes Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC (08NOV96) == An animated tribute to North Carolina's most famous native not currently crusading against radical homer-sexual agendas, SPACE JAM is both a surprise and a disappointment. Who would've thought that such a commercially crass premise (ninety minutes of Hare Jordan) would yield such a fun family film? While the brilliant colors, frenzied characters, and pulse-pounding soundtrack are a dandy distraction for the wee ones, Mom and Dad are guaranteed a good time by the many flashes of adult humor, like a PULP FICTION gag here, a bit of sexual innuendo there, and all of those gloriously exaggerated (and refreshingly politically incorrect) speech impediments. (Watch when Daffy coats the lens after a particularly moist monologue.) Animation fans are also in for a treat, though they're likely to lament the absence of any discernible edge. Missing are the Toons' twin trademarks: rapid-fire wit and violent physical humor. Sure, the final reel breaks loose, but most of the gags (and the animated characters themselves) are lamer, tamer versions of the originals. Even a bigger letdown is how... familiar the whole experience is. What does SPACE JAM say about our exposure to celebrities-- and the entertainment industry as a whole-- when a well-attended, decently- reviewed blockbuster can be built by simply casting a bunch of basketball stars, cartoon characters, and one actor (Bill Murray) as themselves? Grade: B -- Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth legeros@pagesz.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w) I'm also on the Web! http://www.pagesz.net/~legeros/ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Dec 2 17:07:28 1996 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!linkoping.trab.se!malmo.trab.se!newsfeed.luth.se!news.luth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-stkh.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!howland.erols.net!feed1.news.erols.com!news.idt.net!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken.llnl.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!cbgw1.lucent.com!nntphub.cb.lucent.com!not-for-mail From: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: SPACE JAM (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 25 Nov 1996 17:48:37 GMT Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc. Lines: 125 Sender: eleeper@lucent.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: eleeper@lucent.com Message-ID: <57cm5l$1mc@nntpb.cb.lucent.com> Reply-To: rhodes_steve@tandem.com (Steve Rhodes) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtvoyager.mt.lucent.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #06388 Keywords: author=Rhodes Originator: ecl@mtvoyager Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:5815 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1135 SPACE JAM A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): *** We need to clear up a widely held misunderstanding. Most of the country by now has heard of the hugely popular Warner Brothers film SPACE JAM. Most of you by now are aware that it is a mixture of animation, featuring all your favorite Looney Tunes characters, and live action, featuring various sports stars from the NBA. So far; so good. Now, you are probably under the impression that Michael Jordan ACTS in this movie. This is patently false. What Michael Jordan does is APPEAR in the movie; he never acts. With the except of a single brief smile, he manages to maintain a dispassionate and deadpan look throughout the picture. Since he gets $40,0000,000 a year in product endorsements, perhaps his actor's salary was just pocket change to him. More likely, he just can not act -- most of us can't. Michael Jordan is certainly a great athlete, and he provides a good clean-cut role model for youngsters, but this does not an actor make. The good news is that the cartoon characters in the film are excellent and the story by Leonardo Benvenuti, Timothy Harris, Steve Rudnick, and Herschel Weingrod is well developed and quite funny. This is one of those rare examples of a good movie with a lead that is DOA. SPACE JAM opens with a seven year old Michael Jordan displaying amazing talent at shooting hoops. He dreams of being a star in the NBA. After a collage of real stills and video memorabilia of his rise to glory, we come to a grown Michael Jordan who has conquered basketball and gone onto baseball. Until this point the story is little more that a schmaltzy autobiography. Never fear, the animated characters are here. A group of cartoon aliens under the direction of the evil Swackhammer (voice by Danny DeVito) have an amusement park called Moron Mountain. The guests are becoming bored so Swackhammer sends the aliens off to capture all the Looney Tunes. Daffy Duck (voice by Dee Bradley Baker) takes one look at the pip-squeak aliens and laughs, "Oh, fear clutches my breast!" When they turn a chicken into a skeleton with their ray gun, he changes his tune. The Looney Tunes challenge the height-challenged aliens to a game of basketball to see whether the Tunes have to go to Moron Mountain or not. Ever confident Daffy ridicules them with, "Too bad you can't practice getting taller, boys." They then go and suck the talent and stature of various NBA heroes which makes the aliens look like major steroid abusers. Back up on earth Bill Murray and Larry Bird are playing golf with Michael Jordan. Costume designer Marlene Stewart has Murray in a classic example of how not to dress on the golf course. Below his umbrella hat is a travelogue shirt followed by plaid Bermuda shorts and finished up with falling down old socks and battered shoes. The Looney Tunes pull Jordan into the Tune world and enlist his help in defeating the aliens. The picture works as a feature length cartoon. The Looney Tunes are as funny as I ever remember seeing them. There are constant jokes about product royalties. Daffy kisses his rear because it has a big Warner Brothers logo pasted on it. Daffy and Bugs Bunny (voice by Billy West) grouse about not getting any money from all the lunch boxes and other toys with their faces on them. Daffy tells him, "We've got to get a new agent. We're getting screwed!" This "screwed" line is funny, but it is this and a couple of others where the humans talk about getting their "butts whipped" that gets the film a PG rating rather than a G. Since there are so few G shows made, it is a shame that the producers went for a more bankable PG picture. Yes, there are many teenagers and adults who will not go to G films thinking subconsciously that they are only for little kids, but why do the studios keep pandering to these prejudices? Changing these few lines would not have made the picture one scintilla less funny. All the Tunes are hilarious in the show, but Daffy is the best mainly because he gets the best material. He refers to the human environment as "3D land." No one is immune from the jabs in the show. They even go after arch rival Disney when Bugs remarks, "What kind of a Mickey Mouse outfit would name their team The Ducks?" My favorite scene is the highly charged announcement of the players at the big game where Jordan and the tunes play the alien hunks with the NBA talent inside. Two small mice steal the microphone from the sleeping announcer and manage to boom out each player's name and stats. When Bugs enters the arena, the mice call out on the PA, "Standing at three foot three, four foot if you count the ears, is Bugs Bunny." Along with the humor, the show is upbeat and full of energy thanks to the strong live action direction by Joe Pytka and animation direction by Bruce Smith and Tony Cervone. Joe Pytka's only other film is LET IT RIDE which I hated back in 1989. Here he redeems himself in my eyes. I had great fun watching the film as did my son, my wife, and my 70 year old parents. Technically the film is a success as well. The colors are bright primary ones that radiant joy. Other than the lifeless lead and the little bit of needless bad language, I think the show is good fun, and I believe your family will too. SPACE JAM runs just 1:27, and if you stay until the very end, you will get one last treat on the screen. It is rated PG solely for a few mildly offensive words. There is no sex, nudity, or violence. My son Jeffrey, age 7 1/2, loves the show and gives it "ten thumbs up." He has a strange scale that I have never quite been able to chart. He thinks that SPACE JAM would be fine for kids three and up, and I agree. I recommend this picture to you, especially if you have kids, and I give it ***. ______________________________________________________________________ **** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable. REVIEW WRITTEN ON: November 21, 1996 Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's. From /home/matoh/tmp/sf-rev Fri Aug 22 16:33:10 1997 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 15 23:07:45 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed1.telia.com!masternews.telia.net!newssrv.ita.tip.net!ubnnews.unisource.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!in2p3.fr!oleane!oleane!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!howland.erols.net!ais.net!uunet!in1.uu.net!140.142.64.3!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: ChadPolenz@aol.com (Chad Polenz) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Space Jam (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 7 Jul 1997 04:30:53 GMT Organization: None Lines: 67 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5pprdt$8pq@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer38.u.washington.edu Content-Type: text NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08126 Keywords: author=polenz X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer38.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:7576 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1416 Space Jam Chad'z rating: *** (out of 4 = good) 1996, PG, 81 minutes [1 hour, 21 minutes] [comedy] starring: Michael Jordan (himself), Billy West (voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd), Dee Bradley Baker (voice of Daffy Duck, Tazmanian Devil), Wayne Knight (Stan Podolak), written by Leonardo Benvenuti, Timothy Harris, Steve Rudnick, Herschel Weingrod, produced by Daniel Goldberg, Steven Paul Leiva, Ivan Reitman, directed by Joe Pytka. "Space Jam" is like a short movie they incorporate with thrill rides at big amusement parks: it's not big on plot and is really just a long advertisement. However, this film is funny and enjoyable and I can respect that. The Looney Toons characters (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, etc.) have entertained us in the form of animated shorts for years, and this film proves their gags and routines can still work in the form of feature films. We seem to have forgotten cartoons were designed to make us laugh (not to be overly dramatic musicals), and this film not only re-establishes that concept, but does it through an original, humorous manner. On the planet Moron Mountain (now there's a cartoon name if I ever heard one!), a fat, greedy, cigar-smoking alien (voiced by Danny DeVito), who runs a fledging amusement park, sends five scouts to Earth to kidnap the Looney Tunes characters to enslave them as novelty acts for his show. Back on the "real" Earth, former basketball star Michael Jordan is struggling with his baseball career and finds himself annoyed by his new bumbling assistant Stan (Knight, the only fictional real-life character in the film). The initial atmosphere is a bit choppy as Jordan is upstaged by the professionalism of Knight and Bill Murray (as himself), but he isn't bad and I couldn't help but be curious. The five-inch tall aliens arrive in the land of the Looney Toons packing powerful weapons and attempt to kidnap the 'toons. Using cartoon logic, Bugs Bunny (voiced by West) convinces them the only way they can be kidnapped is if they beat them in a game of basketball. So the aliens make their way to the "real" world and steal the talents from some top NBA players (through some very funny scenes), which causes them to morph into gigantic monsters. So Bugs travels to the "real" world and brings back Michael Jordan, hoping he can help them win. An interesting subplot begins to develop regarding the players (Charles Barkley, Shawn Kemp, Mugsy Bouges, Patrick Ewing, and Larry Johnson) who were robbed of their talents and essentially become zombies. We get some slapstick jokes, but it keeps with the cartoony nature of the film. When the players go to strange means to get their talents back, the comedy works in both a childish and mature manner: childish in the delivery, but mature in the witty content. Throughout the film are parodies children wouldn't understand, but are still good anyway (including a hilarious "Pulp Fiction" spoof). Describing the final act would be pointless wouldn't it? It's as cliche and cartoony as they come, but I didn't mind. "Space Jam" isn't anything genius, but it's a good, decent movie. Mixing animation with live action is a difficult process to synthesize, especially when the comedy is cartoony in nature (and using people who aren't really actors), but this film has a lot of wit and cleverness that more than makes up for its rough edges. Please visit Chad'z Movie Page @ http://members.aol.com/ChadPolenz E-mail: ChadPolenz@aol.com (C)1997 Chad Polenz From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Sep 1 16:58:21 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!news-ge.switch.ch!news-fra1.dfn.de!news-kar1.dfn.de!newsfeed.nacamar.de!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!ais.net!uunet!in5.uu.net!news.u.washington.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Steve Kong Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Space Jam (1996) Supersedes: <5uc60s$sjt@nntp5.u.washington.edu> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 1 Sep 1997 02:54:02 GMT Organization: None Lines: 40 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <5udaoa$6ec@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer19.u.washington.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #08806 Keywords: author=kong X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer19.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8211 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1515 Space Jam (1996) A film review by Steve Kong Copyright 1996 Steve Kong Michael Jordan in a film, why not? He's done just about everything else. Space Jam is a strange mix of biography and fiction. Taking from the life of Jordan and mixing that with the Looney Tunes. Space Jam takes place somewhere between Jordan ending his baseball career and starting back with basketball. The story involves aliens from the planet Moron Mountain, who need some new attractions for their theme park. It seems that the patrons of Moron Mountain are just bored with the current attractions. Accidentally they run into the Looney Tunes on TV. So, five little aliens are dispatched to take the Looney Tunes back to Moron Mountain. But, in a turn of events, they have to challenge the Tunes to a game of basketball. The Tunes think they have it made out for them, until the little aliens morph into super star basketball players. The Tunes need some help, who else can the call upon but the basketball great, Michael Jordan? The biggest attraction in Space Jam is not as much Michael and his basketball skills, but the well integration of animation with live action. The animation consists of a mix of computer-generated animation and cell animation. Bugs, Daffy, Taz, and friends look better than ever. Michael Jordan in his first movie role does well. Though this is not saying much since his role is not all that taxing. Other basketball players, such as Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing, are also featured, but only in brief. The real stars of Space Jam are the Looney Tunes. The Tunes are a hoot to watch, like always. Space Jam is a wonderfully entertaining movie that is well suited for both the adults and the children. Don't miss this one. !=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=! steve kong boiled@earthlink.net spy on me at: http://home.earthlink.net/~boiled/steve-cam.html movie reviews: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/2259/ "try not. do. or do not. there is no try." - yoda !=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!