Like Mike (2002) was a seminal film in the formative years that were my youth. I saw it in the theaters. I have it on DVD (Like Mike Blu-Ray when?!). I OFTEN watched the music video on AOL for "Basketball" by star of the film Lil' Bow Wow (and, of course, featuring Fabolous, Jermaine Depree, and the criminally underutilized Fundisha). I've probably watched this movie twenty times. Recently, I decided to watch it again. First time in a while.
For those who haven't seen. It's the story of an orphan boy named Calvin Cambridge (Lil' Bow Wow) who gains incredible athletic abilities when he wears a pair of shoes that used to be Michael Jordan's. He is signed to the NBA by the struggling LA Knights (this film makes no reference to the Los Angeles Clippers, whom I assume are non-canonical in the Like Mike Cinematic Universe), and hijinks and life lessons ensue.
I think it holds up really well. It's got everything you need in a early 2000s family film: an orphanage run by a real piece of shit, a redheaded bully, a lightning strike used as a justification for why magic stuff is happening, and boy wonder himself Jonathan Lipnicki. It's got great comedic performances from Lil' Bow Wow as Calvin Cambridge and Morris Chestnut as Tracy Reynolds. And it has a heart to it.
No lie, it had a lot going for it. Eugene Levy hot off American Pie 2! Pre-Disney Channel Brenda Song! Unfunny cameo appearances by Jimmy Kimmel and Fred Armisen. And Reginald VelJohnson. He's not in it much. I just really like that guy.
But something really gets my goat every time I watch this film. And that is that Michael Jordan, the person whose shoes possessed this incredible power and ability in the film, the person whose talent is being praised simply by this film's existence, is nowhere to be found in the film.
They got SO MANY NBA players to be in the movie. Vince Carter, Michael Finley, Steve Francis, Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Desmond Mason, Alonzo Mourning, Tracy McGrady, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Gary Payton, Jason Richardson, David Robinson, Gerald Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, and Chris Webber gave their time and effort and probably a nice afternoon to be in the movie, and the movie wasn't even about a child that gained their abilities. Just some other guy who couldn't be fucked to show up!
Picture this scene: Michael Jordan strides into the LA Knight's locker room and meets a star-struck Calvin. After a brief silly conversation, he turns and leaves. But before he disappears out the door, he pauses, turns back, and says, "Hey kid... nice shoes!" WINK glimmer
But does such a perfect scene exist in this film?! No!
To be perfectly blunt, it is an outrage and a scandal that Michael Jordan did not appear in Like Mike. I find this move to be selfish and cowardly. He didn't even have to come out of retirement. He was in the NBA with the Washington Wizards at the time. He was able to do that shit for Space Jam, but couldn't even spare a day in his injury-ridden finals years for little ol' Like Mike?
Players probably went up to him at games in 2001 and 2002, like, "Hey MJ, just filmed a scene for a movie that endlessly praises your abilities and mentions you all the time as the greatest and connects it to shoes so more people will want to buy Jordan shoes, when are you gonna be in it" and he'd probably say "Leave me alone, Rasheed Wallace", like the Hitler-mustachioed joy-hating garbage man he is.
Anyone else bothered by this?
Submitted October 08, 2017 at 04:38PM by onthespot__ http://ift.tt/2yyBLmk
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