RUBY SLIPPERS

A Video Review of "Like Mike"

Copyright 2003 Glenn Walker

Just click your heels together three times and say, "There's no place like home." Oh, the beauty of magic footwear. That's what Like Mike is all about. A orphaned kid gets electrocuted trying to get Michael Jordan's old sneakers from a telephone wire and guess what? He is imbued with Michael Jordan's super powers, I mean, his athletic ability at basketball while wearing them. Lame as it sounds it's really quite good.

Lil’ Bow Wow, while not one of my favorite pre-teen rappers (I’m more of an Aaron Carter man myself), he has quite a movie career ahead of him should he choose that path. The boy just oozes charisma as Calvin Cambridge. Morris Chestnut is great as Tracy Reynolds the pro basketball player who is saddled with mentoring lil’ Calvin when he is drafted into the NBA.

The chemistry between the two of them is better than most buddy cop movies of the last decade. Lil’ Bow Wow and Morris Chestnut are absolutely magic in the scenes where Tracy teaches Calvin to rap like DMX and explains room service and triangle geometry. Not necessarily a sequel but I would love to see them work again some time.

Always creepy Crispin Glover is our villain this time around. How about that? Crispin Glover playing a creepy villain, whodathunkit? He is the evil owner of the orphanage that exploits the kids even before he realizes what a goldmine he has in young Calvin. He continues to exploit Calvin when he becomes an NBA star. When adoption may take his little moneymaker away Glover steals the sneaks and bets against Calvin’s team. As one might expect, hilarity ensues.

This is a terrific movie. It’s not complicated so don’t think too much. Yes, it does carry the nostalgic stench of The Bad News Bears and Angels in the Outfield but that’s a good thing; they were both good films too. Don’t miss Like Mike.