Like how its website URL is named, Slam! invites movie critics to “slam the movie”.

It’s a mystery how Slam! is “definitely the best basketball movie you’ll see”, according to Qi Jing, Senior Editor of SLAM MAGAZINE who gave this movie 5 out of 5 stars, because for me, it can’t be further from the truth. I mean, it says a lot when the people beside me left the cinema halfway through the screening.

Story Overview
Directed and produced by Singaporean first-timer Jonathan Lim, Slam! revolves around a very familiar theme that other inspirational movies in Hollywood like Drumline have used. The audience always bring home the same message – pursue your dream and never give up. Unfortunately for Slam!, you’ll also bring home doubts, frowns and headaches (we’ll tell you why later).

Slam! is a movie that revolves around three teenagers – Mouth (Li Xiao Fan), Monkey (Zhang Yi Shan) and Jason (Andrew Chou) – who spent their vacation hanging out together, playing basketball when the trio first crossed Li Wei (Wang Wei) and his basketball team’s path. Loss and unhappiness leads to a series of revenge acts between both parties. Be it a coincidental meeting at a skating ring during Monkey’s birthday party or at a local Internet café, both have their ways to get onto each other’s nerves. The film reaches its climax when both teams compete with each other at the annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament. Block, snatch, rebound, attack! Both teams push their efforts to utmost to win that prestigious champion title.

Viewers will find themselves left behind at different points of the movie because the movie is confusing. One of classic confusion still vividly recalled was Monkey’s birthday celebration scene. Before that, Monkey suggested that they would go ice-skating for his celebration. However, the so-called ice-skating ring has parquet flooring and people are rollerblading. Blame it on poor translation or weak scripting, but if they can’t even get the basics right, we hold out little hope for the $1 million production.

Maybe, all these confusion inside me was partly due to the fact that everything was too fast-paced and exaggerated. Xiao Xiao and Mouth’s mediocre love scene, Mouth’s father (Wang Zhi Gang)’s unknown fear of Li Wei’s father (Wang Wei Guang), the on-off friendship between Mouth, Monkey and Jason– all could potentially make stronger positive impacts on the audience if they were just given more screen time to develop. If time was a problem, then Slam! could have just worked on just one or two main issues instead of trying to do too much.

Cinematography
Remember the viewers’ headaches? The Blair Witch effect came as a result of unexpected and amateurish zooming and the ever-shaky shots. People were murmuring “I’m getting a headache” within the first 15 minutes of the movie. At first, it seemed the shots were deliberately jerky just for those few scenes but it was that the same throughout. You probably won’t expect a fast zoom during a quarrelling scene between a father and son. Now that was really bizarre.

Like what happened in movie Vantage Point, the transition between scenes is overused and it gets a tad annoying to the audience. What Slam! did was to use a still clip of a basket in a basketball court as its transition clip. It was actually quite a nice touch in the beginning, but when we saw it replayed more than three times, I couldn’t help but mutter, “Save me!” under my breath.

Soundtrack
The moment I hear the first track playing in the film, Jack Neo appeared in my head. The songs, which are rapped and sang by Machi, sounded so gung-ho I can’t help but relate it to one of those Jack Neo movies such as Money No Enough where the Ah Bengs (local Chinese men with negative stereotypes) sang about their dignity and how they weren’t who they seemed to be.

Watch It?
If you still want to catch Slam!, watch it only for the nicely choreographed basketball moves, especially during the final battle. As a former avid but amateur basketball player, I thought the stunts were pretty awesome, especially when one of them passed the ball through the blocker’s legs and he managed to get hold of the ball and dribble on after that. That was by far the highlight of the film.

Singaporeans love their Rojak (a local salad with prawn paste) but for Slam!, too many raw and uncomplementary ingredients are mixed together and it just doesn’t taste right.

UrbanWire gives Slam! 1.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Details

Opens: Mar 20
Movie Rating: PG
Running Time: 93 mins
Language: Chinese with English and Chinese subtitles
Cast: Lin Xiao Fan, Zhang Yi Shan, Andrew Chou, Zhao Wei Qi
Director: Jonathan Lim