White Men Can't Jump

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez
Directed: Ron Shelton
Rating: R
Genre: Sports, Drama, Comedy
1992

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Two basketball street hustlers (Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson) decide to team up and hustles others in 2 on 2 games, using one of the player's whiteness as a gimmick to win.

Review:

This is a decent basketball movie, featuring the trash-talking, street-hustling variety of the game. The scenes of pick up games- especially when money is at stake- are pretty entertaining to watch. Wesley Snipes is particularly good at ripping into people with verbal punches. However, as everyone is talking trash all the time, the egos eventually get tiresome and you wish they would just shut up and play.

Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson have a good love-hate relationship and while this is the best part of the movie, the constant bickering gets tiring after a while.

The basketball action is pretty decent. However, we're not watching NBA greats here, and Snipes and Harrelson don't really look like ballers out on the court.

The film suffers because there is too much going on. You have the street hustlers hustling, relationship dynamics between all the characters, philosophy and commentary on race relations, a murder plot by some people Harrelson owes money to, a 2 on 2 tournament, and Jeopardy (of all the bloody things). It is just a little too much and the films feels torn between the different storylines.

White Men Can't Jump is pretty entertaining and has a very cool title. There are too many flaws, however. Even the film's strengths eventually become weaknesses. This is a film that tires of itself and we're quick to agree with it when it does.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Bull Durham, EdTV, Tin Cup