Saturday Sequel presents Like Mike 2: Streetball
By Paul Anthony
Back in 2002 we were in the height of the Bow Wow Era and also Jonathon Lipnicki as well, one was a cute little young rapper and the other was cute little kid that was pretty much in the prime of his acting career. So why not get these two kids together and make a film about orphans finding a pair of Michael Jorden’s shoes that some how actually fit and gave him powers to be the G.O.A.T the movie had all the magic and was a good little hit. The film had the budget of just 30 million and mad just around 62 million. so you know what that means, yes a sequel was coming. Sadly Lil Bow Wow grew up and so did Lipnicki which meant that they weren’t going to be in a sequel and worse of all the film would be direct to video which in 2006 these films were still a knock off basically unlike today. the biggest stars of this film was basically Kel Mitchell and Mark Cuban. the film stars Jascha Washington in the lead role where the kid finds the shoes. Now the biggest question of the day would be did this film live up to the first film? I best answer would be no of course but let’s take a look at why it didn’t.
In this film we meet a young boy named Jerome Jenkins Jr, one day playing basketball with his friends, they learn that a streetball team is coming to town and is looking for talent. Needless to say Jerome and his friends aren’t very good even though street ball is in Jerome’s family, his dad is often referred top as a good player though chokes during the big games. One day Jerome finds a pair of shows hanging on a street light, what catches the his eyes the most is the fact that the shoes says MJ on it. And that night the shoes are struck by lightening which Jerome learns has given him more abilities to play basketball but only when he wears them. Soon he starts to gain attention from other people and even joins a streetball team and leads them to the championship game however life isn’t perfect off the court. He stops making time for his friends, he becomes a ball hog which begins to turn his teammates against him as well. Meanwhile Ray who is like his mom’s distant relative friend becomes his agent to get him sponsors but in the long run he was only using him for the money and not looking out for his well being. Finally everything catches up to Jerome and he realizes all the wrong he is doing. In the end he makes it up to everyone he has hurt and screwed Ray with making money.
Okay so we know it didn’t live up to the first film, the film did have some over the top scenes that just didn’t seem like it fit in with the rest of the movie, which made these scenes even more over the top and just hurt the film. The film also tried to recreate the magic from the first film with a new cast which just didn’t happen. The Character of Ray was a joke he was called cousin Ray living with them and really wasn’t family at all. That made no sense. In the end I am giving this film a C for being average at best!
Friday Roundabout 1/31/20
By Paul Anthony
This week has been a tough week in sports, in entertainment and everything else. I wanted to start this blog off with the death of a basketball legend and that is Kobe Bryant, who as we all know was killed in a helicopter crash this past Sunday but the news got worse as the hours went on and we find out that 8 other people lost their lives in this crash including his very own daughter who was only 13 years old. The helicopter crashed into a mountain in California on a foggy day. The helicopter lacked a system that could have detected the mountain in the poor visibility that the pilot could have used to avoid the crash. Kobe was a real talent among the greats, in fact he went up against the best of the best in their primes to show how great he was. He won 5 championships, two without Shaq once he left and people felt Kobe was nothing without Shaq. He grew as a player and a man from being cocky player then he torn his Achilles heal and came back a more intelligent basketball player, he refused to let the game pass him by. he will surely be missed so will the rest of victims of that crash.
Linda Hamilton recently said that she would be happy to be done with the Terminator franchise. Well I can’t blame her, I think she was the best part of Dark Fate. Sure the film wasn’t completely bad but no doubt it had to leave a sour taste in her mouth that she returned for the first time since part 2 and the movie was still a flop. If she truly wants to be done then she can be and it would be wise for her to leave because it seems like this franchise is sinking now.
This past week rapper/ actor/ producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson received his Hollywood Star on the Walk of Fame. I been a fan of 50 cent since he signed with shady back in 2002, but I never realized he was truly a talent where he was making a name for himself outside of Rap. he started to act which he grew at and then he became a producer and director. Hard to believe that this guy could be so much more then a Rapper. Big Congrats to him!
You ever think “hey I should play video games for a living?” but you have to think how much could a professional gamer make? yeah try 17 million dollars in one year heck the top ten range from 6 million to 17 million of course. The Highest one of course is Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. I feel like I am in the wrong business here. Who would have known playing video games could make you so much money.
The Winners are!
By Paul Anthony
This week we got to crown two team champions from two different leagues and they are both first time champions! That is right the NHL season is over and so is the NBA season. Your champions are the ST. Louis Blues and the Toronto Raptors both are first time champions in franchise history. First before we get started lets say congrats to both teams for winning. The Blues needed 7 games to win and the Raptors needed six games and few injuries to do it but nonetheless became the world champs.
First let’s start with the Blues, very rare you go from being the worse team in a certain month of the season then by the end of season winning it all however they had some good motivation in doing so. The Blues caught the news that they had a young super fan named Laila Anderson who is only 11 years old but sadly is battling a life threatening autoimmune disease, its a disease that only a hand full of children get and it was her wish to see the Blues win the cup and sure enough they fought for her to the end and then the best part was, she was there at game 7 and even went on the ice to touch the cup, so good for her, it is one of those feel good moments that you just don’t get often. Now Boston took the loss and trust me they might be crying but the Boston area sport fans have been spoiled with championships.
With Championships Golden State Warriors have been reigning kings in the NBA, this year has been no different except they had to finish second instead of first. The biggest story to come out of this year finals was the Toronto Raptors fans. the team right now is celebrating the first championship in franchise history with bunch of throw away players but the fans stole the show but not in a good way.
There has been an unwritten rule in sports that you just don’t do and that is cheer at someone who just got injured, now I get you sometimes you can get caught up in the moment after all this was the championship but when Kevin Durant went down you knew something wasn’t right. There was no denying the cheers from crowds were loud when Toronto scored but then there was a pause and when the crowd saw Kevin down they got even louder then when their own team scored. At that moment we didn’t know what injury he had, considering he just came back from a calf injury, many thought he was rushed back but even Kevin said he made the choice to come back, we now know that he actually ruptured his Achilles which for what he does, this alter his career.
In the end this just didn’t look good for anyone and you know it is bad when the players on your team tells you to calm it down, even if they try to deny that, it was clear they were unhappy by there fans. At the end as well this is just a game and we have to understand that and the people that we root for and boo are people as well and Basketball like many other sports are just games. I am sure this black eye on the fan base will be a learning experience in which we will have to wait and see next season!
SmashWriting 
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