'BASEketball' Fouls OutTeaser: David Zucker's one-joke comedy, starring the creators of "South Park," grounds out. Review: 1 Star Premise: Two losers skyrocket to fame when their baseball/basketball hybrid becomes a nationwide sensation. Pitch: Slap Shot meets Major League. Pedigree: Stars TREY PARKER and MATT STONE are the irreverent creators of the South Park TV series, as well as Cannibal! The Musical and the upcoming porn spoof Orgazmo. Director David Zucker was part of the creative team responsible for sicko spoofs like Airplane! and the classic Kentucky Fried Movie. Verdict: Everything you need to know about BASEketball's level of humor is in the first four letters of the title -- base. Then again, what did you expect from a movie that features a pop culture washout like JENNY McCARTHY? Still, even though its comedy shoots straight for the gutter, the film doesn't really go low enough -- so many jokes miss the basket that the movie practically needs a laugh track to prop them up. Indeed, BASEketball's setup feels more like an extended high school variety-show skit than a movie: In order to defeat their preppy jock rivals in a pickup game of hoops, pathetic slacker duo Coop (Trey Parker) and Remer (Matt Stone) spontaneously invent the title game, in which basketball is played according to baseball's rules. Soon, kids are setting up baseketball courts in suburban driveways across the country. Sports promoter Denslow (a sleepwalking Ernest Borgnine) smells a profit and starts a national league, with Coop and Remer's team, the Milwaukee Beers (ha-ha), as its flagship. When Denslow dies and leaves the Beers to Coop, however, baseketball falls prey to corporate vultures who threaten to sap the sport of its integrity. This one-joke plot doesn't get any help from the film's slapdash editing and sub-sitcom production values. And like the joke goes -- as actors, Trey Parker and Matt Stone make great writer/directors. These guys are indisputably talented, but beyond the obvious ick factor they just don't have the big-screen charisma to pull off gags about terminally ill children and licking vibrators. Ultimately, the entire film seems like a lame excuse for the pair to make out with ubiquitous Baywatch babe Yasmine Bleeth (although, in its favor, there is a riotous, history-making same sex kiss at the climax). Unfortunately, in the highly competitive leagues of summer comedies, BASEketball doesn't even make it to the playoffs. Background: Zucker got Parker and Stone on the cheap by signing them up before South Park hysteria swept the country. Reviewed by Matt Diehl For Sidewalk Genre Comedy Audience Rating - R MPAA Rating - "for strong language and crude, sex-related humor" Star Rating 1 Run Time 95 Country of Origin USA Language English Cast Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Jenny McCarthy, Dian Bachar, Ernest Borgnine Director David Zucker Screenwriter David Zucker & Robert LoCash & Lewis Friedman & Jeff Wright |