Review of BASEketball (1998) by Shelley K — 14 Jul 2018

I think if this movie had come out now it would have done better. This movie is basically Airplane/Naked Gun style comedy mixed with dirty humor and profanity. Not a mix that works for everyone, but if those appeal to you than this is right in your wheelhouse. At the time, super raunchy humor like this did not have as much of a niche, so critics slammed it, but I think nowadays more critics would accept that this has appeal for some people even if they don't find it funny.

Trey and Matt really carry the movie, they are charming and likable in the lead roles and have tons of funny lines. The humor is silly but not stupid; there's wit and inventiveness to the jokes to go along with the dirty comedy. Yasmine Bleeth is kind of meh but she doesn't really hurt the movie; Jenny McCarthy is just there mainly because this was back when everyone was obsessed with how hot she was. But she is in it little enough that she doesn't distract too much and you can focus on what works.

The main thing that didn't work for me were the psych outs; even the concept doesn't make much sense. I couldn't buy that a player would pass out in shock/rage because someone on the other team suggested that they were banging the player's wife, when they know the other team is trying to psych them out and therefore is just going to be making stuff up to shock them. Also the fact that the psych outs didn't work on Trey and Matt 99% of the time made them kind of dumb. Weakest element of the movie for sure, but there are plenty of other laughs to make up for it.