SHOOTING STARS (2023)

SHOOTING STARS follows the early life of NBA star LeBron James who, with his four best friends, become the best high school basketball team in America. Streaming on the Peacock outlet, SHOOTING STARS is entertaining and well-produced, with strong moral elements stressing loyalty, helping other people and motherhood, but it has many gratuitous obscenities, brief lewd jokes and a scene where the teenagers drink at a party, so MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

SHOOTING STARS is the story and life of LeBron James. The movie starts out when LeBron, Lil Dru, Sian, Willie, and Romeo are just children. They love playing basketball, and, if they’re not on the court, they’re playing a videogame about basketball. Lil Dru’s father, Dru Joyce brought the boys to come together to play basketball. Each boy was from a different family whose parents were trying to get them out of trouble. LeBron was raised by a single mother, Gloria, who loved him and supported him but worked most of the time to keep the family going.

Coach Dru coaches the boys as they played at the Salvation Army. From a young age, they were great at playing together. However, Coach Dru tells them it isn’t about how you start the game, it’s how you finish the game. His goal is not to only make great players, but to make great men out of the boys.

When the boys are getting ready to go to high school, the school that wants the fab five will take all the players on the varsity team except Lil Dru, who would be on Junior Varsity. Lil Dru doesn’t take that as an answer. So, he goes to another school, with a new coach, Coach Dambrot. Lil Dru convinces Coach Dambrot he needs all five of them to play on Varsity.

The coach’s school isn’t like the other schools the Fab Five attended. It was a Catholic private school that required a uniform. The Fab Four felt out of place, and at first Coach Dambrot was only going to play seniors in the game. The Fab Five decided to battle the seniors to show that they were better, and the Coach finally saw that these freshman had great talent. Together, the team made one of the best high school teams in the nation, but only one thing could take them down – pride.

Will LeBron keep himself dedicated, even though he’s receiving lots of praise for his basketball skills?

SHOOTING STARS is entertaining and well-produced. Wood Harris does a great job portraying Coach Dru. SHOOTING STARS is just a timeline of events, however, without much jeopardy. Toward the end, though, the movie inserts some jeopardy.

SHOOTING STARS has a positive moral worldview with some moral themes, including loyalty and supporting others. Coach Dru believed in the boys, even though they weren’t his own sons. He supported them and helped raise them into great men. At one point, LeBron has some pride get in his way, but Coach Dru tells him that’s not the way to live. Also, LeBron’s mother is a great mother who does everything she can to support her son. However, shooting stars has excessive, gratuitous foul language, which could have been completely eliminated, and a scene where the teenagers are drinking at a party. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.