The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #10. One on One

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #10. One on One

Spike Lee named it the worst sports movie ever made. It was not a movie I ever heard of, though that could be true for half the movies on this list. It probably isn't too well known even back in 1977 but it is sneaky good in my opinion. It takes a while to warm up the small town, rube like main character Henry Steele and the heavily 70's backdrop but you stop noticing pretty quick into the movie. A young Melanie Griffith robs Henry in a car in the very first scene, then he gets sexually harassed by a secretary in the next scene. Some pieces remind me of Rocky, there is quite a bit of training here. Henry faces off against his coach for most of the movie after the coach deems Henry unsuitable for the scholarship that he was given. Sort of like the Rocky/Mickey relationship, but even worse. I quite enjoyed the somewhat shocking ending. Henry isn't playing well immediately despite his high expectations and takes some drugs, given to him by his roommate, to loosen up during one game and makes a complete fool of himself. Henry doesn't know how to read so he is assigned a tutor Janet who becomes the love interest. One on one as a meaning has several possibilities. Either Henry is facing himself, his to be girlfriend or his coach. Either way it certainly beats Catch a Falling Star as a title. Robbie Benson who co-wrote the screenplay with his father and had real life heart issues while filming also voiced the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, plays Henry. Annette O'Toole plays Janet who also played Lana Lang in Superman 3. The coach G.D. Spradlin had some parts in Godfather 2 and Apocalypse Now. It could have gone either way from an internet consensus ranking standpoint. 15 out of 40 is decent and kind of validates my placement of 12, though it wasn't enough to counter act the 88 to 52 rotten tomato critic score against Above the Rim.

Movie	Rotten Tom	Rotten Tom Aud	IMDB	Internet Rank	My Rank
10. One on One	88	75	6.5	15	12
11. Above the Rim	52	82	6.6	18	10
12. Champions	59	95	6.7	12	17
13. BASEketball	41	74	6.5	28	2
14. Glory Road	55	81	7.2	14	18
15. Finding Forrester	74	79	7.3	10	22
16. Rebound: The Legend of Earl “The Goat”	50	94	7.6	6	27
17. Inside Moves	50	77	7.0	19	16
18. Hoop Dreams	98	92	8.3	2	35
19. Uncle Drew	61	48	5.7	32	6
20. Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story	50	99	6.9	11	28
21. The Winning Season	50	55	6.6	26	15
22. Fast Break	50	59	6.1	30	13
23. Believe in Me	60	74	7.0	16	29
24. High Flying Bird	91	50	6.2	20	26
25. "O"	64	58	6.1	22	25
26. Forget Paris	48	56	6.5	29	19
27. Sunset Park	13	83	5.9	31	21
28. Game Day	50	82	5.4	25	30
29. Blue Chips	37	51	6.2	33	23
30. Amateur	60	66	5.9	24	32
31. The Air Up There	21	35	5.5	38	20
32. Space Jam	43	63	6.5	27	31
33. Semi-Pro	22	38	5.8	36	24
34. Heaven Is a Playground	50	84	5.8	21	39
35. Hurricane Season	50	69	6.5	23	38
36. Teen Wolf	42	52	6.1	34	34
37. Boogie	42	57	5.2	35	36
38. Rebound	14	38	5.1	40	33
39. Slam Dunk Ernest	50	31	4.5	37	37
40. Eddie	17	36	5.2	39	40