Midway through "Eddie," long after Whoopi Goldberg's title character has been installed as the head coach of the New York Knicks, there comes a moment in the film where her team is playing the San Antonio Spurs. Since the film is using some real basketball players in the cast, Dennis Rodman, the wildest man in basketball, gets to have a cameo. He gets to share jabs with Whoopi. Here's what she says to verbally spar with him after he puts-down her coaching abilities, "Hey, Rodman, you look a little naked, why don't you put on some earrings." That's it. One suspects, due to the lame nature of the comment, that Director Steve Rash ("Son-In-Law") simply told Rodman and Whoopi to ad-lib some give-and-take. Regardless, whether this is the case or whether one of the six (count 'em) scripters came up with this brilliant jab, it points out a monumental fault of the film. It's not funny. It doesn't even try to be funny. Worse yet, it's eventual plot twist was done just a few months earlier (and much better) on TV's "Coach."

Whoopi's "Eddie" is a limo dispatcher who is also a huge Knicks fan. The team is bought out by a Texas oilman, played poorly by Frank Langella (who looks about as Texan as apple pie). He wants to make basketball a more interesting spectacle so he rides his horse on court and wears loud cowboy outfits much to the chagrin of true fans like "Eddie." Eventually Langella comes up with the idea of replacing the really bad coach of the Knicks (Dennis Farina in a thankless role) with a true fan. That's where Whoopi comes in.

This turn in the plot, which takes too long to get to, would all be fine and dandy if it didn't take Whoopi forever to get into the role of coach and make the team really work. She is a loudmouth as a fan but she suddenly clams up as the coach. Worse yet, the players don't respect her. She has to become their friend and remind them of their humanity (none of them are interested in the sport for the sport's sake anymore) before they begin to win.

If all this wasn't enough, once things start to go well for the team, Langella suddenly turns from good-old-boy to bad guy; He informs Whoopi he is selling the team and moving them elsewhere. This despite the fact that they are already in the biggest city in the U.S. and logic would follow that, as a winning team, they are even more valuable at home now. Then, the film gets really unbelievable.

In what must be the most contrived moment to grace the movie screen since the 80's, Goldberg stops a game mid-stride and takes center court to tell all the fans Langella's scheme. Soon, every fan in the place, is on the court with Whoopi banding together to save their team. It's ridiculous. It's so unbelievable that one almost can't conceive it. Almost, it would seem, if it wasn't for Whoopi.

Goldberg makes this film all her own and wins us over with her sweet charm. We like her so much here, we forgive the silly plot, the bad dialogue, and the uninteresting sports segments and the snail's pace.

Released with a glut of other B-ball movies, "Eddie" isn't as bad as, say, "Celtic Pride" because the star makes the film work. We simply enjoy watching her on screen in this piece. It is all the film has going for it. It's kind of a shame because the idea behind the film is actually sort of interesting. If other writers with more skill could have been obtained, it may have been quite interesting. As it stands, it just another in a long line of lame movies made watchable by the inclusion of Whoopi Goldberg in a leading role.

Note:

In English with sparse subtitled Russian.

Music by Stanley Clarke. Scripted by Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai, Jon Connolly, David Loucka, Eric Champnella and Keith Mitchell. Zacharias and Buhai also serve as Producers.

Cameos by New York Mayors Rudolph Juliani and Ed Koch. Also by David Letterman and his sidekicks Serijule and Mujibar and Donald Trump. Many sports luminaries appear in the film including John Salley, Greg Ostertag, sportscaster Marv Albert and a radio announcer from New York's WFAN radio.

The theme song by Coolio is played throughout the film. The typical sports-related pop songs, like "Rock and Roll Part 1" by Gary Glitter and "Kiss Him Good-bye" by Steam, also are used in the film.

In a big continuity problem for the film, Rodman had left the Spurs and was playing for the Chicago Bulls by the time "Eddie" was released.

Goldberg and Langella dated for some time after the film's release.

Review written in 1996

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