Like Mike is a 2002 movie, directed by John Schultz and starring Lil' Bow Wow, Brenda Song, Jonathan Lipnicki, and Morris Chestnut. The movie was produced in association with NBA Entertainment and features many cameo appearances by NBA stars.
Plot
Like Mike is about a trio of kids who live in an orphanage. The trio is Calvin (Lil' Bow Wow), Reg (Brenda Song), and Murph (Jonathan Lipnicki). They are best friends and they enjoy playing basketball and watching NBA games on television. They are taken by Stan Bittleman, the greedy orphanage director (played by Crispin Glover) to sell chocolates after each of a fictional Los Angeles Knights NBA franchise's home games.
One night after a game, Calvin Cambridge (Lil' Bow Wow) meets the team's coach who is impressed by Calvin's knowledge of basketball and honesty about the chocolates he sells, and offers Calvin tickets for the next game. Calvin obtains a pair of old shoes (from a Salvation Army Thrift Store) that had reportedly been used by a great basketball player of the past. The shoes have the initials MJ written, so naturally, Calvin thinks they used to belong to Michael Jordan.
Calvin's shoes are taken by an orphanage bully named Ox who throws them onto an overhead power line. Calvin tries to retrieve them that night in a rainstorm so he can get them while Ox is not around and gets shocked by a lightning bolt. Between the shoes and the electric shock, he acquires NBA superstar level basketball talent.
Calvin and his friends then attend the basketball game between the Knights and the Minnesota Timberwolves that they had tickets for, and Calvin's ticket number is chosen at a half time contest where the winner would face the Knights' star player, Tracy Reynolds (Morris Chestnut) one on one. After he makes three impressive scores on Reynolds, including a dunk after bouncing the ball off the backboard, and leaving the crowd speechless, Calvin is signed to a one day contract by the Knights. He comes into that game in the fourth quarter, and leads a comeback against the San Antonio Spurs in which Calvin dunked on Spurs future Hall of Fame center David Robinson and scored 27 points. That gave the Knights an unexpected win, which leads to him getting a season contract. Calvin brought teamwork to the struggling Knights and made them one of the best teams in the league.
Calvin's life then follows a path of experiencing luxury for the first time while on the road and going back to his orphanage home when the team isn't traveling. He gets to see hotels and places he never imagined could exist, and he is assigned to be the roommate to Reynolds while on the road. Calvin then starts taking all the headlines and becoming the talk all around the sports media and the NBA.
While this is all happening, Calvin begins to figure out that all he wants is really a father, and he starts looking at Reynolds in a fatherly way. They slowly begin to develop a father and son relationship, although their relationship is sometimes challenged by the daily situations that a thirteen-year-old boy without a father and a single man with no kids might have to face and Reynolds' attitude toward the young player. Although in a win over the Seattle Supersonics, the Sonics star point guard Gary Payton while guarding Cambridge, tackled Calvin and said to Cambridge "Now you know what it feels like to be in The Glove's hands", and Calvin responded to him by saying it feels more like a mitten and Payton and Cambridge got into an argument as Payton got hit with a technical foul after shoving Cambridge and Reynolds was the one protecting Calvin the most as the two were being separated.
Meanwhile, back home, Bittleman signs a contract with the team that says that all of Calvin's money will go to him instead until he's eighteen, or adopted. When the second option is about to become true, Bittleman decides to steal Calvin's shoes and bet US$100,000 against the Knights.
After negotiating with Ox the bully and his friends about how selfish Bittleman is, Calvin is able to subdue the orphanage director and retrieves his shoes when Ox takes them out of Bittleman's safe for him. However Bittleman manages to send several goons after Calvin in a failed attempt to steal the shoes. Calvin makes it to the arena with the shoes after the 3rd quarter ends with the Toronto Raptors routing the Knights 80-59.
Calvin is reluctantly put into the game by the coach and the Knights start to make a comeback after Tracy convinces the coach not to bench Calvin for tardiness. However after a pile-on towards the end of the game, Calvin's shoes are ruined with the Knights down by one point. During the following timeout, Calvin tells the team that he will retire after this game, without revealing the reason of his skills' cause being destroyed. On the last play, Calvin is not as skillful without the shoes, and goes through a bit of struggle, but he still manages to get the ball to Tracy, who makes the game-winning shot at the buzzer.
However, after going back to his orphanage, he and Murph get adopted by Tracy, and Reg by a different family. It is also revealed that Bittleman is missing (either dead or in hiding) because he doesn't have enough money to pay the bet and the orphanage is now sponsored of the Knights.
Cast
Soundtrack
Available on So So Def Recordings/Sony Music Soundtrax
NBA stars
Box Office Performance
The film opened at #5 with a 3-day gross of $12,179,420 from 2,410 theaters for an average of $5,054 per venue, and a $19,018,444 gross since its Wednesday launch. It closed on November 19, 2002 with a final domestic gross of $51,432,760. The film did not do nearly as well overseas making $10,842,020, but with a total worldwide gross of $62,274,780, it made it a financial success as the film cost only $30 million to make.
See also
References
External links
