He Got Game

1998

Action / Drama / Sport

50
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 80% · 66 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 83% · 25K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 51241 51.2K

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Plot summary

A basketball player's father must try to convince him to go to a college so he can get a shorter prison sentence.


Uploaded by: OTTO
August 02, 2016 at 03:47 AM

Director

Top cast

Denzel Washington as Jake Shuttlesworth
Rosario Dawson as Lala Bonilla
Milla Jovovich as Dakota Burns
Jennifer Esposito as Ms. Janus
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
851.87 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
R
23.976 fps
2 hr 16 min
Seeds 13
2.07 GB
1920*1024
English 2.0
R
23.976 fps
2 hr 16 min
Seeds 31

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Agent10 7 / 10

A dark and unsettling film about basketball

It finally happened, and the movie we all thought Spike Lee would make became reality. With Lee's own little foray into the basketball world, I always wondered when he would create a story which reflected his unique views of the game. While sometimes over sensationalized, he depicted a seedy world comprised of two-faced individuals all the way down to the seedy high school coach to the professional agent. I also felt it depicted some very frank images of the cultural aspects of athletics, the sex, the money and the little freebies. While the film didn't need the story between Denzel Washington and Milla Jovovich, it was strong in most aspects. It was a bit of a change of pace for Spike Lee, considering the graininess of the film stock and the rather mundane colors. Also, Ray Allen had one of the best pro athletes-turned-actor performances in a long time.

Reviewed by MartinHafer 5 / 10

A talented young man...surrounded by users and jerks.

"He Got Game" is a film from Spike Lee which is unusual in that practically everyone in the film is difficult to like and many are real users. It also is a film that is a real 'Hard-R' movie...with quite a bit of nudity, harsh language and violence. This is less a criticism and more a warning to potential viewers.

The film begins at Attica State Prison...a real, real tough place. Prisoner Jake Shuttlesworth (Denzel Washington) is brought to the warden with a most unusual proposition. Despite Jake being in prison for murder and having another 15 years on his sentence, they are going to let him out of prison for a few days in order to do the Governor a favor. The favor? Well, Jake's son is a top college basketball prospect and schools all over the country are pushing to get him to accept their scholarship offers. And, it seems the Governor wants the young man to go to his alma mater...and he's pulled some strings to get Jake a chance to influence his son to make that choice.

Soon after Jake is released, the film focuses quite a bit on the son, Jesus. He seems like a nice young man but the more you watch, the more you realize just about everyone around him is trying to get something out of him! No one is looking out for the guy and his best interests...no one.

While Spike Lee is incredibly talented, this film left me flat. I appreciate how he did a film about the pressures on young athletes...that's really a great theme. But the film has too many superfluous subplots (such as the father and so more to titilate than tell the story (plus, me prostitute) and a lot of nudity and adult content that seemed unnecessary. This is especially a problem since a film like this COULD be great for teens to see...particularly if they are interested in being a professional athlete...but why all the nudity?

Overall, the story has a lot to like but also a lot that just didn't work for me. It's a very uneven film and I think most of the various subplots could have been eliminated and more emphasis on Jesus...not the father, girlfriend or his friends and other family members. For a similar and more focused film, try "Blue Chips"...a film which shows much of the ugliness when it comes to college recruitment.

Reviewed by rmax304823 6 / 10

All over the court but sometimes compelling.

The director, Spike Lee, has got talent. No question about it. He stylizes the film with momentary flashbacks and slow motion -- but just enough. Not so much as to interfere with the narrative or attract attention to the director. And the photography, as is usual in his films, is truly splendid. Coney Island never looked quite so inviting, at least not for the last fifty years or so.

The story -- the best high school basketball player being tempted with all sorts of material benefits to sign up for prestigious schools -- gives Lee a chance to indulge his fascination with basketball. I must admit that basketball never fascinated me. When I was a kid there was nothing but baseball. But, now, it seems that instant gratification trumps patience. Who wants to wait for the pitcher to dig his cleated shoe into the mound, remove his hat and wipe the sweat from his brow, acknowledge signals from the catcher, glance at first base, the wind up, the pitch, the call -- yawn. Basketball is all motion by regulation.

Still, "White Men Can't Jump" was a pretty good movie about basketball. And "He Got Game" doesn't have that much basketball in it, and nothing at all that's technical. It's chiefly a story of Ray Allen, who must choose a lesser school or see his father (Denzel Washington) go back to Attica. And it's the story of the relationship between Washington, who accidentally offed his wife, and Allen, who despises his father. There isn't really a boring moment in it, although, to be sure, it wanders all over the place and explores, however briefly and unsatisfactorily, a number of issues and the conflicts they generate.

Lee has chosen to use Aaron Copeland's music to provide a symphonic score that is curiously at odds with the lives we're watching. The visuals get down on their knees and sob for hip hop. Yet the score is appropriate because it helps to universalize a story that otherwise might seem locked into too narrow a cultural setting.

Ray Allen, sports figure, can't act very well. He's an object of envy anyway. Full of principle, for one thing. Old Denzel's future would have been lost the moment that Italian salesman offered me the two-million dollar platinum watch. Also, is there a greater imaginable thrill on Planet Earth than getting it on with Rosario Dawson while in the cage of one of those giant swings in the amusement park? Denzel Washington gives one of his best performances and the others are easily up to par, especially Bill Nunn as Allen's new Dad who is unable to see any future that doesn't include diamond pinkie rings and a new Lexus. He's hilarious.

I've always been chary of Spike Lee since "Do the Right Thing," which closes with admonishments from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcom X -- in that climactic order. The last words were "by any means necessary." When the goal to be achieved is something as vague and general as "freedom" or "democracy", using any means you consider necessary can get you into trouble. Instead of achieving freedom you're liable to achieve jail, and instead of achieving democracy you're liable to achieve a somebody else's civil war. There are sentiments that belong on bumper stickers and nowhere else.

However, Lee's films generally have been far from rabble rousers, and "He Got Game" is no exception. It's a well-done drama with a couple of clunkers in it. (A magic basketball sails all the way from Attica's exercise yard to the court at Big State University.) The whole thing, weaknesses notwithstanding, is odd but gripping. We really DO want to see how it turns out.

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