Space Jam
SPACE JAM (PG)
D: Joe Pytka
Warner Bros. (Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck & Daniel
Goldberg)
US 1996
87 mins
Science Fiction/Sports/Animated
W: Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris &
Herschel Weingrod
DP: Michael Chapman
Ed: Sheldon Kahn
Mus: James Newton Howard
Michael Jordan (himself), Wayne Knight (Stan Podolak),
Theresa Randle (Juanita Jordan), Bill Murray (himself), Billy West (voice of Bugs Bunny / Elmer Fudd), Danny DeVito (voice of Mr. Swackhammer)
Space Jam is one of those films which falls between two
stools, mostly because it's hard to deduce what its target audience is. Is it a film for kids who likes basketball or a film for NBA fans who like cartoons?
Either way, the crossover doesn't quite work, giving
Michael Jordan his debut lead performance playing himself, as the only hope for Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes friends, who need the talents of the basketball star so they can defeat a race
of aliens in a match.
The mixed media of live action with animation has been
done to much better quality in the past in films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit & The Mask, but looks incredibly cheap and unconvincing here, not too unlike Michael Jordan's
performance.
Overall, It seems like a cheap gimmick film used to sell
merchandise and soundtracks.
4/10
