Review of Above the Rim (1994) by Noname   — 17 Nov 2014

Very cliched and dated gangster/basketball flick set in NY as a young black teen tries to get a basketball scholarship whilst battling against a local thug and his former basketball star brother who is now a security guard at their high school.

Everyone in this film is a walking cliche. Shakur is yet another gangster (he couldn't do anything else...useless), Wayans is annoying and camp as usual, Duane Martin is the annoying loud mouth cocky star player and Leon is the quiet dark horse and probably the best thing in the film.

Basically you have all the usual gangster nonsense with all the hilariously bad street clothes worn by Shakur and co. Lots of foul language dodgy deals guns drugs and various adults trying to get these dumb asses to grow up and get a life.

Looking back now this movie does seem extremely predictable cheesy and stereotypical, hell the movie is virtually racially profiling these guys from the outset. Thing is back in the day these movies were popular and deemed fresh gritty realistic stories from the hood, showing the middle/rich classes life on the street and how blacks youths were badly treated.

To me these movies only tended to damage minority groups, giving young blacks a bad reputation. Sure its only a movie but there were so many like this back in the 90's and most revolved around crime drugs and shootings. But hey that's just my thoughts, maybe I'm a bit out of touch too.

The only decent thing in the whole film is the small segments of basketball and the competition at the finale which does show some good genuine skills. Only at the end does this movie really come alive...and it reminded me a little of 'White Men Can't Jump' minus the goofy comedy.