(1998)
2.5
Karl Williams
TV bad boys Trey Parker and Matt Stone bring their signature style of juvenile, naughty potty humor to this sports comedy that, except for a winning prologue, never reaches the absurd heights or withering satire of the duo's best work. In fact, BASEketball isn't really even as funny as director David Zucker's other films in the Naked Gun series. With his tale of two all-American mutts who invent the new national pastime, Zucker seems to have something critical he wants to say about the increasingly corporate nature of pro sports. Whatever it is, the message is lost in the midst of an overly busy plot wrought by a quartet of scribes (multiple writers are rarely a positive sign in feature filmmaking) and a crippling number of momentum-wrecking star cameos. Parker and Stone don't share too much in the culpability (the film isn't written by them), leaving fans to pine for the more observant, piercing, and wickedly offbeat project that could have been if only the duo had stronger involvement. Under their narrative guidance, BASEketball still wouldn't have been for everyone, but at least it would have been for someone.
BASEketball on AllMovie
BASEketball (1998)
