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Along comes Jamal (Rob Brown), a teen-age high school basketball player who just happens to have very promising academic talents as well. He receives a scholarship to a prestigious private high school in Manhattan and can attend the school for free, as long as he also agrees to shoot hoops for the basketball team. It is made perfectly clear in a very "polite, gentlemanly" manner, not unlike edicts passed down from member to member in all-white southern, members-only clubs, that his basketball skills are, by far, more important than his academic skills.

Through a strange and seemingly out-of-place event, the two characters cross paths and Jamal is taken in by the hermit, encouraged, supported, and mentored to reach his real potential. Both really need each other in their own lives. The characters really mesh well and the scenes of the two alone on the screen are some of the best scenes in the movie. Credit goes out to the writing, that this movie didn't take the stereotypical ghetto-athlete-hits-the-big time-yet-can't-leave-his-gangsta-past. There are small interactions with his former 'hood hoopsters, but that is not what this movie is about and fortunately, the writing downplays the interaction with his Bronx friends.

Now, here's where the movie starts to get predictable. You have the basketball game that comes down to last second heroics (however the outcome of the game itself leaves a Lady or the Tiger kind of unanswered dilemma), the female that just complicates things, and a climax very similar to Scent of a Woman.. Yes, it follows a paint-by-numbers formula, but the depth of the character development, the acting of Sean Connery, and the way it presents the process of writing, paints a wonderful picture about human potential.

This is a good movie and definitely worth watching. You will find yourself trying to predict what happens next, and most of the time you will guess correctly (bet you won't guess what's in the box), but after the credits roll, you will be left with a feeling of hope and warmth and sometimes that's all you need to escape reality for a couple of hours.
Frank Wilkins

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Screen formats: Widescreen anamorphic

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)

Other Features: Color; Region 1 encoding; interactive menus; scene access; enhanced for 16x9 TVs; deleted scenes; making-of featurette; production notes; cast/crew filmographies; theatrical trailer.

DVD easter eggs (hidden features): Go to special features and enter then go to cast and enter then hightlight sean connery and enter then on the first screen press up and this will highlight a movie press enter and it will give you a pic of him at the acadamy awards with his oscar. This also works for the others in the cast.

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Complete Cast:

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