1991 biopic
Rating: 9/20
Plot: A tall tale based on young Pete Maravich, a little guy with a big heart. He works hard, dribbling around his living room with a blindfold and practicing his father's basketball drills, until he winds up on starting for the varsity team as an 8th grader.
The only thing bigger than this kid's heart is the chunk of cheese the makers of this movie drop in your lap. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate the message behind the movie. But when a character actually said, "Pete, watching you makes me want to dream," I had to start giggling. It's cheese from the get-go as we open with a scene of an old Maravich conversing with his son or some other kid (something about dreaming, I think) while walking in an empty gymnasium. There's gratuitous patriotism; at one point, there's a completely random shot of an American flag. I think it's to remind the viewer about dreaming or something. There are also about five too many of those 1980s musical montage scenes. I thought the kid playing Maravich (Adam Guier) was great. He looked a little slow as he was making his moves, but you could tell he had some game when he was spinning the ball on his finger, making behind the back or head passes, and dribbling around. But enough's enough. I don't need to see another five minute montage with terrible music to show me how hard he works. I guess it was to show what a person should do when they have a dream or something. The very worst thing about this movie is the narration. Whenever the narrator says anything, it seems like he's interrupting. And it's completely unnecessary since whatever he says is usually repeated visually or through character dialogue right after he's finished talking anyway. I'm fairly sure that liberties were taken with the late Maravich's story, but there are a couple few scenes that would have really embarrassed him. There are probably some sweaters that would have embarrassed him, too. One scene involves young Pete (a little guy with a big heart) finally deciding to stand up to the bully, a comeback we've been waiting for the entire movie, when all he can say is, "You're a butthead." You're a butthead? Come on, Pistol Pete! A scene involving an intentional foul is so poorly done that it made half of the people I watched this with laugh. Somehow, he's knocked unconscious even though he didn't have an injury to the head. The head, as you probably know, is where dreams are kept. And the final scene? Whoa. I almost lost my lunch. The above poster has the same effect actually.
This was watched on the big screen at school with students. I forgot to ask them for their ratings. They're a bunch of buttheads anyway.
This was the film you decided on over the list of classics I spent at least four minutes compiling? Really? How? Why?
ReplyDeleteAll of your choices would have been better than this. Somebody stepped in at the 11th hour and insisted that this is the movie they should see. I think at that point I was just happy it wasn't the tooth fairy movie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your list anyway...I know where it's at for next year.
By the way, I'm taking a little break from one of your top-30...that's all I'm saying.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of this "movie" is how completely out of touch with reality it is.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Press Maravich, Petes dad, was about the biggest ass overbearing sports dad who has ever lived.
Pete himself was bonkers....like out of his gourd batshit crazy. He talked about being turned invisible by God so he could kill all the heads of all the banks in the world. Stuff like that.
Plus I have ALWAYS thought Pete Maravich was almost entirely hype.....and overrated by everyone that ever saw him play.
I think the word batshit is way underused. It improves any sentence it is a part of.
ReplyDeleteMaravich destroyed every college scoring record (granted that he took 98% of his teams shots), averaged over 24 points and 5 assists for his NBA career, and had mad ball-handling skills. He was a odd gunner who didn't know how to spell defense, but he was still a great player, but not an all-time great. His greatest offense is that he was not a good teammate to Gail Goodrich, which I find unforgivable. Why I am defending Maravich and engaging a basketball expert is beyond me, but I'm a little bored.
I can't speak for his career as an assassin.
I know I am too hard on ol' Pete. He was a very skilled player, but he was not one of the NBA's fifty greatest of all time. (As he was named) nor was his PRO career worthy of the basketball hall of fame. (His college career certainly was though.) He was just the great white hope of the mid 1970's, and I hate great white hopes. The freaking Gerry Cooney of 1970s basketball. (Lets watch Shane struggle over who the hell Gerry Cooney is)
ReplyDeleteYou should know that Goodrich blew out his knee right after being traded to New Orleans. (And that pick that the Jazz gave up to GET Goodrich became Magic Johnson.) So Pete never had much of a chance to be a great teammate to Gail...(Who, despite having a girls name, is a great player.) He played three or four years in Utah, but that knee injury effectively ended his career. Inadvertently Goodrich did help the Lakers win five titles...so thats a good thing for him, right?
Here is one of my favorite trade/draft announcements in sports.
ERVIN "MAGIC" JOHNSON:
Transactions and Trades:
August 5, 1976: Traded by the New Orleans Jazz (as a 1979 1st round draft pick) with a 1977 1st round draft pick (Kenny Carr), a 1978 1st round draft pick (Freeman Williams) and a 1980 2nd round draft pick (Sam Worthen) to the Los Angeles Lakers for a 1977 2nd round draft pick (Essie Hollis) and a 1978 1st round draft pick (Jack Givens). This exchange was arranged as compensation for Utah signing veteran free agent Gail Goodrich on 1976-07-19.
All that to get a broken down Gail Goodrich....they gave up the chance to get Magic Johnson. Ah the fans of the Jazz should be thrilled.
BASKETBALL EXPERT. Color me impressed. The God-like Goodrich skills (who "advertantly" was partly responsible for the Lakers' first L.A. title) and New Orleans' lack of psychic powers were not Gail's fault. New Orleans probably would have chosen Sam Bowie anyway (wait, that was someone elso... tails, indeed).
ReplyDeleteThat is an amazing trade announcement.
I also think Maravich does not make the 50... maybe Gail should(*_*).
Yeah, I don't really have anything to add to any of that.
ReplyDeleteI can't even name more than 10 current professional basketball players. I haven't watched a game in 15 years. And I know nothing of the game's history.