As a straight-to-video sequel to 2002’s Like Mike — perhaps the best ever (which is to say only) film spawned by a lyric in a Gatorade commercial — Like Mike 2
boldly extends on the premise of its franchise, following its
diminutive protagonist through several championship basketball seasons
and into a foray into minor league baseball. It climaxes with him
becoming a general manager and director of basketball operations for an
NBA franchise, drafting a high school stiff named Kwame Brown and
berating him in practice for his continued lack of effort and
commitment to betterment.

Umm, actually, that’s not true. As director David
Nelson cops to in an interview at disc’s end, Like Mike 2 is “the same story, new family.” Ergo, whereas Like Mike
found (then Lil’) Bow Wow’s 14-year-old orphan Calvin Cambridge trying
on a faded pair of lightning-struck sneakers hanging from a power-line
and becoming an NBA superstar, this recalibrated follow-up stars Jascha
Washington as another kid whose skill set is enhanced by a pair of
athletic shoes inscribed with the initials “MJ.” The story centers on
Jerome Jenkins, a “tweenage” street-baller who gets no respect on the
local court because he’s too young, too slow and, worst of all, too
short. So, magic shoes… do your stuff!

Apart from the presence of the diminishingly cute Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire), the original Like Mike
at least had a roster of reliably kooky adult supporting players
(Crispin Glover! Eugene Levy! Anne Meara! Robert Forster!) with which
to somewhat distract us. Like Mike 2 gives us Brett Kelly (the fat little kid from Bad Santa)
and… maverick Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in a cameo. Now, don’t
get me wrong — Cuban is a great interview, probably the best
pound-for-pound soundbite in the NBA. But he’s handcuffed by
irrelevancy here, and the earnest presence of veteran actors like
Michael Beach, as Jerome’s father, and Blu Mankuma, as Coach Archie,
doesn’t help inject much in the way of surprise or originality into the
day.

Is Like Mike 2: Streetball worse than, say, Rebound, Martin Lawrence’s dreadful
coach-seeks-redemption-by-drilling-a-bunch-of-middle-schoolers comedy?
No. Rather, it’s a moralizing piece of family fare, competently shot
and enthusiastically acted. Elementary school hoops junkies will spark
to the fantastical hops with which it imbues Jerome, but slightly older
kids may be a bit put off by the movie’s pandering.

DVD special features for the film, which is presented on a flip disc
in both anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen and 1.33:1 full screen, include a
half dozen deleted scenes and three short behind-the-scenes
featurettes. In one, a six-minute making-of bit replete with EPK-style
interviews and informal footage from the set, young Washington and one
of his costars, Micah Stephen Williams, praise director Nelson as being
“more black than they are.” (Nelson is white.) That may be the most
stirring or provocative thing on the disc. C (Movie) C+ (Disc)