Jeremy Lin’s Movie Career Is Hopefully His “Last Pick”

Nov.. 16, 2011; Portland, OR, USA; Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin (7) looks to pass the ball as Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) and point guard Ronnie Price (24) defend during the third quarter of the game at the Rose Garden. The Blazers won the game in overtime 119-117. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

Steel, Thunderstruck, Space Jam, Air Bud, the Decision… Basketball star films and the fantasy of anybody meeting or becoming a super star.

The film does not begin on a good note, seemingly to exploit the criticism of Jeremy Lin’s capabilities after he moved from New York to Houston, with an announcer claiming that he was a two week phenomenon. The film debates that Jeremy Lin is still a phenomenon. Perhaps not the same one as Linsanity. However, he is not really even the main character of the story, the supporting actor, so this story has nothing to do with the rest of the film!

Like what Red Letter Media stated about not cramming too much information in the script at the beginning in Mike Stoklasa’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review, the script writer for the short film did not pace . This does not have to be a George Lucas film.

However, the screenplay is too obvious without a lot of structure or meat to it. A younger brother we know nothing about gets bullied by annoying, ignorant, older brother and magical NBA superstar genie Jeremy Lin comes and saves the day.

Why do we assume the older brother knows or likes Jeremy Lin? In the film, he seems to be a New Orleans/Anthony Davis fan. Maybe he would totally not recognize or admire Jeremy Lin in this basketball superstar fantasy created by the Jubilee Project and the Jeremy Lin foundation. Maybe his brother did something wrong to annoy him and Jeremy Lin should resolve the situation as a 20+ year old.

There are also small things in the short that bother me, such as Jeremy Lin seeming out of breath in the movie, the J.J. Abrams lens flares, the fact that the kid should receive a technical foul for slamming the ball on the ground or that Jeremy Lin’s chances at being a sports agent have probably went down the drain considering he decided to choose the shortest, youngest player first in a “draft”-like situation, who probably cannot handle the rough and toughness of NBA physical play.

However, there is one interesting subtext of the short film that does somewhat get mired by Jeremy Lin’s attempt at making Stanley Kubrick subliminal messages. Jeremy Lin’s parallels as becoming a basketball player who was not a popular choice and still receives criticism today and how he still non-hypocritically still recognizes his back story and how he got to where he is now. Now that is interesting. That is how you develop a character and make one interesting and make one care for one, something the writer of his short film sort of forgot, albeit doing one sponsored by Jeremy Lin himself was bound to get criticism no matter what you did.

It’s still better than most of the above listed films. (It’s significantly shorter.) However, that is not saying much. Hey, think I’m being overcritical? Even, Jeremy Lin admits his acting “sucks” on his facebook! It can be seen here.