Cast: Kevin Bacon, Charles Gitonga Maina, Yolanda Vazquez, Winston Ntshona, Ilo Mutombo
Director: Paul M. Glaser
Producers: Ted Field, Rosalie Swedlin, and Robert W. Cort
Screenplay: Max Apple
Music: David Newman
U.S. Distributor: Hollywood Pictures
In early 1992, Interscope Communications released a Paul Michael Glaser film called The Cutting Edge. While admittedly not a great example of cinematic style, this formula love story/sports movie possessed a certain charm that lifted it above many similar films. Now, that same Paul Michael Glaser (also Starsky of Starsky and Hutch fame) has turned his attention from skating and hockey to basketball. Once again backed by Interscope Communications, Glaser has fashioned another formula-choked motion picture, only this one doesn't boast Moira Kelly or D.B. Sweeney. The Air Up There makes it painfully clear how important their chemistry was to The Cutting Edge, because, without it, there's very little worthwhile remaining.
Once, Jimmy Dolan (Kevin Bacon) was the star point guard for the Saint Joseph's Bulls, leading his team to a National Championship. Then he blew out his leg and his hopes of playing in the NBA were crushed. Several years later, Dolan is one of two Bulls' assistant coaches, waiting for his opportunity to take the head seat. But, just as the old coach announces his retirement, Jimmy finds himself in the unenviable position of having chased away a promising recruit. To polish his tarnished image, he decides to take a big gamble and track down Saleh (Charles Gitonga Maina), a young native of the Winabi tribe in Africa who has shown amazing instincts for the game. After crossing the ocean to find his would-be star, however, Jimmy discovers that, while Saleh may harbor fantasies about the NBA, he is the son of the Winabi's chief, and his first duty is to his father and his village.
Anytime there's a movie strictly based on a formula, it has to have a hook to hold the audience. The biggest failing of The Air Up There is that, moving along for over one-hundred minutes with everyone doing the expected things, it has none. The big basketball game at the end lacks any semblance of tension since, unlike in a real (or even well-simulated) sporting event, the outcome is obvious from the beginning. Perhaps a romance might have spiced things up, but that probably would have taken away from several tedious male bonding scenes between Jimmy and Saleh.
With the except of the nagging tendency to use slow-motion shots, most of the pseudo-basketball games are well-choreographed. Glaser, who used Robin Cousins as a consultant in The Cutting Edge, here uses Bob McAdoo with similar effective results. While several slam dunks are obviously staged, the scenes on the court look good.
Oddly enough, perhaps the most interesting element of The Air Up There -- Jimmy's induction into the Winabi tribe -- is given approximately five minutes of screen time. Potentially worth an entire movie in its own right, this sequence is relegated to a few quick clips of Kevin Bacon climbing a mountain and huddling against some rocks during a thunderstorm.
As premises go, the one underlying the major conflict of The Air Up There is feeble. It stretches credibility beyond the breaking point to imagine that two tribes would willingly battle each other in a basketball game for the rights to Winabi land, especially when one of the contestants doesn't have a team. Even in lighthearted movies like this, there are bounds to what a thinking audience will accept.
Another problematical issue is that Saleh doesn't seem like the kind of phenom to engender the kind of interest he gets. In fact, from what we see, his brother is a better player. In that way, perhaps the casting of 18-year old Charles Gitonga Maina was a mistake. He's adequate as an actor, but not all that impressive on the court. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon is at his impish best, but even his bubbly performance can't save a film with so little substance.
There are good basketball movies out there -- Hoosiers being the obvious example of a tightly-scripted story with a buildup to a rousing climax. The Air Up There is appealing and unthreatening, and therein lies its weakness -- an unwillingness to take a risk. Those who don't mind viewing a recycled story probably will enjoy this film. It has the Cool Runnings/Mighty Ducks mentality -- a lightweight, brainless family movie chronicling the triumph of the underdog.
As for Paul Michael Glaser, he should return to skating movies. This time around, he's on thin ice.
© 1994 James Berardinelli