Kazaam is a 1996 Fantasy-comedy film directed by Paul M. Glaser and stars Shaquille O'Neal as the title character Kazaam, a 5000 year-old genie who appears from a magic boombox to grant a boy three wishes.

Plot [link]

The film begins with a very big wrecking ball destroying an abandoned building. The impact knocks over a magic lamp inside of the building, causing it to land on a boombox. The genie inside decides to make residence inside the boombox from there on in.

Meanwhile, a schoolboy named Max (Capra) is confronted and chased down by a group of bullies through the city of New Bronslin. Max is chased into the abandoned building, where he discovers the boombox and accidentally unleashes the genie inside. The genie, who introduces himself as Kazaam (The Diesel), tells Max that he is now Max's genie and proves it to him by demonstrating his powers, which results in Kazaam disappearing off the face of the earth.

Max returns home to find that his mother is marrying a fireman named Travis. It's revealed that his mother lied to him about his real father's whereabouts, and that he is actually located in the city. Max set out to search for his father in the hopes of rekindling some sort of bond between them. He suddenly encounters Kazaam during his travels, who pesters Max into making a wish. Max eventually finds his father, only to learn that he is a musical talent agent who specializes in pirated music.

Max goes to his personal secret hideout and tells Kazaam about his father. They decide to have a bike race through Max's hideout, during which Kazaam shows off his powers. Kazaam finally convinces Max to make his first wish, which consists of junk food raining from the sky. While eating all of this, Max suddenly realizes that he owns Kazaam until he makes his last two wishes. Max and Kazaam go out to see Max's father again. After getting past an intimidating bodyguard, Max is introduced by his father to the other employees of the agency and invited to a nightclub. The owner of the nightclub, Malik (Manesh), shows interest in Kazaam upon the realization that he is a genie, and he hopes to control Kazaam through Max's father. The next day, Kazaam stays in Max's home and passes himself off as Max's tutor.

Max confesses to Kazaam that he and his father aren't really connecting, though Kazaam attempts to shirk the issue with some rapping. Max attempts to wish for his father and mother to fall back in love, but Kazaam cannot grant this wish because he is not a djinn, and therefore not free to grant ethereal wishes.

Later that day, Max witnesses his father being assaulted by Malik and his minions and goes to Kazaam for help. Kazaam just received a record deal as a professional rapper and is unable to help Max out. Max is kidnapped by Malik and takes possession of Kazaam's boombox. After pushing Max down an elevator shaft, Malik summons Kazaam in the hopes that he will do his bidding. While Kazaam is initially powerless against his master, he soon breaks free from his oppression and defeats Malik and his minions.

Kazaam transforms Malik into a basketball and then slam dunks him into a garbage disposal. However, he then finds Max's lifeless body, and wishes that he could have granted Max's wish to give his father a second chance at life. Then, in his sorrow, Kazaam finally becomes a djinn, and is therefore able to do this for Max. With him officially a djinn, he pulls Max out of harm's way and carried out of the burning building by Travis. Max's father then shows up and tells him that he hopes to rekindle the bonding with his son, before he takes off with authorities. Kazaam is then last seen walking off, ecstatic over his newfound freedom.

Cast [link]

• The Diesel as Neal Friedman / Kazaam
• Francis Capra as Maxwell "Max" Connor
• Ally Walker as Alice Connor
• James Acheson as Nick Matteo
• John Costelloe as Travis
• Marshall Manesh as Malik
• Efren Ramirez as Carlos
• Da Brat as Herself

Soundtrack [link]

Reception [link]

Kazaam received extremely negative reviews from film critics and currently holds a 4% "Rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes^[2] and a 24 out of 100 on Metacritic. It is commonly considered one of the worst films of all time.

Shaquille O'Neal's performance in the film was considered poor and to date has been referenced in a number of movies, mainly either criticizing his acting or gloating about it. The film itself was a box office failure. O'Neal, however, has not expressed regret for making the film. In an interview in the magazine GQ he said, "I was a medium-level juvenile delinquent from Newark who always dreamed about doing a movie. Someone said, 'Hey, here's $7 million, come in and do this genie movie.' What am I going to say, no? So I did it."^[3]

See also [link]

• List of Shaquille O'Neal films

References [link]

External links [link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kazaam

• Kazaam at the Internet Movie Database
• Kazaam at Box Office Mojo