Hoop dreams

>> Lil Bow Wow lifts the otherwise
mediocre Like Mike

by MATHEW HAYS

Not to begin on too sour a note while discussing Like Mike, let’s just say it’s not as bad as it looks like it would have been, judging by its trailer. This is an occasionally endearing, probably benign, has-that-churned-out-of-a-factory-feeling children’s film, the ones studios do so frequently—while seeming to learn nothing despite the repetition.

The film has hip hop sensation Lil Bow Wow in his feature-film debut, here playing a sad orphan in desperate want of adoptive parents. In a turn of kiddie-movie logic, Wow comes across a pair of beautiful white running shoes, the kind Michael Jordan would wear (indeed, the child has reason to suspect Jordan actually wore this magical pair at one point). The obligatory evil older child at the orphanage steals the shoes away from Wow and throws them over some electrical wiring. The runners are now out of reach.

Wow then waits till sundown and returns to the scene of the dangling runners. In a superhero-is-born scenario, Wow almost has the suckers tugged off the wire until a rainstorm delivers a bolt of lightning, making the runners magical shoes that allow Wow to become a star basketball player.
This is the kind of wish fulfillment kids lap up, and the sequences in which Wow is discovered as a wicked basketball player with all the moves are lively and well done. Wow is soon taken on the road, playing in an NBA team and scoring multiple slam dunks.

The film has some fun moments, including a car chase sequence (with kids outwitting adults) and a scene where Wow discovers the joy of hotel room service (a revelation I could relate to). Where the film delves a bit beyond the norm is when it has Wow longing to become adopted. He’s soon bonding with one of the players (Morris Chestnut), who is himself estranged from his own father. That the film addresses the issue of troubled fatherhood among three generations of African-Americans—a community where absentee fatherhood is epidemic—is laudable. There’s a very sweet scene where Wow and Chestnut have a sort of rapping competition while driving along in the car—surprisingly poignant, amid such an otherwise-only-okay film.

Still, despite that theme, Like Mike really only warrants a primarily-for-kids label. Parents dragged to the film will almost certainly derive most of their pleasure from watching the bizarre cast, a mélange of various performers with cult followings. Anne Meara plays a nun; Crispin Glover plays the evil orphanage manager; Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, Medium Cool) is the coach and Eugene Levy is the team’s general manager (there are also a slew of NBA player cameos).

The real find, however, is Wow himself, who, endowed with considerable charm and what appears to be a true sense of wit, could easily continue to pursue a movie acting career if he wished to. His first feature, Like Mike, is really only an okay movie. Let’s hope it’s not his last. :

Like Mike opens Wednesday, July 3