The Hot Flashes (2013)

Directed by Susan Seidelman. Starring Brooke Shields, Camryn Manheim, Virginia Madsen, Wanda Sykes, Daryl Hannah, Eric Roberts, Mark Povinelli, Andrea Frankle, Charlotte Graham, Jessica Rothe, Carl Palmer, Kenny Alfonso, Ritchie Montgomery. [R]

To prevent the local mobile breast cancer screening unit from shutting down, menopausal Shields and four middle-aged friends form a basketball team to play the high school state champs in a best-of-three competition. Formulaic cross-pollination of sports comedy and female empowerment picture, except it’s not very funny, the sports scenes are amateur hour in their setups and executions, and it’s hard to be empowering amid such shallow characterizations and moldy clichés. In fact, if anything, it denigrates women in terms of their athletic skills since, by virtue of the direction, editing, or actor prep (or a combination of all three), it doesn’t look like anyone on the court (young or old) can even demonstrate the fundamentals of the game. Director Seidelman also co-produced.

42/100