"LIKE MIKE" looks "LIKE SHIT" ****Your thoughts and reviews****

[Mike]

Is it just me or does this movie look terrible? I saw a TV spot to this flick for the first time the other night and it looks really bad. I actually can't picture anyone seeing it unless they didn't see the trailer or a TV spot for it.

The tagline should be:

This July 3rd hell will freeze over - and LIKE MIKE will get released in theaters!!!

I don't think I'll even see this on video.

What does everyone else think? If you've seen it what did you think of it (do I even need to ask)? What would you give it for a grade (1/10 or 2/10)?

[syxxpac]

Yeah, I fully agree with you. "Like an asshole", some executive actually thought this was a great idea.

[The Other]

I'll never see this movie. I'll never even watch it on TV if nothing else is on...which is what I usually do if a movie doesn't interest me all that much. But this film should be called "Like Shit".

[XCoRyX]

The film will make some money as bad as it looks and has been used up before...kids are stuck to these kind of movies...well,actually this will probably bomb in the box office,im willing to bet....but usually movies like these do very well.

[Scarface98.9]

as the great philosopher Randal Graves once said: "Now that was worse than Clash of the Titans."

[Strider]

I'm in agreement with you guys, this movie does look like shit. But I think it'll do very well at the box-office. Kids will flock to the theaters to see this, fans of Lil' Bow Wow will see it, and maybe, just maybe, basketball fans will check it out as well.

But then again, I'm a basketball fan, and I have no intentions of seeing this film... at all.

Strider

[The Claw]

I'm going to go see it, IM GOIGN TO SEE IT OH YES

actaully no im not, its yet another sports movie, which has been done to death a billion times before, and SLAM DUNK ERNEST was teh best basketball movie, that or the 6th man, with the guy dies and comes back to help the team, as you can see my taste in film is #1. yes it is. and like mike looks bad, very very bad.

[someguy]

I won't give someone money who lets 13 and 14 year old girls shake their butts in their videos.

[ColinM]

Boy did this one look bad. It looks more like the premise of a little kids cartoon, and a bad one at that.

[od1]

That's a nice way to start a topic. You must have some issues.

[ColinM]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by od1:
That's a nice way to start a topic. You must have some issues.</font>

Or a specific opinion about the movie...unlike yourself apparently.

[This message has been edited by ColinM (edited 06-29-2002).]

[Moviefreek]

How many topics about "Like Mike", do we need? Everyone has the same thought on this movie. Like Mike is going to suck, need anyone say more?

[B-ball Dude]

Man u guys am I the only one who thinks this movie's gonna kickass it looks awesome.

[Self_Righteous]

The only way for this movie to have a saving grace is if Chewbaca were to come out at the end of the movie and kill Lil' Bow Wow.

[idealdiscountdude]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by B-ball Dude:
Man u guys am I the only one who thinks this movie's gonna kickass it looks awesome.</font>

Although I don't think it looks awesome, I do think it looks entertaining and that I will check it out.

L'il Bow Wow seems like a pretty cool kid, he's very respectful and cool in all his interviews, and he is a pretty skilled "teeny bopper rapper" as well.

[Moviefreek]

IT IS CURRENTLY FRESH AT ROTTEN TOMATOES....DEAR GOD.

[FeverDog420]

This freakin' little punk was all over ESPN last weekend. I just wanted to watch a ballgame and was assaulted by this "BowWow."

Who the fuck goes to movies with "artists" with names like this? BowWow. Ice Cube. Eminem. Are they serious? What, is using a normal name too fuckin' uncool?

"BowWow" in Like Mike. What-fucking-ever. I'd sooner go to a movie starring frozen water blocks or candy-covered chocolate.

[FZFamilyGuy]

Well I saw it today why did i see it, that's right a free ticket. Even with the free ticket i did not want to go, but my brother had no one else to go with so I went and saw it. Don't get me wrong it was bad, but being a basketball fan it wasn't too bad. It's defintly a kids movie. The funniest thing in the movie is the, not mess-ups, but cheap stuff that they try to pass off as movie footage, such as all the scenes with Allen Iverson, probably 3, are totally pre-taped with out Bow Wow. Also during a game against the Toronto Raptors they show Vince Carter doing a dunk and if you look behind him there's absolutly no one on the court, the dunk is actually from a slam dunk contest a few years ago.
Compared to a lot of kid actors Bow Wow wasn't too bad at acting especially for being a "rapper" he might just be the best acting rapper, not saying much but...

Like Mike(5.9/11.9)

[This message has been edited by FZFamilyGuy (edited 07-02-2002).]

[Strider]

Here is James Berardinelli's review for Like Mike.....

* 1/2 out of **** stars

Like Mike is a star vehicle for pint-sized rapper "Lil' Bow Wow". Considering that fact, it's appropriate to say the following about the film: woof, woof.

It is quite possible to have a child's wish fulfillment fantasy that's as enjoyable for adults as it is for kids (Big would be an example). All that's necessary is for the screenwriters to put some thought into the script. However, in a day and age when the writer is increasingly becoming the least important part of the Hollywood equation, that's often too much to ask. The result is something akin to Like Mike, a soulless jumble of ineptly assembled cliches and pabulum that plays like a 95-minute commercial for NBA properties. (Ironically, the title character, Michael Jordan, does not appear in the film - although dozens of other basketball stars are more than willing to mug for the camera for a few seconds.)

Boys under the age of nine (or thereabouts) will, for the most part, enjoy this movie. But, as I have said in countless other reviews of bad children's flicks, it's in the nature of kids not to be discriminating. Adults who accompany their offspring to the local multiplex will be thrown into a state of abject despair. Sure, the movie represents a child's fantasy - orphan boy finds magic shoes and suddenly becomes an NBA superstar - but it is so clinical in its approach that no genuine sense of feeling or emotion comes across. This is, at best, a poorly conceived made-for-TV production projected onto the big screen. It has enough appealing snippets to fill a 30-second TV promo, but, beyond that, it is brain-dead and character-less - a cynical attempt to lure children into theaters. Director John Schultz (who helmed the serviceable teen romantic comedy, Drive Me Crazy) should be ashamed of himself for collaborating on such a journey into crass commercialism. It's rare to see a movie that is so focused on the selling of its chief product.

Calvin Cambridge (Lil' Bow Wow) is an orphan. Growing up in the Chesterfield Group Home under the watchful eye of self-serving Stan Bittleman (Crispin Glover) and kindly Sister Theresa (Anne Meara), Calvin spends time playing basketball with his two best friends, Murph (Jonathan Lipnicki) and Reg (Brenda Song), and tussling with the local bully, Ox (Jesse Plemons). Then, one day everything changes when Cinderella... er, Calvin... discovers a pair of magic sneakers that make him play "like Mike" (actually, much better). When he displays his newfound abilities during a half-time promotion at a Los Angeles Knights game, the owner's representative (Eugene Levy) wants to sign him to a contract. The idea is for him to sit on the bench and boost attendance, but Coach Wagner (Robert Forster) decides to let him play - and he leads the Knights to a come-from-behind victory. The crowd goes wild. ESPN and NBC take notice. Suddenly, Calvin is a national sensation, much to the displeasure of his disgruntled room-mate, superstar Tracey Reynolds (Morris Chestnut). Now, all that has to happen is for Calvin to lead the Knights into the playoffs while learning the lesson of the importance of being himself.

The on-court scenes are filmed with a lackluster indifference that is surprising. One would have expected an NBA-backed motion picture to at least get that much right. In a film like Hoosiers, everyone in the audience knows deep down who's going to win the big game, but effective filmmaking plants a seed of doubt. This makes the game sequences enjoyable, and, to an extent, suspenseful. Not so in Like Mike, where such scenes are perfunctory opportunities for cameos by NBA luminaries like Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, and David "The Admiral" Robinson. At the end of Hoosiers, we feel the irrational desire to jump up and cheer. At the end of Like Mike, a yawn represents a passionate response.

Stranded in this mess are a couple of competent actors: Robert Forster and Morris Chestnut. Forster has the easier job - all he has to do is play the dour coach whose dialogue is primarily composed of traditional sports movie cliches. Chestnut, on the other hand, has to keep his dignity while coated with orange paint. (Mercifully, paint replaces sewage as the messy fluid of choice in this particular film.) Chestnut also displays a fair amount of athleticism and basketball ability (although that could be the result of clever editing). As for Lil' Bow Wow, my advice is that he should not quit his day job. Aside from the times when he displays a certain wide-eyed enthusiasm at his character's sudden stardom, he's pretty bland. Emotional moments are clearly not his forte. Yet Lil' Bow Wow isn't the worst child actor in the film - that distinction belongs to Jonathan Lipnicki (the delightful kid in Jerry Maguire), who is simply awful.

Is Like Mike harmless? As harmless as any 95-minute commercial can be. On home video, this film should have more appeal than in theaters. (Although, with something like Scooby Doo turning into a blockbuster, who can say what will reel in the big bucks these days?) At least on VHS/DVD, kids can watch the film unchaperoned, and can turn it off when they get bored. As for the potential adult audience... I can think of at least two good drinking games that can be played while viewing Like Mike.

Strider