SPACE JAM (5)

Directed by: Joe Pytka

Starring: Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight (plus Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, etc.)

The Pitch: Michael Jordan helps the Looney Tunes gang against a band of (cartoon) aliens who want to take them prisoner and force them to work in an extraterrestrial theme-park.

Theo Sez: The best (only?) joke in this big-screen outing for Warners' cartoon stable is a dig at arch-rivals Disney - which pretty much sums up its ultra-corporate flavour. Hard to say what's more dispiriting, the spectacle of Bugs, Daffy and Co. robbed of their personalities and generally demeaned or the idiocy of basing a movie around Michael Jordan and not letting him play any basketball (just a couple of shots during the chaotic mess that passes for a climax). Or perhaps it's the sight of such talents as TAXI DRIVER's Michael Chapman allied to this crud. Or the sheer gutless confusion of a wannabe-satiric line like "Lace up your Nikes, we'll grab a Big Mac on the way". Or the soundtrack album "inspired by" this movie. Or its cynicism. Or its total lack of imagination beyond the central idea. Or all the money it's made. The list is endless.