MOVIE REVIEW

'Crossover'

By Michael Phillips, Los Angeles Times, Zap2It.com | September 1, 2006

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Wayne Brady in 'Crossover'
Wayne Brady in 'Crossover'
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A frenzied depiction of the underground basketball scene and the cliches it engenders, "Crossover" comes with more swooshing/zapping/whamming sound effects than a year's worth of "The O'Reilly Factor." Off the court the movie's main characters Tech and Cruise confront the big questions. Take the college scholarship or jump at a streetball career, with hopes "every black boy's dream," says the ex-sports agent played by Wayne Brady -- of going NBA-pro? Trust your gold-digger girlfriend, or not? Deliver hoked-up dialogue with sincerity or storm off the set?

A sample: So-and-so "might not be able to play ball with a bad lung. But he sure can be a doctor."

The streetball games are played in a massive abandoned train station, with oil-drum fires going everywhere -- it's "Escape From New York," but in Detroit. Cruise, played by Wesley Jonathan, works in a mall sporting goods store with Tech, played by Anthony Mackie. Awarded a college basketball scholarship in Los Angeles, Cruise sees medical school in his future. Tech's more of a local boy, looking to get his GED and best his streetball rival, Jewelz, played by Phillip "Hot Sauce" Champion.

The plot takes Tech and Cruise out to sunny L.A. with their ladies, played by Alecia Fears and Eva Pigford. We're subjected to endless seconds of screen time in which the couples arrive at LAX, descend by escalator and smile dumbly at their surroundings. Talk about clunky. Likewise we get the same establishing shot of the mall exterior, over and over. Oh, I see. We're back at the mall now.

Tech and Cruise play for the team known as Enemy of the State, though the real enemy in writer-director Preston A. Whitmore II's film is his chosen mash-up technique, involving speeded-up visual transitions, slo-mo interludes and such. Each flourish finds a way to look "cool" and yet falsify each interaction between any two or more characters. The editing by Anthony Adler was conducted, presumably, with Whitmore breathing down his neck, screaming "Faster! Faster!"

Too bad, because the subject has dramatic potential. According to "Crossover," streetball stakes are high, yet the money and risks are recognizably real-world in scope. Pickup games are played for "20 bones a point." Someone throwing taunts your way? Let's make it happen, Cap'n. The reason basketball is such a great spectator sport, though, isn't because of its opportunities for razzle-dazzle editing and direction. It's because the game is kinetic enough without all that swoosh/zap/wham business. I'm not saying there should be a law requiring the cameras to simply park it, but -- well, actually, that'd be fine with me. Then we could see what these guys have to offer.
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