WARWICK SHOWCASE

AIR
* * * * ½
(Business and Basketball)

The business of basketball is examined in this fascinating movie based on Nike’s landing Michael Jordan as their biggest client.

It is a tale based on a true story with some liberties taken in the process.

Those liberties make for a sharp, funny, engrossing two hours of top-notch moviemaking.

Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro, a fast-talking, rule-breaking, passionate employee of Nike who rose from selling sneakers out of the trunk of his car to landing the biggest contract in basketball history.

It is 1964 and Nike is a distant third, behind Adidas and Converse, in landing NBA star endorsements.

Jason Bateman plays Sonny’s volatile boss, while Ben Affleck plays Phil Knight, the esoteric CEO of Nike.

These three terrific actors get inside the heads of the three real-life characters with the aid of passionate and at times hilarious dialogue.

Sonny’s quest to sign Jordan has you rooting for him as he breaks all the rules, drives his superiors bonkers, and as we already know, wins the big one.

It is OK that we know the ending because the story of how he gets there is the important thing.

We learn that Sonny must deal with Michael’s mother, and a gutsy wheeler dealer she is! Who could play her better than Rhode Island’s own Viola Davis? Davis’s real-life husband plays her husband in the movie. Along with Davis, he is cool and calm.

Except for a few TV shots, we don’t see Michael Jordan, but we feel his presence as it is made very clear that Nike is not third on his list. It isn’t on his list.

The movie is more intense than James Bond, Batman, and Psycho combined.

The constant panic among the decision makers will grab you and keep you glued to the scene. If you are expecting a basketball movie, what you get is the behind the scenes part of the game.

We see how a new shoe is created around a person and get the message that “A shoe is just a shoe until somebody steps in it.”

Sonny’s speech after Nike’s leaders make a lame presentation to the Jordans and their agent is sure to become one of filmdom’s classics.

It took two Boston and one Rhode Island actors to show us that Hollywood can still make great movies.

As Phil Knight said, "The most you can do is all you can do.”

The movie is rated R because of the overuse of that four-letter word.

NETFLIX

Netflix has introduced several new films and series, along with a few classic old movies that you might enjoy seeing again.

MURDER MYSTERY 2 brings back Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler as Nick and Audrey Spitz as they try to expand their struggling detective business.

They are invited to a friend’s wedding on a posh tropical island.

There is a murder or is it a kidnapping.

There are the usual suspects, many of whom are knocked off.

The climax involves a bomb on the Eiffel Tower.

It is silly, but fun.

CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR is a movie starring a young Tom Hanks as a US Congressman in 1980, who is a bit of a philanderer until he witnesses what is going on in Afghanistan and uses his influences and cunning to bring about change.

The movie is based on a true story, and also stars Amy Adams and Julia Roberts.

An opening scene finds former Trinity actor Peter Gerety playing a Texas legislator.

AMERICAN HUSTLER is a movie starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner.

It is about a pair of hustlers in 1978 who get caught by an FBI agent who uses them to bring down crooks and politicians. Filled with twists and turns and a great ending.

UNSTABLE is a comedy series starring Rob Lowe as an unstable CEO of a company that invents things to make the world a better place to live.

Lowe’s son stars as his son, a young man who returns home from his New York City gig as a flutist to try to straighten his father out.

This one gets dumber and dumber as it goes along.