Customer Reviews

Heaven Is a Playground [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story of a young white lawyer who goes to play ball in Chicago's inner city Cabrini Green. With a lively cast of characters who play true to life people and a bumpin' soundtrack, it's a great movie. Michael Warren and D.B. Sweeney play two men who form a unique friendship to overcome the hardships of inner-city life, breaking many of the steriotypical molds applied to people of the home of some of the greatest basketball stars the world can ever know. As a white kid playing ball on the crest of the city, this movie is my untold story.

A bad movie based on the best basketball book of all time. The basketball scenes are not realistic or interesting, I just couldn't get over this fact. Its a basketball movie with a lot of time spent on the court. It should at least be fun to watch them play. Its not. The Bo Kimble cameo is the only thing that mildly interested me about this movie. It tries to throw in several playground legends and stories and real-life experiences, but ends up coming off as a non-believable, overdone movie.

This movie is what got me hooked on the game of basketball at an early age. It has everything from action to drama. I am so glad that this movie is comming out on DVD.

I agree with R. ZumMallen. I read Rick Telander's book (which this movie is very loosely based on) at least three times before I saw the movie, so I was familiar with the story going in. To say the least, the movie falls far short of what it could have been. In the book, Telander spends a lot of time giving you a sense of the teenaged playground ballers he got involved with during his time in Brooklyn, and I came away fascinated by Rodney Parker, an adult who was part hustler, part father confessor to the young men. The film could've revolved around him, but that's not how they wrote it. Yes, the book has a lot of basketball in it, but the game is a subtext to a larger story that the film barely touches on.

If you're a basketball fan who hasn't read the original story, the film won't be bad. If you've read the book, pass on the flick. You'll barely recognize it.