But honestly, Durant’s threadbare performance (does it really count as acting if you’re playing yourself, and even the film’s credits say, “Kevin Durant [as] Kevin Durant”?) isn’t the worst part of “Thunderstruck,” since at least he’s fairly charismatic, despite all his mumbling. The harshest thing to say about Durant is that sometimes it doesn’t even seem like he knew he was being filmed for a movie, and that maybe director John Whitesell just plopped him into random absurd situations and recorded his reactions. But whatever, Durant is still great at basketball—and it’s impressive that the hardest part of the film for him was missing shots and pretending to be uncoordinated, according to various interviews Durant has given before the film’s release.
Less excusable is Whitesell’s uninspired directing, writers Eric Champnella’s and Jeff Farley’s poor script and awful dialogue, and the overall dumb story. Unexplained magic causes Kevin Durant’s basketball ability to pass to an undeserving kid who doesn’t appreciate the true reasons behind Durant’s success? Oh, OK. At a recent press screening, children’s laughter during the film was sparse, with them only giggling at particularly over-the-top acting and physical humor; even those instances were few and far between.
There’s nothing surprising about films that act purely as star vehicles for celebrities; most movies about bands, for example, serve that purpose. I can personally attest to watching “Spice World” far too often as a child, and the entire point of that film was to show how likable, funny, and self-deprecating the Spice Girls were. But what’s irritating about “Thunderstruck” is how much it wants to stress to us that Durant is clean-cut (his agent refuses to get a number from a groupie clamoring to hand hers over to the player), nonthreatening, but greatly talented—he’s nice to his mom, for example, even when she shows up to encourage him in a ridiculous cheerleader outfit—while also refusing to actually show characters demonstrating the themes of hard work, persistence, practice, and determination.
We see Durant practicing, but mostly when his game is going badly; we don’t ever see the lucky kid who gets his talents, Brian (Taylor Gray), actually put in time at the gym. Both Durant and Gray discuss the importance of teamwork, but since no other Thunder players actually appear in the film (only showing up in stock footage), it may be difficult for children to take Durant’s wisdom seriously. And weirdly, even when Brian becomes the king of his high school thanks to his basketball moves (parents may be reminded of a particularly pivotal moment from “Teen Wolf” when Brian dominates a school bully on the court, or older children may have seen something similar in this summer’s blockbuster “The Amazing Spider-Man”) and grows an inflated ego, his parents never, ever intervene. It’s only his interactions with Durant and his obnoxious agent Alan (Brandon T. Jackson, of “Lottery Ticket,” “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” and “The Tooth Fairy”) that force Brian to realize what he did wrong, which doesn’t seem like the most family-empowering message.
But ultimately, what sinks the film is its shirking away from any explanation of its own machinations. Random wish fulfillment and accidental violence against another person are all that transmit Durant’s skills to Brian, and you know that from the onset of their switch. There are no other surprises offered, except for the strange amount of celebrity cameos—from former players-turned-commentators Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley, for example, to late-night host Conan O’Brien. None of the charm of previous basketball-themed family films such as “Like Mike,” “Kazaam,” or the wonderful “Space Jam” is present, however.
“Thunderstruck” focuses on high school sophomore Brian (Gray), waterboy for his Eastview Eagles basketball team. Although Brian idolizes Oklahoma City Thunder player Kevin Durant, Brian can’t play basketball at all, and his little sister Ashley (Hana Hayes) delights in videotaping his failures and posting them on YouTube for the entire school to see. Brian’s only friend seems to be the nerdy, World of Warcraft-playing Mitch (Larramie Doc Shaw), who helps him steer clear of bully Connor (Spencer Daniels) and encourages him to speak with his crush, new girl Isabel (Tristin Mays).
But when Brian embarrasses himself in front of a Thunder audience by failing to nail a shot from half-court, his life changes when he meets Durant afterward. He tells Durant, “I wish I had your talent”; Durant says to him, “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard”; and the two swap. Suddenly Brian is sending his school into a frenzy with his newfound basketball prowess, while Durant’s inability to shoot at all may end up keeping his team from the NBA Playoffs. It’s up to Alan to figure out what’s wrong with Durant, and when he begins to suspect something strange may have happened with Brian, he has to convince others around him that he’s not crazy—basketball magic, it seems, is real.
Nothing else about “Thunderstruck” is realistic, though, so the film loses any sense of genuine actuality. Brian’s parents are basically nonexistent; they show up to his games, but they never have any meaningful conversations or interactions. His relationship with Coach Amross (James Belushi) is similarly underdeveloped, and Amross’s character overall is thinly sketched, too. And there seems to be a genuine lack of understanding regarding how teams and teammates function, and even the details of basketball as a game. For example, why wouldn’t Brian be forced to practice with the rest of the team? Why wouldn’t he build up his skills through muscle memory and learning the plays? And during basketball games, why wouldn’t opposing teams guard Brian, who has become so famous that local news stations are doing stories about him? There’s just no real comprehension or accurate description of the sport itself.
Also negatively impacting the film are the grainy stock footage, the underuse of the Thunder as a team, and the fact that, well, “Thunderstruck” could have been a one-hour made-for-TV movie on ABC Family or something; there was no reason for it to be distributed in theaters in such a way. You won’t be struck by “Thunderstruck,” that’s for sure.
