Netflix Review: BASEketball

The end of the semester is approaching and stress levels are skyrocketing for most students. Final projects are due and final exams are right around the corner. Times like these call for a stupid comedy like BASEketball.

BASEketball stars Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. The director of the film is David Zucker, who previously directed The Naked Gun series. BASEketball incorporates two styles of humor into the movie. It has the raunchiness and foul language of South Park combined with the visual gags of Naked Gun.

Joe Cooper (Parker) and Doug Remer (Stone) are childhood best friends who grow up and create a game called BASEketball. The game is a variation of H-O-R-S-E with baseball rules incorporated. The game catches on in popularity and becomes a national sport.

"This game is special," said Kenny, Cooper's friend and teammate. "This is a game where guys with bad backs and bad knees can get together and compete on the same playing level as guys all goosed up on steroids."

BASEketball spends much of its time lampooning the greed and commercialization of professional sports. The villain of the film is Baxter Cain (Robert Vaughn), an evil billionaire owner of the Dallas team. Cain's character is modeled after Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Much like Jones, Cain is only fueled by money and tries to destroy the integrity of the game with corporate sponsorships.

The film is filled with many timely jokes that lampoon recent events prior to the film's release in 1998. There are jokes about Bill Clinton's sex scandal, Dennis Rodman's eccentric hairstyles, spoofs of Titanic and references to John Elway's first Super Bowl win.  These jokes were funnier at the time, but are still funny today if you are old enough to remember these events.

Unfortunately, the jokes are hit-or-miss in BASEketball. Some of the visual gags are hilarious and others are so dumb they are cringe-inducing, but the film does deliver enough laughs overall to recommend.

Surprisingly, some of the funniest moments in the film come from people who aren't comedians. Ernest Borgnine is an Oscar-winning actor who was 81 years old at the time of the film's release. Borgnine's character unexpectedly rips off his shirt, rubs lotion into his chest and sings "I'm Too Sexy."

Professional broadcasters Bob Costas and Al Michaels play themselves in the film.  Michaels portrays himself as a pervert who spends more time ogling the cheerleaders than commenting on the games. Costas gets so excited during the championship game he tells Michaels to feel his nipples.

BASEketball is by no means a smart film, in fact you may even become dumber after watching it, but that's needed to take a break from studying for finals. Like getting drunk, watching BASEketball may kill a few brain cells, but at least the movie won't give you a hangover.

3.5 Stars