| The 6th Man | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Randall Miller |
| Produced by | David Hoberman |
| Written by | Christopher Reed Cynthia Carle |
| Starring | Marlon Wayans Kadeem Hardison Michael Michele |
| Music by | Marcus Miller |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 28, 1997 |
| Running time | 108 min. |
| Language | English |
The 6th Man is a supernatural sports comedy starring Marlon Wayans and Kadeem Hardison. The film was directed by Randall Miller. The film features real NCAA schools, although the rosters are fictitious. Some schools shown in the film include the University of Washington, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Fresno State University, Georgetown University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Arkansas, and others. The film features cameos from college basketball personalities such as Jerry Tarkanian and Dick Vitale.
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The 6th Man was shot on location in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It had an estimated budget of $11,000,000.[1]
The film was released on March 28, 1997 and made $4,128,178 in its opening weekend at the Box Office, and went on to gross only $14,708,874 throughout its run,[2] though not technically a Box Office Bomb, since it did make a profit, the $14 million made during its run, does fall under the category of a bomb in most cases.
The film begins showing Antoine (Hardison) and Kenny (Wayans) Tyler as children playing in a game of basketball. Their father is coaching the team and directs Kenny to get the last shot for the win since the team is down by one point. Kenny sets up for the game winning shot, but scared to take it, he passes it off to his brother, who goes in for a layup and misses it. The film then goes to the boys talking about the game and practicing with their father at home.
The film then fast forwards to present-day and both Antoine and Kenny are attending the University of Washington and make up a duo on the basketball team. The duo is known as "A&K" and the slogan for them is "A&K All the Way", given by their mother who is shown in the little league in the opening scene holding the sign, and the Tyler brothers look at the sign embarrassed by it. The team goes out to a night club to celebrate their most recent win. During this outing, Kenny meets his future love interest, R.C. St. John (played by Michael Michele), a reporter for UW. The two meet when Kenny spills beer in RC's purse. It then fast forwards to Washington playing a road game. The games shows them as being a dominate 1-2 punch. Later in the game, on a fast-break, Antoine dunks the ball, but suffers an unexpected heart attack while hanging on the rim, causing him to fall to the floor. He is carried off the court on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital. The assistant coach, Coach Nicholls, rides in the ambulance with Antoine. While in the ambulance, he flatlines, EMT's attempt to resuscitate him but are unsuccessful and he is pronounced dead. The team finishes the game without Antoine and Kenny rushes to be with him, but he is met by Coach Pederson, the head coach. Pederson precedes to tell him "We lost him", point guard Danny O'Grady replies "What coach for the season?" Kenny says "I told that boy to stop dunking like he's Jordan. What'd he do, separate his shoulder." To which the coach replies while choking up "Antoine died on the way to the university hos-hospital." Kenny, crushed by the news cries into his coaches shoulder. The film then shows the team's reaction to the news in the locker room. It cuts to the team retiring Antoine's number. The rest of the season, they wore a black patch with Antoine's number on it.
The team begins falling apart after Antoine's death. Antoine's spirit returns after Kenny asking for his help. Kenny first freaks out and begins running around the locker room scared. After finally realizing its Antoine, the two share an embrace. Kenny gets excited but Antoine tells him that he is the only that can see him. The team, who begins to think he's crazy, confronts him. After telling his teammates, why he has been acting weird, the team is reluctant to believe Kenny. Antoine helps Danny O'Grady dunk from the 3 point line. After sinking the dunk, the team still refuses to believe it. Antoine, obviously angry they still don't believe him, begins doing super natural work suck as possessing the big screen in the arena. They finally believe him. So Antoine begins to help out the team out in games by possessing various objects such as a basketball in one scene, and one other scene where he sits on the rim knocking out the ball each time the opposing team attempts to shoot a basket.
The team seems begins to rally around their 6th man, and begins to storm through the competition with the help of Antoine and eventually make it to the NCAA tournament, for the first time in "years" as characters in the film say (in reality at the time the movie had been filmed it had been 10 years). The team rallies through the NCAA Tournament and makes it to the national championship. The week before the championship game, they realize using Antoine to win isn't right, While they confront Kenny on the matter, as one member states "He's ballhog man. He was when he was alive and no disrespect he's even worse as a dead man." After hearing this Antoine becomes angry and in a fit of supernatural power almost wrecks the room. After calming down, Antoine relents to Kenny that he never wanted to die, that he had things he wanted to do and he had plans, Kenny sadly tells Antoine he understands, However when Antoine asks if Kenny really wants him to go he will, Kenny tells the team he wants Antoine to stay however it's obvious this is because he doesn't want to lose his brother again. . During the championship game, Antoine is shown disappointed, having trouble with the fact the team doesn't want his help anymore. The team plays poorly in the first half of the championship game. At halftime, Kenny gives a speech to fire the team up. The team comes out on fire and pulls within 2. Kenny gets the ball as the final seconds begin to tick off, Kenny throws a potential game winning 3 pointer, after releasing the shot, Antoine appears to assure the shot goes in, but Kenny shouts at him "ANT NO!!! Let it go." The shot goes in on its own. The movie ends with Antoine and Kenny speaking to each other and Antoine disappearing into a beam a light, which is perceived to be heaven. Coach Pederson, who saw the light, asks Kenny "That's our 6th man , isn't it?" To which, Kenny replies, "Yeah, coach. A and K, all the way baby."
The 6th Man currently has a 23% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an average critic rating of 3.8/10 based on 13 reviews. On Imdb.com it currently has a 5.1 rating. Roger Ebert said of the movie "The Sixth Man is another paint-by-the-numbers sports movie, this one about a college basketball team that makes it to the NCAA finals with the help of the ghost of one of its dead stars. Let's not talk about how predictable it is. Let's talk about how dumb it is....... Movies like The Sixth Man are an example of Level One thinking, in which the filmmakers get the easy, obvious idea and are content with it."
A soundtrack containing hip hop music was released on March 25, 1997 by Hollywood Records. It peaked at #33 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
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