If he's here, who's running hell?

The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #26 Forget Paris It's less about basketball but refereeing basketball. And it's less than refereeing than it is a rom com trapped in a movie that is attempting to be slightly more. The movie does raise an interesting debate of how to balance a love of work verses love for another when it cannot coexist. I watched this as a kid and it has stuck with me, mostly because of the comedic moments, but the characters are memorable. The story is told throughout a couple's dinner talking to another couple about the Mickey/Ellen relationship. A slew of Simpsons voices - Julie Kavner (Marge), Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Joe Mantegna (Fat Tony). Billy Crystal is obviously the star here (and director), he plays an actual NBA referee and there are some famous players that have small moments - Kareem, Marv Albert, Bill Walton, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Bill Laimbeer, Reggie Miller, Chris Mullin, Spud Webb, literally the list goes on. I thi...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #27 Sunset Park It's a simple premise, female teacher who knows nothing about basketball but just wants a paycheck so she can start a new life eventually gets interested in the kids. The Rotten Tomato critic and audience score are quite opposite. I had this film ranked higher than where it lands here, but I would argue Blue Chips and Semi-Pro are close to it. At times it seems like a glorified made for TV movie. Unlike Hurricane Season where I couldn't get behind the characters, it was pretty easy for me to get interested in them here. Rhea Perlman is likable. Terrence Howard shows up here as the wild card player. It felt genuine and had some humor. I do feel it's mostly predictable and not recommendable to anyone not a fan of basketball or sports movies. There are a couple movies higher on this list that do this kind of premise slightly better. Movie Rotten Tom Rotten Tom Aud IMDB   ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #28 Game Day It's a fairly slow one but the presence of Richard Lewis mostly saves it. There is no basketball until the end of the movie. The first 3/4 of the movie the main character is told what a great coach he is. The movie begins and ends with him making a drink in the morning so it's aiming for something higher than it probably is. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is what is boosting this so highly. I had it at 30, which is pretty close to this rank though. 3 or 4 random people's story is told throughout the day which culminates in this wild basketball game. Didn't know much about Richard Lewis except Men in Tights, though he is in Curb Your Enthusiasm quite a bit which I started watching recently. If you read the synopsis on IMDB, it almost doesn't match at all. Not that it's incorrect, but not really what the movie is about either. Lewis's character is sad and lonely throughout the day but dials it up when the game s...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #29 Blue Chips One of the few I knew I needed to watch prior to the idea of making a basketball list. I knew Shaq was in it and not much else. I'm much more kind to it than the rating numbers would suggest. Nick Nolte does a pretty great job here as a coach trying to recruit players by offering them non NCAA legal sign-on bonuses. Most of the movie is him trying to get the players, then his conscience gets the better of him before we get an ending of  Nolte helping kids at a park and positive layover after giving the wildest press conference of all time. Al Bundy is here as a reporter but doesn't do much. Mary McDonnell whom I know only from Sneakers plays his ex-wife, she has charisma, but she doesn't do much either than give him someone to rationalize his thoughts to instead of the movie having a voice over head monologue. J.T. Walsh whom I only know as Lt. Col. Matthew Andrew Markinson from A Few Good Men, plays the antagonist ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #30 Amateur I didn't even know this existed until searching for basketball movies and it popped up on Netflix. I had no idea what to expect, the intro trailer they used looked interesting enough to check out. Basically the life of a young, talented up and coming kid. He deals with things like not being able to read numbers, unhelpful teammates and parental issues. Pretty decent basketball here and it was shot well. I liked his coach (Josh Charles) and the ending was kind of unique. The movie does touch on the corruption side of things and does constantly have to deal with his father's shadow. I'm a little lower on this than the consensus, but it's our first positive Rotten Tomatoes score. It would still be a hard recommend to a casual viewer. Movie Rotten Tom Rotten Tom Aud IMDB   Internet Rank My Rank 30. Amateur 60 66 5.9 ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #31 The Air Up There I liked this one despite it being kind of universally not liked. I had it at 20 which would put it in the top half. I wouldn't exactly race to re-watch this though either. At times this has comedic elements but the comedies are more re-watchable. It's listed as a comedy but it's not truly one which maybe part of the issue. I like Kevin Bacon, he is usually captivating in anything he is in. It's not a terribly difficult plot, Bacon's Jimmy Dolan, the scout travels to Africa to try and sign one particular player, who just happens to be a prince. Bacon's character wants to become a college coach and it takes some work to get to that ending recruiting the prince. There is quite a bit of unbelievability, but I don't think that is what sinks the movie. It was entertaining enough to hold my interest. It tries to give you some culture even if it is predictable mostly and somewhat sappy at times. ...

The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #32 Space Jam The powers of 5 NBA players are transferred to some cartoon aliens (Monstars) and the looney toons recruit Michael Jordan to play with them for all the stakes. One of the few I decided not to re-watch. I also couldn't handle the Lebron sequel. My rank is pretty close to the consensus unlike the last 3 which I disagreed on a bit. Highest IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes score so far. I just give 50 to the movies that don't have a score. My favorite part is actually neither the cartoons, nor Jordan but my favorite line from Bill Murray - Bill Murray: Okay, here's how I see it. Duck? Daffy Duck: Yes. Bill Murray: You kick it in to the girl bunny. Down in the post. Then you dish it back out to the guy bunny. Lola Bunny: Got it. Bill Murray: Swing it around to Mike, over here. You go to the hole and dominate! Michael Jordan: Bill! We're on defense! Bill Murray: Whoa ho ho! I don't play defense. Movie ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #33 Semi-Pro Will Ferrell comedy as an owner coach player (Jackie Moon) of the 76' ABA Flint Tropics. It's definitely not his best work, both the actor and the character. Woody Harrelson (Monix) joins him for a bit of added drama, romance and actual basketball to the movie. Also Andre from Outkast is here. Fairly large cast of Tim Meadows, Andy Richter, Will Arnett, Rob Corddry, Jackie Earle Haley and David Koechner. Not one of my rewatched movies, yet I think I own it so go figure. I think we feel too sorry for both Jackie Moon and Monix to really be laughing. There is a grizzly bear appearance who later killed a man (not on this movie). Comedies are hard and subjective to rank. I can rank this movie 24 and still say it's not that funny and Ferrell might be trying too hard here. It's possible it belongs around the 36 range opposed to 20s, but this seems like a fair spot for it.  Movie Rotten Tom ...

The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #34 Heaven Is a Playground According to IMDB, Michael Jordan was supposed to star and instead tried suing him when the movie failed. Jordan instead countersued. So this is probably the only movie on this list that paid Mike and he didn't star in. Instead some NBA talent show up in the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon, Bo Kimble, Kendall Gill. I did recognize D.B. Sweeney from Spawn as he has some charisma to him. He gets threatened at the beginning of the movie but eventually becomes a coach/player to what I can only describe as a pick up court downtown. Supposedly it was a good book. I couldn't say much about the plot other than there was a potential star recruit that these adults were trying to protect. Our second Cylk Cozart appearance on this list, though I already can't remember who he played. Looks like my score differs even more from the Rotten Tomatoes audience score here compared to Hurricane Season. There was a neat one on one showdown at ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #35 Hurricane Season I'm a pretty big Forest Whitaker fan and the premise seemed at least mildly interesting. Maybe not We Are Marshall territory but hurricane Katrina seemed like a good no one believes in us story background. I disagree with the consensus pretty far here even though it was a straight to DVD movie. A 69 for the Rotten Tomatoes audience and the highest IMDB score so far doesn't bode too well for my future picks. It was hard to get interested in these characters though or the movie in general. The payoff wasn't close to what I wanted but my biggest gripe seems to be that they have these essentially weather reports and actual footage of the hurricane spliced in, which kind of takes you out of the movie. This was a real event, here is some real news and devastation, now back to your based on true events basketball movie. We aren't going to show you the complete devastation but trust us, with basketball.. everything is alrigh...

The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #36 Teen Wolf It was my first time watching this. There is more basketball than I expected in it. I've watched the Back To The Future movies about a billion times and a fair share of Family Ties but beyond that my Michael J. Fox history is fairly low. Not sure why every character he plays has an issue with the principal. Obviously a werewolf can play basketball better than a normie. There is a small twist in here that I didn't see coming but makes sense. I didn't expect or understand all the on top of the car dancing that was happening here. I liked the love interest (Boof) and the will they/won't they premise here. It was remade to hell. They don't waste time making him the wolf which is probably good for the movie. The basketball was decent, certainly better than Boogie and not as far fetched as Ernest. After the initial montage where he dominates he has the identity crisis you might expect where he wants to the human version of...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #37 Boogie A highly regarded high school player with family issues wants to play against the best competition so picks his school based on one opponent. I liked this plot more with Vision Quest in the 80s but Vision Quest didn't have the protagonist picking his own high school so it made more sense in that he just wanted to compete with the highest level of state athlete. It's kind of a ridiculous high school ball plot intro but what remains of a plot and what you should have in a good movie is missing. Boogie gets a girlfriend who just happens conveniently to be an ex of the player he is destined to beat.  The ending had a neat moment where the whole team gets disqualified and the teams just take it to an outdoor court. The movie was loaded with family drama and his parents fighting. They each were hiring a different agent for their son. I'm not sure if there was any actual character growth, or if there was supposed to be, they didn't ...

The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #38 Rebound This is one of the few movies I didn't re-watch. I think I even watched it in the theater. It's probably higher in my mind than it deserves even though I don't remember laughing too much. It came out 18 years ago at this moment which is quite a bit of time. I'm a Martin Lawrence fan. Did watch his show a fair amount. I enjoy Blue Streak and to a lesser extend National Security and Black Knight. I have watched Bad Boys 2, though not the others. Lawrence's character like a few others on this list becomes a fish out of water as a college coach who needs to clean up his temper coaching some kids. The audience more agrees with me than the critics. We aren't debating good movies yet though. Rebound takes it over Ernest because I can stand Lawrence more? And Eddie which I could barely stand. Movie Rotten Tom Rotten Tom Aud IMDB   Internet Rank My Rank ...

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #39 Slam Dunk Ernest Made for TV movie that I had on my list only as a slight possibility but was able to watch it for free. I knew what I was getting into and my expectations were at least met. Wouldn't have attempted it if I was only watching 30 movies. Maybe I will do an Ernest marathon someday. An angel played by Kareem squares off against a greedy devil man over a little boy and for some reason there are magical basket shoes given to Jim Varney's rube character Ernest P. Worrell. Ernest misses a shot so bad when he is young that he never picks up a basketball until he becomes a janitor with a group that has it's own team. The shoes have a mind of their own and make him do ridiculous things on and off the court. There is a love interest but she would rather work with the devil man. I've never watched any other Ernest movie except Ernest Scared Stupid (which I still enjoy quite a bit), though I did enjoy the Electroman part of the tra...

In celebration of the NBA lottery tonight and the start of the conference finals, I will start counting down - The Top 40 Basketball movies. I watched 35 movies for this marathon, the other 5 I've watched too many times or couldn't sit through again – BASEketball, Semi-Pro, Space Jam for example. It's a pretty comprehensive list. I could have gotten to 50, but it would have been very painful to sit through things like – Space Jam 2: A New Legacy, The Sixth Man, My Giant. Baseball had it so much easier finding movies, maybe I'll do all sports next and get some Foosball and Puck in there. Some films were not possible to stream and I wasn't paying full price to buy and wait for them – The Basketball Diaries, Wolves, The Might Macs, Three Seconds. Not being able to stream/rent something is the same problem that going to Blockbuster or Family Video back in the day and not finding what you want have. It just feels more wrong when you can't find something these days. A...