"Space Jam" Review

"Space Jam"

Directed by Joe Pytka

Starring Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, Bill Murray, Theresa Randle, Charles Barkley

 

RATING

4/10

I've decided to touch upon some nostalgia today with this little "gem". Having grown up with the Looney Tunes, "Space Jam" was something of a movie event of Biblical proportions for my tiny mind. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the rest of the Tunes combined with the little known sport of basketball (at least it was to me). The animation looked crisp, there was a strange famous basketball player interacting with cartoons, tiny space aliens turning into gigantic monsters, and Bill Murray... This had to be awesome, right? ... right?

 

"Space Jam" tells the tale of Michael Jordan as his glorious self going through a bit of a breakdown in his career. After creating a storm in the basketball world, he dumbs down to the (warning: sarcasm) ever so exciting game of baseball. And he sucks at that. So, in an alternative realm/world/morning cartoon show, the Looney Tunes are visited by tiny aliens from outer space who want to kidnap the Tunes for entertainment on another planet. The Tunes refuse, so the situation must rightfully be settled with... a basketball game. Coincidentally and conveniently, we have Mikey Jordan's sub-plot. He is dragged into the cartoon world and helps the Tunes overcome a deadly basketball game when the tiny aliens steal the skills of other basketball players to become huge monsters.

 

I remember mindlessly watching this many years ago, when I was a wee lad, and thinking to myself, "this is the greatest movie ever!" ... Fast-forward about 11 years down the line, and the time came when I decided to re-watch this supposed masterpiece... Yeah, this was a terrible movie. As far as nostalgic criticism goes, you gotta see this from other viewpoints. "Space Jam" had elements of fun, but ultimately it made no sense at all, and seemed rather uncharacteristically dull, even for a Looney Tunes movie. Maybe that can be attributed to Michael Jordan's ridiculously bad acting and line reading, or the fact that Bill Murray appears in the movie for the sole purpose of Bill Murray just appearing in the movie. And don't get me started on Wayne Knight, who's career peaked with "Jurassic Park" and he released a line of really bad movies from then. All the performances in this film were just terrible, and the Looney Tunes themselves were so over-the-top and hyper, they felt cartoonish and tripped up on cocaine even for a bunch called the freakin' "Looney" Tunes. As for the plot, which revolved around Jordan interacting with the Tunes for 90% of the film, you got a sportsman who has never acted in his life doing green-screen... bad move. The plot becomes almost non-existent at a point, and you kind of just give up with the story and focus on Michael Jordan's braindead performance instead. Everything about the story felt so uneven and rushed, it doesn't compell you to continue watching or offer any substance in character. It's just bland, predictable, and literally insane. I'll give it some due credit, there were a few funny scenes and the crisp animation ultimately carried some of the more overly whimsical scenes, including the odd "bunny romance" between Bugs and Lola... Yeah, that was uncomfortable to watch. It also has a really catchy theme song. I really hoped this film would shine with nostalgia and that I would just forget the faults, but it has too many goofy flaws in plot and bad acting to really recommend this again.

 

"Space Jam" is not the film you remember seeing as a kid. While it may entertain a younger generation, this just feels like a poor rendition of the popular Looney Tunes television show we all loved so much. The acting was bad, the Tunes were unbearable to watch, and the weird and forced random romance was puzzling. While it does have a few laugh-out-loud moments and the animation was pretty good, "Space Jam" is nothing more than a cash-grab at a popular franchise that doesn't hold up today.