Starring:

Trey Parker and Matt Stone

          It was inevitable, with the huge popularity of Southpark its creators (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) were bound to be signed on to do a movie at some point.  I figured with some of the comedy brilliance that this pair had with those four lovable, trash mouthed kids that some of that comedy would rub off onto this movie, and I was right... some of it rubbed off, but not very much.

Cooper (Trey Parker) and Reemer (Matt Stone)

          The story is pretty simple, two best friends, Joe Cooper (Trey Parker) and Doug Reemer (Matt Stone) are sick of playing basketball because of all the running and stuff... they are good at shooting so they invent a game that is a combination of baseball and basketball with a little bit of volleyball thrown in.  At first they just play it with their friends, but it is eventually discovered by billionaire Ted Denslow (Ernest Borgnine) who is fed up with the showboating in professional sports and wants to take this new sport, dubbed Baseketball, nationally.  We then flash foward five or six years (I think, it could only be two... it doesn't really matter), Cooper and Reemer are playing with their teammates of the Milwaukee Beers for the Denslow Cup (the championship of Baseketball) against the Dallas Felons.  In the midst of losing the game, the Beers owner Mr. Denslow collapses and dies of a heart attack.  Denslow leaves the team to Cooper in his will, much to the dismay of his young widow Yvette (Jenny McCarthy) who wanted to vote along with the other owners to turn Baseketball into a greed filled sport like every other professional league.  Unless the Beers win the Denslow Cup the following year, Cooper loses the team to Yvette and then the entire purpose of Baseketball will be ruined.  Along the way Cooper and Reemer meet Jenna Reed (Yasmine Bleeth), a social worker whom they both want to "get to know better."  As you might expect, all of this combines to bring tension between these two friends which correlates to tension on the Beers.

The Beers home stadium

          After showing a little promise of being a satire on the greed and corruption in sports, and then showing the possibility of being another summer gross out blockbuster in line with There's Something About Mary, BASEketball pretty much fizzles out of both catagories to become of very So-So movie with only a few laughs.  One of the few bright spots were the potential shown by Parker and Stone as future comedic superstars.  Both did a very good job in their acting, but they were also far from the standard that actor such as Robin Williams and Jim Carey have set.  Look for Trey Parker and Matt Stone to eventually drop the label "The Creators of Southpark" to come into their own as comedic actors, but don't look for it in BASEketball.

Rating:

2 out of five stars.