I'd love to hear a song from Common and Queen Latifah.
But a movie, I had my doubts.
I expected a disaster from the director of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 but Just Wright was still a let down.
First off, Common is not an NBA star and it rang false from the first shot of him with a basketball. And a big time star? They couldn't have tried something more believable, like he's a good player, they really went for the best player around. Two-time league MVP, Nets' franchise player. And even more unrealistic, the Nets are a contender??!?
With that in mind, I could have moved on if the story was good, but it's the same tired story we've all seen before: "unattractive" girl surprises everyone and gets the awesome, hot guy.
Are we really teaching a lesson with that or are we just showing that women can be shallow too?
Latifah's character is supposed to be some homely woman who is every guy's buddy and it's so unlikely a ball player would fall for her.
After all those Covergirl and Revlon ads have told us how pretty she is, now we're supposed to buy her as the ugly ducking?
Really?
She might not be the conventional beauty, but she is certainly no one's ugly.
But the biggest problem might just be the directing though.
Sanaa Hamri clearly knows how to build a shot and work with the camera, but she has talented actors giving lackluster performances throughout the entire film.
That kind of consistently poor acting can only be attributed to the director.
Every NBA cameo in the world couldn't save this wreck.
I'm reluctant to really hate this movie because I like so many of the people in it and am a big fan of Common's music, so I'm giving Just Wright a D+.
--John Berry, online editor--