We're calling foul on Martin Lawrence as an in-trouble but talented college basketball coach who gets canned and is forced to work with a desperate team of kids who have no control over their balls. Um, it's not as dirty as it sounds, but it's still pretty hopeless comedy-wise. The Mount Vernon Junior High Smelters (their name is the funniest thing about this film) is a collection of clumsy, short, chunky kids in need of getting some game.
After bad losses, national ridicule and interactions with a hot and sassy mom, Lawrence is able to take his team from air balls to Air Jordan. But getting there requires the clichéd puke, pratfall and short-bus jokes. This has retread written all over it--and let's not forget that the similar Kicking & Screaming is hardly cold. Hopefully, the next film about struggling sports castoffs--the upcoming Bad News Bears--will finally produce a score.