After winning free-throw contest at a New York Knicks basketball game, b-ball fanatic Whoopi Goldberg is pegged to be the last place team's new coach! She whips the boys into shape...but is she just being used as a publicity clown? Cookie-cutter movie (with a script cobbled together from work by seven different writers!) is saddled with a limp third act, very little substance overall, and one-dimensional supporting characters. However, director Steve Rash wisely allows Whoopi to be Whoopi, and her contagious good spirit rises above the mire and is enjoyable. The takeover sub-plot really sinks this comedy-fantasy in the end, but Goldberg is a trouper and offers several hearty laughs. ** from ****
