Magic Shoes 2: Electric Boogaloo

Like Mike (2002)

Rated: PG

Runtime: 99 minutes

Stars: Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Crispin Glover, Eugene Levy, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brenda Song

Director: John Schultz

Plot: Calvin (Bow Wow) is an orphan who acquires a pair of old sneakers with “MJ” written inside, leading him to believe the shoes used to belong to Michael Jordan. He quickly gets signed to the Los Angeles Knights after showing off his skills against Tracy Reynolds (Morris Chestnut), an emotionally troubled NBA star and Calvin’s soon-to-be teammate. Stan Bittleman (Crispin Glover) is the mean greedy director of the orphanage where Calvin lives, and Frank Bernard (Eugene Levy) is the sneaky greedy … um … uh … assistant to the traveling secretary for the Knights, and they both try to use Calvin to get his money. Along the way, Calvin is helped by his best friends and fellow orphans Murph (Jonathan Lipnicki) and Reg (Brenda Song).

Rating—out of 5 basketballs: 1 basketball for the unexpectedness of a certain event I will explain later.

Tournament Seed: 13–15—movie hangs around with higher seed for the 1^st half, but the 2^nd half results in a blowout. Only advances in the tournament if matched up with an overrated team. Pick with caution.

This movie is loaded with at the time current NBA stars such as Allen Iverson, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, and David Robinson. With that being said, the movie doesn’t have much else to offer. The music is just your basic bad hip-hop selection, and the montages consist of some naughty cheerleader dancing and Calvin doing the same impossible moves Ernest was doing in Slam Dunk Ernest. The movie does play at your heart strings on occasion with the orphan angle and the unexplained distance between Tracy and his father, but you know how it is going to turn out in the end … though I was worried about Reg being left alone, until the movie showed a picture of her with her new family seconds before it ended. I found it funny that the movie chose to have Vince Carter and the Raptors as the team to blow the lead in the final game; Carter couldn’t even hold a 21 point 4^th quarter lead against a 5-foot-tall kid barely in his teens.

The movie earns 1 basketball because I am a sucker for a Crispin Glover film in which a lightning strike causes the main character to have a life-changing event. In this case Calvin and the sneakers are struck by lightning, and 90 minutes of magic follow. If I could only remember the name of the other movie involving Glover and lightning and a life-changing event …

I did get one big laugh out of the movie. Calvin is informed by one of his teammates after talking to Allen Iverson, that “Players don’t ask players for autographs.” Later in the film after Calvin becomes famous, he shares this intimate moment with NBA superstar Dirk Nowitzki:

Dirk: “Hey Calvin! Listen man, uh, can I get your autograph?”

Calvin: “Sure Dirk.”

Dirk: “Uh, it’s actually for my niece.”

Calvin: “What’s her name?”

Dirk: “Uh, it’s, uh, Dirk.”