Crossover

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The reason basketball is such a great spectator sport isn't because of its opportunities for razzle-dazzle editing and direction. It's because the game is kinetic enough without all that swoosh/zap/wham business.

The New York Times Nathan Lee

A decent example of Sidekick Cinema: a movie to glance up at from time to time while you download ring tones or text-message your friends.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

While director-screenwriter Preston A. Whitmore II's film is to be admired for its proponing the values of a higher education over the dream of a career in the NBA, its dialogue, characterizations and situations rarely transcend the level of cliche.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A film made by people with more heart than skill.

Entertainment Weekly Gregory Kirschling

Crossover skimps on court-level pyrotechnics (we get a game in the beginning and, of course, a big game at the end, and that's about it) in favor of dry urban melodrama.

LA Weekly Luke Y. Thompson

As they pursue their goals, no movie cliché is left unturned. The streetball scenes offer some nifty trick plays, but the rest of Crossover features poorly dressed sets, cheap-looking costumes and locations, and silly histrionics.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Just a few more tweaks and Crossover could have been something special -- a truly terrible movie to savor for the ages. But nooo, this street ball movie -- has to settle for middle-of-the-road badness.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Earnest and predictable, Crossover deserves more than the horselaughs that will probably greet it in theaters -- but not a lot more. The movie is harmless, which is both its strength and its weakness.

Premiere Bartley Morrisroe

The streetball scenes, much like the plot, have a few high points but never hit their stride.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Much as they would like it to, basketball can't save the youthful inner-city players here. Nor does the ultra-fast-paced street version of the sport save this movie from predictability and tedium.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

So badly conceived and executed, its good intentions don't help.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Astonishingly inept drama.

Variety Robert Koehler

Overshadowed by vastly superior sports movies like Invincible and hardly disguising its low-budget sources, pic isn't in any kind of shape for the theatrical leagues.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

Crossover has one redeeming quality: a heart that's in the right place. It's a bad movie with a good message -- but does anyone really want to pay $10 for an ABC After School Special version of "He Got Game"?

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Crossover doesn't have the competence to make it exciting or the desire to explore what's really at stake for these players.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

A vast disappointment.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Tries hard but never makes the leap.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

A real air ball, this lethargic drama by Preston A. Whitmore II is so poorly scripted that most of the major plot developments occur offscreen.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The entire movie seems to have about the same budget as a 30-second sneaker commercial. I'm not talking Nike, either. I'm talking a commercial for Steve's Second-Hand Sneaker World and Falafel Emporium that you'd see on NY1 News at 3:08 a.m.