Space Jam

I can't write more than a few sentences about this or I will give the entire plot away, since there is so little of it. Let it suffice to say that super-sports-star Michael Jordan is teamed up with a bunch of "Toons" (or "Tunes", as you prefer), so if you like either basketball or comic books or both, you'll probably have a fun time. Producer Ivan Reitman has a wonderful sense of comedy, so he must know what he wanted with this mixed live-action and animation feature, but it doesn't come anywhere near watching a rerun of Roger Rabbit. David Falk, Michael Jordan's personal attorney and business manager, approached Warner Bros. with the concept who, in turn, approached Reitman to become "creative captain" on their full-length Looney Tune. The editing is, except for those few scenes where people (and even sometimes actors) have to act, paced fast enough that you won't have much time to relax your eyes or ignite your brain or realize that not much is really going on. Superb points for production sound mixers James Larue and Gene Cantamessa. Nice special visual effects and a bold attempt to make a piece of "pure" (whatever that means) entertainment, but it certainly does make you long for those men who, once upon a time, knew how to write funny material for cartoon characters. Assessing the dialogue in this, I can only imagine they must all be dead.

Sports-freaks will especially like noting the participation of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson, Shawn Bradley, Ahmad Rashad, Del Harris, Vlade Divac, Cedric Ceballos, Jim Rome, Paul Westphal, Danny Ainge, Charles Oakley, Alonzo Mourning, A.C. Green, Cerek Harper, Jeff Malone, Anthony Miller, Sharone Wright, etc. (get the idea?) Cartoon-freaks will do likewise with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tazmanian Devil, Porky Pig, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Granny, Pepe La Pew, etc. The plot? Basically it revolves around the fact that one evil Mr. Swackhammer wants to kidnap all the Toons and take them to his amusement park Moron Mountain. You can beat them there if you hurry to see the film. That's all, folks!