Anthony.' Except that in this case our pure-of-heart hero is a black high school basketball star from Coney Island by the name of Jesus Shuttlesworth (well-played by Ray Allen of the Milwaukee Bucks), and instead of demons and harlots, it is unscrupulous coaches, venal sports agents and white college coeds who are trying to lure him from the straight and narrow. On the one hand, the film is a fable-a modern take on Gustave Flaubert's 1874 'The Temptation of St.
Despite tracing gorgeous, balletic arcs through the air, however, one shot blocks the other and neither ultimately scores. It's as though Lee has tossed not one but two promising balls simultaneously toward the hoop. The problem, sadly, is that the whole amounts to less than the sum of its parts. 'He Got Game,' Spike Lee's risk-taking, quasi-spiritual parable about fathers, sons and the blessed sacrament of basketball, is really two distinct movies in one. Denzel Washington stars in 'He Got Game.' (Touchstone)
