White Men Can't Jump (1992)

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

This is the perfect example of how to make a great film. You don't need a huge budget, or big explosions or lots of extra's, glamorous costumes, huge sets and 4 hour run time. You take a solid story, cast great actors, with a really good supporting actors, and tell the story like its meant to be told.White men Can't Jump, is about how basketball, life and relationships. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson team up on the playgrounds of L.A. to hustle all comers. The direction is sharp and the cinematography is surprisingly impressive as the mean streets of Los Angeles are caught with striking camera shots. The under-rated screenplay is intelligent, focused, and clever. You don't have to be a fan of the game to love this movie. It's fast paced, funny and if you are a fan of hoops then you are in Basketball movie heaven.

I don't really know how to tag this one. A crime sports drama? Yes we will call it that, a crime sports drama. This flick is about Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes (two of my favorite actors) who combine their talents to hustle playground basketball games in Los Angeles, Billy all the while trying to maintain the affection of his girlfriend Gloria (Rosie Perez), and pay back mobsters whom he owes money to. Then of course Sidney Deane (Snipes) is trying to maintain a steady income to support his wife. So in short that is a little plot summary. Now onto what I liked about this movie.For starters, I thought that both Wes and Woody fit quite well into these roles. Snipes has always fit well into sketchy, shady, or villainous roles as observed in movies like the Blade Trilogy and Demolition Man, so a sort of scumbag hustler fit Snipes well in this movie. In addition I thought Harrelson was a good add to this movie as Snipes partner. Something about Harrelson's personality and acting makes him a perfect fit for this film.What was great about this movie were all of the twists in the already interesting plot. You have Harrelson, a white schmuck hustling these street ballers for income, the last guy you would expect to get whooped by in a game of basketball, so when he teams up with Snipes, another seasoned hustler it makes for an already great movie. Then you throw in Billy's girlfriend Gloria, an aspiring Jeopardite. Rosie Perez did a great job of keeping the movie exciting for me. Billy and Sydney would win, and then Billy would blow the money. Gloria's reactions to Billy's mistakes were part of what kept this movie entertaining. Then you throw in the mobsters on Billy's tail and you've got yourself a movie that really keeps you interested; interested in what would happen next. Another great thing about this movie was that there was some emotion, and the ending didn't leave me wondering what Bill and Sid were up to next. Now don't get me wrong, I was more than sad when Gloria left Billy forever, but I found solitude in the fact that Billy and Sidney carve themselves out a a promising future together. Chances are if you are reading this review you've probably seen this movie; whether you have or not I encourage you to watch it sometime, A-.

White Men Can't Jump is a fanciful but ultimately effective meshing of a number of things to overall formulate a satisfying picture. Its amalgamating of inner-city grit which comes complete with hearty, tough minded souls looking to intimidate and endorse masculinity is mixed up with a buddy genre comedic slant that comes in addition to a romance plot-line as well as particular undercurrents of race relations drama. The conventions and content happen to blend and mesh together with one another rather well, all of it formulating together on their own levels to create a decent piece. Additionally rife with elements of queer theory, the film is principally one of which a relationship must exist between two characters which will then go on to be vital for both its and their successes, and although on face value this is one of a heterosexual ilk that might exist between one of the leads and his New Yorker girlfriend, it is actually one of which exists between the two leads, of whom are both male. It's in this sense that the film is ultimately about the rivalry and potential for danger which exists between two men; the understanding which the pair of them undergo of this that exists between, as well as the acceptance of one another which their misadventures and particular relationship drags them toward.Like varying recent films of a similar ilk, ranging from Tony Scott's 1986 film Top Gun to Zack Snyder's highly stylised, 2007 postmodern war film 300; White Men Can't Jump is about the bonding men undergo and the manly activities in which they partake in the apparent hope at forging masculine identities. The two men in question are Woody Harrleson's Billy Hoyle and Wesley Snipes' Sidney Deane; two fairly young and wholly fit males whom enjoy the sport of basketball so much so that it will come to act as the manly catalyst for each of their respective on-screen plights, just as engaging as a fighter pilot did for the leads in Top Gun and engaging in warfare did for the scantily-clad warriors of 300. Featured in all three examples are loose sub-plots to do with the supposed connection to that of a female character whom only feels predominant, and is often sidelined for the ties the men have with one another which are able to push through. Here, the most interesting material to do with relationships features its two leads; the case-in-point being that by the time the film has veered somewhat off piste and into a sequence encompassing a TV game show which serves only to endorse the film's lone heterosexual relationship, we are not as interested nor engaged as we were when its two male leads were on screen clashing with one another, on one occasion bickering during a match like an elderly couple.Hoyle and Deane live locally and maintain relationships with their female partners which come complete with mites of discontent, although Hoyle is additionally in trouble with some gangsters to whom he owes a fair amount of money and believes himself to have escaped to here: Los Angeles' Venice district. Their first encountering of one another is indeed on the highly masculine and ego-centric basketball courts of Los Angeles' Venice Beach, as sinking shots from the dusty tarmac for large sums of money before gloating is the order of the day. Where Sidney appears loud mouthed and full of himself, Billy is more reserved and restrained; his victimisation at the hands of Deane and his companions sees them drag class as well as race into the situation when Hoyle, being white, has a "country club" tag attributed to him and deemed unworthy within the sport's field. Hoyle promptly beats Deane and his crew, with the minimum of fuss and we are able to visibly see Deane's slight wilting under the pressure as he becomes the victim to his own manliness.As Hoyle leaves the courts, his worn and sweaty figure is captured post-workout by Deane's gaze: he is wholly impressed by the man's abilities; so much so that following him home and coming in to exclaim his true feelings occurs. Away from the courts, Hoyle's girlfriend Gloria (Perez) is a hardened academic, buried in encyclopedias and academia in an apartment which has been decorated by pictures of famous people. She comes across as being on another level to him, both literally or spiritually in this sense as well as academically; their only true link to one another that of a healthy sex life, since Hoyle is unable to truly engage in her brainier characteristics bar offer her the odd compliment to do with his belief she'd be able to win a TV game show. Hoyle's eventual tryst with Deane will see them both occupy a realm upon which basketball acts as the all-linking catalyst which sees them click, and this is easier and more familiar for him than that of his girlfriend's demands. Crucially, White Men Can't Jump goes on to document the failing of a bond with a woman that one of the main characters has; a telling sequence nearer the end encompassing the pair of protagonists practically walking hand in hand being symptomatic with the newfound homoerotic understanding.Director Ron Shelton has an eye for the on screen basketball, of which he has of sorts rendered a ballet in that there are degrees of dance or presentation behind the characters' lyrical boasting and verbal jousting before the physical stepping up to play the sport finishes the performance off. There is enough to get involved in, overall; the looming sharks provide ample threat for Hoyle as Deane attempts to get on with his real estate career and finding a proper home for his family. The film is a mixed bag of sports movie clichés; interesting insights into the lives and minds of basketball hustlers and droll formula linked to past-tragedies; epiphanies and moral choices but it all hangs together and works on the whole.

This is nothing but a basketball match with known actors in it. The characters' refined details, the human soul of it, the hustling.. all of that had been done perfectly, with memorable realism and cuteness. But all of that as well had to be in the back of the movie, sorry the match. It celebrates basketball in visual love poems that ate almost the whole time. So how about someone who knows nothing about it, or doesn't care about it in the first place ?! Resorting to the slow-motion near the end provoked me very. However, it seems to be fun for others. Therefore it's like an exclusive movie for the basketball's fans. And I'm not one of them. I'm the one who felt sad for a buddy story, hustlers' movie, and human comedy I couldn't enjoy here. Simply the match was on, long, and boring enough to hamper the movie. So eventually : being uninterested won ! Still the top of this movie is the shot in which the 2 leads, in Wesley Snipes' flat, express their hate to each other talking in the same time non-stop; Snipes there delivered what I consider as one of the best comic moments ever. So bad he didn't make comedies.