The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #17. Inside Moves

 The Top 40 Basketball Movies - #17. Inside Moves

Never even heard of this until after I started watching these basketball movies. I heard about it on the Bill Simmons podcast, can't remember which movie they were discussing, maybe Vision Quest or He Got Game and Harold Sylvester came up as being a real good basketball player and that he was in Fast Break but also in Inside Moves. Inside Moves was recommended there and that is basically all I needed to give it a chance. Directed by Richard Donner, that was one lightbulb (came out in the same year as Superman 2). Donner did this move post being fired from Superman. The featured basketball team is the Golden State Warriors, which is my favorite non-Detroit team. Was rated R, but changed to PG and apparently Donner had a less violent version filmed as well. The beginning was difficult, it came out in 1980 but is a 70's movie through and through. The first scene is a suicide attempt from our main character Roary. From his recovery he starts going to a dive bar and falls in with some locals, one of which the bartender Jerry is really good at basketball. If you can make it that far like I did, you will be hooked. It's a lot to ask for a casual film watcher. It has some important basketball scenes and moments, but it's really more about this friendship between Roary and Jerry, and to a lesser extent all the bar patrons. Roary gets a love interest, his suicide attempt comes up, but it's never in a way that would seem resolved. Jerry's love interest is with a hooker and her pimp is one of the protagonists of the movie. Don't know much about the cast. The actor John Savage seems to have the most credits to his name but I have probably watched more of David Morse. It had an Oscar nomination in Diana Scarwid. 

Movie	Rotten Tom	Rotten Tom Aud	IMDB	Internet Rank	My Rank
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