Crossover

An inspirational inner-city yarn that encourages viewers to put education ahead of dreams of sports stardom and big bucks, filmmaker Preston A. Whitmore II's Crossover (the title refers to a street basketball move) focuses on a pair of Detroit streetball buddies named “Cruise” and “Tech,” the former a straight-arrow type with a scholarship to attend college in L.A., the latter an ex-con finishing his GED. Lurking on the sidelines is an ultra-slick agent who tries to get Cruise to enter the NBA draft, even threatening to ruin his college hopes by revealing that he accepted money for playing on his pal's streetball team. Nearly all the overheated hubbub is clumsily written (two girls, one of them pregnant, are also involved), with some ludicrously banal dialogue and performances that range from lackadaisical to overbearing. The basketball scenes are the movie's best aspect, but there are surprisingly few of them, most likely because the game is secondary to the well-intentioned plot about recognizing what's really important in life and straightening up your act before it's too late. While that's an admittedly laudable message for today's youth, it's also one that needed to be packaged much more skillfully than this to reach them. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Preston A. Whitmore II and costar Wesley Jonathan, and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a well-intentioned but disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)