Above the Rim (1994)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Director:

Jeff Pollack

Writers (WGA):

Jeff Pollack (story) &
Benny Medina (story) ...

Release Date:

23 March 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

The Hardest Part Of Winning Is Choosing Sides.

Plot:

Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with his two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.

Plot Keywords:

Basketball | High School | Drugs | Security Guard | Drug Dealer

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Duane Martin	...	Kyle Lee Watson
Leon	...	Shep
Tupac Shakur	...	Birdie
David Bailey	...	Rollins
Tonya Pinkins	...	Mailika
Marlon Wayans	...	Bugaloo
Bernie Mac	...	Flip
Byron Minns	...	Monroe
Wood Harris	...	Motaw (as Sherwin David Harris)
Shawn Michael Howard	...	Bobby
Henry Simmons	...	Starnes
Iris Little Thomas	...	Waitress
Michael Rispoli	...	Richie
Eric Nies	...	Montrose
Bill Rafferty	...	Himself (as Bill Raftery)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:R (Certificate #32601) | Australia:MA | Germany:12 | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

At the start when Shep awakes from the nightmare, you hear the intro to Tupac Shakur's "Pain" - "I Couldn't help but notice your pain" - "My pain?" - "It runs deep, share it with me!". This voice-over is from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Kyle is cheering in slow motion at the end of the movie, while "regulators" was playing, you clearing see Kyle accidentally hit heads with another one of the players

Quotes:

Mailika: What about you? Where does your mind run to?
Shep: Nowhere. It's just stuck. It's the rest of me that does the running.
Mailika: That's too bad. Folks either move past the things that happen to them, or they stop moving at all. But you're young. You can do anything, except sing.
Shep: I can sing a little bit.
Mailika: Not even a little bit.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Notorious (2009)

Soundtrack:

Dogg Pound 4 Life

Good hood/sport movie

This movie is definitely a memorable hood movie, don't know why it's not up their with the others.

The thing that stood out the most in this movie was that it is not a basketball movie. It's a hood movie. I was expecting it to be a basketball movie set that just happens to be in the hood, but no. Still, it's got a lot of action packed exciting basketball scenes in it. While it's not a basketball movie, any fan of basketball should enjoy it.

Overall it's a good movie. Should be a good watch for fans of hood movies, fans of basketball, or both.