Kevin Bacon stars in this quickie sports film that's really more a culture-clash comedy. He plays an assistant coach at the college-basketball level who's looking for that big, big recruiting score and finds it in a distant African village. But his quarry, a seven-footer (Charles Gitona Maina) he spots in an anthropology film, turns out to be the prince of his tribe who's in line for the crown and has no interest in becoming fodder for Sports Center. So it's up to the callous American to
convince him that he wants to give this all up to live in a dorm and chase coeds (while, of course, honoring his ancestors). Unfortunately, the jokes are stale and the basketball footage is nothing to get excited about. --Marshall Fine
Working a bit too hard to send the crowd into a frenzy, the action in this basketball-oriented yarn isn't exactly fantastic, but it is mildly entertaining.
Children may find this funny, but the film isn't geared to very young audiences. It includes much more violence and profanity than its PG rating indicates.
Like the multitude of Disney visitors to Africa before (and after) him, he must learn to respect the noble savages he wishes to exploit. Saleh and his Winabis are not for sale -- at least, not immediately.
Neither Max Apple's script nor Paul M. Glaser's direction succeeds in convincing you that these characters live, or that this story has anything to do with any thing.
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