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“It’s nice.”
Is that damning with faint praise? Perhaps.
About halfway through the bare-90-minute-long Like Mike,
I realized that I was watching a Disney family programmer
from the late 60s, early 70s.
You remember. Films like, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,
The World’s Greatest Athlete, Freaky Friday, The Apple Dumpling
Gang.
I guess I’m not 6 years old anymore.
Objectively, I would say that Like Mike is a decent,
kind-hearted film. It’s
not particularly well made.
It’s not particularly clever.
It has some charismatic actors in it, including Bow
Wow. But it also goes with the unfortunate current trend of going quite
dark at times, even though it is meant for little kids. (My nephew was disturbed to find that one of
the kids in Hardball was killed mid-movie… not fun.)
The movie tries to appear deep and never delivers on that level.
The orphanage is right out of Annie. I half expected Crispin Glover to start
singing “Easy Street.” The
inevitable father for Lil Bow Wow is really more of
a brother and the movie should have stayed with that… this
kids are really past the point of finding parents, they just
need good homes with people who will love them. The “evil orphan bully” walked out of a Little
Rascals cartoon.
And the magical shoes!!! What?!
Why?! How?! We
knew they worked, but there wasn’t much magic. Why wasn’t the kid averaging 50 points a game
with these things instead of a “league leading” 25 points
a game? Where did the magic come from? What kind of idiot has a kid hanging on electrical
wires in the rain?!?!?!?
And why didn’t it turn out that the shoes were the
shoes that the basketball star who comes into the kid’s life
had as a kid… when he dreamed of being Mike? Duh! So
obvious, it had to be improved upon to avoid. It wasn’t.
All that said, I didn’t hate this movie. I got thorough without much growling. And your 12-and-under boy will enjoy it, I’m
sure. But do him
a favor and rent The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes… the
original one with Kurt Russell, not the Kirk Cameron
remake. It’s a better
flavor of cheese.
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