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Also opening
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 20, 2002
Boys will be girls
Television ratings and ticket sales are lousy for the Women's National Basketball Association, so what makes Warner Bros. confident that moviegoers will pay to see Juwanna Mann? The plot concerns an NBA player named Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Nunez, above right) whose bad-boy shenanigans on and off the court get him banned from the league. So, he dons a wig, makeup and lingerie to pose as a female named Juwanna Mann (wink-wink) and continue his career in the WNBA. Apparently there's no medical physical required. Anyway, Jamal/Juwanna becomes a superstar -- what does that say about sports equality? -- and falls in love with a teammate (Vivica A. Fox, left). But, of course, he can't do anything about it until the feel-good finale a sixth-grader could guess right now. Every movie has its core audience, but that shouldn't be limited to whoever can name the first player off the bench for the Utah Starzz.
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