BASEketball

BASEketball is a 1998 American sports comedy movie directed and co-written by David Zucker and starring South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine and Dian Bachar.

Plot

When slacker friends Joe Cooper and Doug Remer are challenged to a pickup basketball game against some jocks, they counter by proposing to play a game they learned called "BASEketball", which combines baseball and basketball. In reality, they are improvising all of the rules, but somehow the sport becomes a hit. A promoter whose name is Ted Densley forms a popular league, but after his death a rival owner named Baxter Cain wants to change the rules to increase profits.

Cast

Trey Parker as Joe "Coop/Airman" Cooper
Matt Stone as Doug "Sir Swish" Remer
Dian Bachar as Kenny "Squeak/Little Bitch" Scolari
Yasmine Bleeth as Jenna Reed
Jenny McCarthy as Yvette Denslow
Ernest Borgnine as Ted Denslow
Robert Vaughn as Baxter Cain
Trevor Einhorn as Joey Thomas
Francis Xavier McCarthy as Dr. Kaiser (credited as Frank McCarthy)
Bob Costas as himself
Marv Albert as himself

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Andretti, Reggie Jackson, Charley Steiner, Cris Collinsworth, Tim McCarver, Pat O'Brien, Dan Patrick, Pantera, Victoria Silvstedt and Robert Stack make cameo appearances as themselves. Greg Grunberg, Kevin Michael Richardson and Max Casella also make cameos as athletes.

Production

Zucker had wanted Chris Farley and David Spade to play the respective lead roles of Joe and Doug, but cast Parker and Stone due to their work on South Park becoming a huge hit. The duo agreed to do the movie under the assumption that their show would be canceled by the time filming began.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, BASEketball has an approval of 42%, with an average rating of 5.31/10 based on 52 reviews from critics. The website's "Critics Consensus" is "BASEketball isn't just a succession of fouls thanks to the comedic zip of David Zucker's direction, but sophomoric gags and a lack of performance hustle by Trey Parker and Matt Stone makes this satire a clumsy bunt". On Metacritic, the movie has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on reviews from 18 critics, indicating "Generally unfavored reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the movie a grade B on a scale of A to F.

Other websites

BASEketball on IMDb
BASEketball at AllMovie