All are good players but, lacking any sort of guidance, they've become rowdy hotshots and don't function as a team. So it's up to Phyllis to put aside her selfish, monetary-motivated reasons for coaching and help them pull together, overcome individual problems and win a few games. As the film progresses, they do even better than that, managing a winning streak that takes them to the city championship finals in Madison Square Garden.

All of the performances are quite good here, with Starr particularly notable. And Perlman shows she can hold her own as the central character in a big-screen film (though Carol Kane, as her best friend, is utterly wasted).

But the script, by TV writers Seth Zvi Rosenfeld and Kathleen McGhee-Anderson, lets him down - along with everyone else - giving him wild mood swings in his character motivation and down-the-line predictability. And director Steve Gomer, whose debut film "Fly By Night" won a prize at the Sundance Film Festival a few years ago, disappoints by taking such a mundane project and failing to inject any new life into it.

At least if the characters had been richer or more interesting it would be worth a look. As it is, you're better off waiting for the video . . . which should be coming along quite soon.

"Sunset Park" is rated R for violence, profanity, vulgarity and drug abuse (marijuana smoking).