Movie Review: ‘Crossover’

By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Despite its subversive-sounding tag line -- "Play by Your Own Rules" -- "Crossover" (Sony) imparts a surprisingly meritorious message for a banal urban drama about basketball.

Wesley Jonathan and Anthony Mackie are charismatic as lifelong Detroit friends Cruise and Tech. Cruise, an academically ambitious basketball prodigy, is preparing to attend UCLA on an athletic scholarship with the hopes of going on to medical school. Tech, a high-school dropout, dreams of playing in the NBA.

Compelled by some unspoken debt, Cruise agrees to play for Tech's team in an underground "streetball" tournament -- lots of contact, few rules -- run by a smooth-talking promoter, Vaughn (Wayne Brady), to dethrone the league's cocky star player, Jewelz (Phillip Champion). They lose, but are paid for competing, jeopardizing Cruise's amateur status and thereby putting his scholarship and promising future in peril.

His life is further complicated by Vanessa (Eva Pigford), a gold digger who tries to put a wedge between the friends.

Written and directed by Preston A. Whitmore II, the film is commendable in its endorsement of education and integrity over money and fame, but, some energetic hoop sequences aside, the effort is weighed down by a trite, tired and predictable script.

The film contains some sexual content, including a subplot involving an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, lewd dance and cheerleading moves, suggestive wardrobe, sporadic crude language and humor and an instance of profanity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

* DiCerto is on the staff of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.