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 September 2006THIS IS NOT YET RATED |
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by Wilson Morales
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When ever we see a sports film, whether it be basketball, baseball, or football, to name a few, we, the audience, expect to see some real life high flying display of action. At the same time we expect the story to have some substance and have some sense of realism as we have seen in the past film such as “Remember the Titans”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Miracle”, and more recently “Glory Road”. We also expect the acting and writing to be on par with the action so that it doesn’t seem pretentious. With “Crossover”, you have mistakes made all-around from the action to the writing to the acting. Tech (Mackie) is one of the best players in the neighborhood. In a paid basketball game sponsored by a bookie, Tech needs the help of the childhood friend Cruise (Jonathan) to beat their longtime rivals. Because of his greed to win the game and be “The Man”, Tech loses his team focus and it costs him the game, yet he still gets paid for second place. Cruise doesn’t want the money because it may jeopardize his scholarship that he just received from UCLA. His ambition is to go to med school. That ambition takes a back seat once a couple of girls he and Tech meet at a party. Eboni and Vanessa (Pigford) work at a nail salon and Vanessa sets her sights on Cruise and he’s quickly smitten to the point where he takes her to LA for a college visit instead of Tech. That leaves Tech to hustle the game with Up (Little JJ) to win some money so he can fly out there on his own dime. When Vaughn (Brady), the bookie and former sports agent, offers to guide Cruise to the NBA with his help and Cruise refuses, he threatens to tell on his accepting money for play, which could kill his UCLA hopes. Meanwhile, Tech has attitude issue he needs to overcome to continue working make a life for himself. There isn’t much to say regarding this film besides that it’s
downright corny and awful. First of all, the basketball games don’t
look real and emotional. Whether it’s in the beginning or at the
end, if there’s no emotion to the game, then there goes the film.
Mackie is a fine actor, having done plenty of indie films where he’s
shined, but in this film, he’s miscast. He’s too stilted
and bland to pull off being a guy from the streets. Someone like Ja Rule
would have done well with this part. Everyone from Brady’s Vaughn
to Pigford’s Vanessa is so one-note with their performances that
you could see where this film was headed from jump. No matter how well
intentioned Preston Whitmore II was trying to convey the message, the
execution of turning down fame for a med school degree wasn’t established. |
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