SPACE JAM

"Come on and SLAM, and welcome to the JAM! Come and SLAM, if you wanna JAM!"

What do you get when you cross Michael Jordon, The Looney Tunes, and a third rate Roger Rabbit rip-off? Why, Space Jam, of course! Poorly written by four people: Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel Weingrod, it may surprise you to learn that Benvenuti and Rudnick worked together on The Santa Clause and Kicking and Screaming,  and Harris and Weingrod worked together on Trading Places, Brewster's Millions, Twins, and Kindergarten Cop. As for directing, Joe Pytka takes the helm, having only one other film to his credit (that being 1989's Let It Ride). Naturally the directing and script aren't good.

Space Jam was a film I grew up with and was kind of crazy about when it was first released. Now, as an adult, I can admit it's not that good. It's odd, weird, surreal, and mostly unfunny (Who thought Michael Jordon and The Looney Tunes would mix well? The end product ends up feeling more like at attempt at synergy than anything else). The live-actors and cartoons don't play off each other well, and the attempt to animate the live-actors in certain moments leads to some truly disturbing images.

It's surprising that Space Jam managed to get a fairly good cast of both voice-actors and live-actors. The film features appearances from Wayne Knight (from Jurassic Park and Seinfeld), Bill Murray, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Shawn Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and Muggsy Bogues. Knight is annoying (his character is written to be annoying), and Murray does one of his famous "I'm not acting today" performances.  Michael Jordon is definitely not an actor, but he seems to be enjoying his time with the Looney Tunes, so that's something I guess. As far as the voice cast goes we get Bill Farmer (Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn), Billy West (Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd), Dee Bradley Baker (Daffy Duck, Taz), Danny DeVito (Mr. Swackhammer), Bob Bergen (Marvin The Martian, Porky Pig, Tweety), June Foray (Grannie), and Kath Soucie (Lola Bunny...who only exists to be disturbingly sexualized).

While most of Space Jam is pretty odd and disjointed (Ex: The film tries to mix in elements of Michael Jordon's professional life, like his short-lived attempt at Baseball stardom and his eventual return to the world of Basketball. An alternate title for the film could have been 'How Michael Got His Groove Back'.), The final 35 minutes is  complete madness as we are treated to one of the most insane, illegal  basketball games ever (there is quite a bit of attempted murder and lots of rule-breaking. This is Looney Tunes rules, so I guess maybe we should just let it slide?) . In the end, the animated segments and characters are pretty well done, the soundtrack is actually very good, and while (as previously stated) Space Jam is certainly not good it is entertaining enough and fairly harmless (though the word "dull" can be used to describe some parts).

Space Jam is a film firmly stuck in the 90s, making it a bizarre slice of nostalgia for anyone who was lucky (or unlucky) enough to grow up in that era.

2.5 STARS