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The student newspaper of, by, and for Ames High School.

The WEB

The student newspaper of, by, and for Ames High School.

The WEB

CrossoverSo bad it’s good? Not really. It sucks.

Often times in history, we miscalculate and misevaluate great things and ridicule those who weren’t farsighted. For example, Thomas Watson, president of computer giant IBM, infamously once said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Nowadays we know he was incredibly wrong; according to the CIA World Factbook there are over 160 million computers in just the United States. Likewise, when Wayne Brady’s film Crossover was panned by all of its critics (59 rotten reviews on rottentomatoes.com) and its general audience (given a 1.1/10 on imdb.com by over 1000 votes with 1/10 being the lowest rating), I wondered if Crossover could be like the computer-initially ridiculed, but soon to be heralded as one of the greatest man-made creations. The movie centers on Tech (Anthony Mackie) and Noah Cruise (Wesley Jonathan), two best friends with two incredibly different personalities. Tech is a temperamental, streetball hustler who also plays in Vaughn’s (Wayne Brady) underground basketball league, where high rollers illegally place bets on the games. Cruise is going to college on a basketball scholarship to California University of Los Angeles (not to be confused with UCLA), but is using that scholarship as a way to get to medical school, not the NBA. In Vaughn’s underground basketball league, the losers get 1G ($1000), while the winners get 2Gs ($2000). Tech convinces Cruise to play against Jewelz championship team (played by Hot Sauce of And1 fame) despite the possible loss of his eligibility. Then two girls, Eboni (Alecia Fears) and Vanessa (Eva Pigford), quickly become involved in their lives and—surprise, surprise—Vanessa is pregnant with a baby. Drama ensues, and without giving too much away, let’s just say that in the end Tech ends up betting all his money on his streetball team as they go up against their archrivals in a critical game. Guess what happens… I had high hopes for this movie, and I can honestly say it met every single one of my expectations. It’s gloriously bad in every aspect. The streetball games are played to 21, with each basket worth a point. However, when one team reaches 19, the last basket is worth two points. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Why not just play to 20? Maybe there is something about the number 21 that I’m missing, just like “420.” These streetball games are played inside an abandoned train station, but the courts are well-furnished, there are many cheerleaders, and the players have nice jerseys. Along with the obvious lack of logic with many of the things in this movie comes a lack of star Wayne “makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcom X” Brady. I’ll admit what drew me into this movie was the prospect of Wayne Brady as a crime lord, reminiscent of the infamous Chappelle Show sketch. Unfortunately, there simply was not enough of Wayne Brady. Instead of focusing on Wayne Brady, or even basketball, a good portion of the movie is on the clichéd romances of Cruise and Tech. Luckily for the viewer, this leads to gems like, “If a man wants something he ain’t never had before, he’s got to do something he ain’t never done before,” and, “Most cats don’t get slick like that unless you got a brizzle on the vine.” The dialogue in this movie is incredibly bad, which leads to a lot of unintentional humor. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie if it’s watched in a group. Otherwise, it’s just terrible.

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