Hoop Dreams (1994)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Hoop Dreams is a movie about two teens in the Chicago area that want to play in the NBA. Their names are Arthur Agee and William Gates. Both have talent and both get offers from a local prep school, St. Joseph’s. Gates is able to get the money to pay for it since he seems to have more talent and does better academically. Agee is kicked out and sent back to a school closer to his house. Ironically, Gates damages his knee and never really recovers while Agee ends up taking his school to the championships. In the end, neither really goes on to the NBA, although both are able to go to college.

I first saw this movie all the way back in 1994 or 1995 when it first came out. It was part of this group event and we were all dragged to see it. I think of all of the people there, I was the one that least resembled a sports fan. I’ve since grown a little more tolerant of sports, but I don’t think I’d be willing to sit through this movie again. It’s three hours in length, which seemed way too excessive at the time. It covered a span of about six years, but I just don’t have the patience to sit through three hours of a narrator saying, “And we see Author trying for a jump shot. His entire athletic career hangs on this one shot…”

Also, the movie ends up coming across as a rich kid/poor kid story, even though both come from the projects and both have a full load of problems. Both have to face insurmountable odds to get to the next level. It’s just a matter of how much they want it and how much effort they’re willing to put into it. I remember feeling no connection to either of them. What really bothered me at the time was how everyone kept saying how this movie was all inspirational and everything. I just didn’t get it.

I think this review represents the problem with movie reviews. Most of how you feel about a movie is going to be based on what you bring to it. Thus, most people are able to accurately judge how they’ll like a movie by the coming attractions and what friends have to say about it. I went into the theater not wanting to see this movie at all. (Even if I had wanted to see it, I probably still wouldn’t have given it more than two stars.) I think that you’ll know whether or not you want to see Hoop Dreams. The best I can do is to boil it down to the points that I think are important.

IMDb page

The Brother from Another Planet (1984)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

There are three main reasons I watch a movie these days:  I like the coming attractions, it’s a movie I saw a long time ago or it’s a Z movie that I have to see to believe.  I came across Brother From Another Planet while looking for movies to stream through Netflix.  I had seen it about 20 years ago.  I was in a community-service program called AmeriCorps; One of the things they did for Corps members was having a movie night.  (I recall this movie and The Milagro Beanfield War being two of the selections.  I don’t recall what the criteria were, though.)  The movie had been released about ten years prior to that, in 1984.

The movie is about a humanoid alien that lands on Earth.  He looks like you’re typical African-American male, hence the name of the movie.  His ship crashes and he’s badly injured, but he’s able to make it to the safety of a bar in Brooklyn.  The regulars there start to trust him when he fixes a video game.  They realize that he has a skill, so he gets a job fixing video games.  They also set him up with a place to live.

Things are going pretty well for The Brother until two well-dressed white guys show up asking about him.  The people at the bar claim not to have seen him, but he gets kicked out of his place, as his landlady doesn’t like people asking questions.  The Brother manages to see a good deal of Brooklyn, including an overdosed druggie.  This leads The Brother to hunt down the guy responsible.  (One of the scenes I recalled was a scene in which The Brother uses his eye as a remote-surveillance device.)

This is one of those movies where low budget doesn’t mean low quality.  If you’ve watched a lot of television and movies, you’ll recognize a few of the actors, including Joe Morton.  You have a good, relatable main character played by an actor who shows that you don’t have to speak to get your point across.  It’s not heavy on the science fiction, either.

I will say that it’s a strange movie.  Netflix lists the movie as a comedy, but I don’t think of it as being a comedy in the traditional sense.  (One definition that I heard was that difference between a comedy and a drama is that in a comedy, none of the main characters die at the end.)  It’s not really the kind of movie where you’ll find yourself laughing.

I’m not sure it’s a movie for children.  It’s not gory or anything, but The Brother is called Three Toe by his pursuers for good reason.  It’s not overly disturbing, but it’s the kind of thing that could stick in a child’s mind.  (How is it that no one notices he has three toes, though?)  There’s also the drug scene to worry about.  Primarily, though, the movie does deal with issues of race and other things children probably wouldn’t catch.

It does look dated, but I’m not holding that against the movie.  I don’t think you could really do better with more of a budget here.  I’d recommend watching this movie, especially if you have Netflix and can stream it.  When I first watched it, Netflix didn’t offer an option for DVD.  It does look like it is now available on DVD, although that has a way of changing.

IMDb page