ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604300016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Basketball, basketball everywhere, but not a thought to think.
"Sunset Park," which could have, SHOULD have, been a movie about how a female doing a man's job learns something about what it means to be a woman - and the particular talents a woman can bring to a traditionally male job - is just another movie about basketball and inner-city kids.
There's enough talent in this movie between its able cast, director Steve Gomer and cinematographer Robbie Greenberg to give it all the right moves and the right look. Too bad no one thought to toss a gutsy script in the general direction of the set.
What? The reviewer is being naive? Hardly anyone out there (you know where THERE is) is making brave little movies these days?
Well, let's just say cynicism has taken a holiday.
And let's just say Phyllis, the character Rhea Perlman plays in this movie, bitter and angry after her most recent failed love affair (she has a tendency to let men take advantage of her), decides to take out some of her rage on the high school basketball players she's just decided to coach. They're lazy, they don't listen to her. They think they know it all.
Instead of whining and pouting and walking off the job during a game (as she does in the movie) let's say she goes haywire and kicks some butt. They fear her, but they don't respect her. After all, she's just pretending to be something she's not - and these streetwise guys know all about that.
So instead, she learns to be herself. And she discovers that she's sensitive, wise and a terrific communicator. They begin to listen, play better ball and live more intelligently ever after.
But NO. We needed another retread, a "Stand and Deliver a Free Throw." Instead of exploring this character, Phyllis, this movie wants to toe the line. So it gives us stereotype after stereotype, and one predictable plot twist after another. And the obligatory "bonding" dialogue between the coach and the soul of the team, Shorty (Fredro Starr), who actually asks his coach, "What's it like to be white?"
I doubt it.
Aside from its terrific soundtrack and beautifully filmed game sequences, "Sunset Park" doesn't justify its existence. It fails to fully develop even one of the important ideas it brushes in its hurry to be - well, just another heartwarming movie about playing basketball.
Sunset Park
**
A TriStar Pictures release showing at Valley View Mall 6. Rated R for profanity, 90 mins.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Rhea Perlman plays a coach in ``Sunset Park.'' color.by CNB