Watch White Men Can't Jump For Free

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

If you like basketball at all, you're going to love this movie. If you like to make fun of your friends, you're going to love this movie. Witty comedy that doesn't offend (that's hard to come by these days). Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) is a street-wise basketball player with something to prove. He heads to Venice Beach to hustle big-time players for money. Hoyle bites off more than he can chew when he meets up with Sydney Dean (Wesley Snipes) and becomes the victim of a hustle himself. However, Dean and Hoyle can't deny the bond of friendship between them, no matter how hard they try. When Billy loses his girlfriend because he loses all of their money and Dean's home is robbed they turn to each other for the solution...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. All in all "White Men Can't Jump" is far from being a classic, but it is still a fine film that is better than many think. The fact that Shelton can lay down such heavy themes in what is otherwise a hilarious romp about street basketball and the fine art of smack talk says volumes about his talent as a screenwriter. He's helped in great measure by both Snipes and Harrelson, who were not only good enough at the game to be practically Division III-quality players according to one of the former NBA pros who served as a technical adviser on the film, but were also good enough to handle the fast pace of the dialogue. Snipes is especially impressive, bursting with energy, in phenomenal shape, relishing the nonstop banter. He handles the (few) quieter moments like a pro, too. The real story; however, is one of loyalty, betrayal and eventually friendship. This is a smart and funny movie that transcends the "sports movie" genre. Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

On an L.A. beachside basketball court, loudmouth Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) gets schooled by goofy white boy Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson). It turns out that Billy is a former college player. Sidney lives with his very loud girlfriend Jeopardy-obsessed Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) on the run from thugs. Sidney suggests teaming up to hustle some real money before competing in a two on two tournament.There are plenty of yo'mama jokes. It's ridiculous. It's irreverent. It's hilarious. Snipes and Harrelson have great chemistry. Rosie Perez is a gem. She's not only a looker but also an explosive personality. This is simply a fun, fun romp. The movie tries its best to make the guys look good on the court. It succeeds for the most part. This is a great trio and a fun time with racial comedy.

This is not a comedy. This is a Basketball Jones fantasy. It's gritty and full of low rent district locales in SoCal: Watts, Venice Beach, South Central L.A., maybe East L.A.. There's a lot of trash talk and mother talk, some of it funny. This is about a white dude who is black even though he is as white as Gomer Pyle. And about as smart. This is about being white in a black world. It's about being a loser as far as women are concerned. This is about being a loser period.Woody Harrelson as Billy Hoyle is the loser. Wesley Snipes as Sidney Dean is the hotshot, hotdog, street wise hoops hustler who sees some value in an undersized white guy who plays better than he looks, although he can't jump. In a sense this is a buddy movie, 1990s style. They team up and hustle two-on-two pickup basketball for cash on outdoor courts with metal nets. They're good and they usually win.This is also about their relationship with their women. Rosie Perez plays Gloria Clemente who is a bit too smart for Billy. She spends her time imbibing endless trivia in prep for being on TV's Jeopardy. Tyra Ferrell plays Sidney's wife. She's also smarter than her man but long suffering in the ghetto. Some real life hoopsters make an appearance. I spotted Marques Johnson and Nigel Miguel, both of whom played for UCLA. Ron Shelton, who wrote and directed the excellent baseball movie Bull Durham (1988) wrote and directed here. He does a good job although I do have some points to make.One, you can't hustle hoops in the manner depicted. The main problem is the officiating. There is no way to settle disputes about fouls and who touched the ball last when going out of bounds. I played pickup basketball all over the South Bay area of Los Angeles for decades and I can tell you that when the games were close every missed shot was a foul, and the only way it got settled was to "shoot for it"; that is, the guy who claimed he was fouled when he missed the shot had to "do or die" from the free throw line or (more often in the bigger games) from the top of the key. If he makes it, his team gets the ball out of bounds. If he misses, the other team gets the ball. If you're playing for some serious money, these disputes would go on forever, not to mention the fact that somebody might just lay some hard fouls on somebody and what you would end up with is the bigger, tough guys winning. In fact, if one team is about to win against a bigger, badder team they might NEVER get a shot off.A secondary problem is the white ringer deal only works once.In reality there is enough ego involvement in these pickup games that you don't need to put any money on the line. Your self-identity as a basketball player is already on the line. Additionally, most guys who play pickup basketball play it for recreation, for staying in shape, for camaraderie. And yes there are some VERY serious pickup games with some very good players all over the Los Angeles area, although the best of them are played in high school, JC or college gyms indoors. Incidentally, by the time this movie was produced (it came out in 1992) most of the games in the L.A. area were played full court, not two on two; and before that, going back to the sixties, the default half court game was three on three.Well, in a Hollywood movie a realistic depiction of a milieu usually isn't the point. The point is entertainment, and in this sense White Men Can't Jump does alright. Snipes and Harrelson, by the way, can play a little, although it's mostly the camera work and the slow-mo that makes them look good.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

You don't have to be a fan of basketball to enjoy this feel-good, humorous, dramatic, and lively story of two very good players, Wesley Snipes as Sidney and Woody Harrelson, and their women, Rosie Perez and Tyra Ferrell.What lingo on the courts! What scurrilous insults are hurled back and forth with no one blinking an eye, what elegant contumely -- "Chump!", "Go on back to Mayberry," "Is your head made out of braille?" The basketball games played on neighborhood courts in LA are well shot, and the slow motion, finally, occupies an appropriate space in the narrative. Snipes, who is black, is a terrific action figure and his insults approach the rococo. Woody Harrelson, who is white, is not quite in the same acting league but manages to carry the part of Snipes' partner in the hustling game quite well. We don't get to see much of Snipes' wife, Tyra Ferrell, who wants nothing more than for her man to get a steady and sufficiently rewarding job to get them out of Vista Vue Apartments, where "there is no vista and there is no view and there sure as hell is no view of no vista." Perez also has vague longings of settling down and gives Harrelson two grand to buy smart-looking suits so he can make an impression in job interviews. (He squirts the money away, as usual.) The game of basketball, although it takes up considerable film space, is really not much more than a tool that allows the film makers to explore the relationship between a white guy and an African-American guy, neither of whom is more than usually predisposed towards racial harmony. There's an entertaining comic argument about whether Harrelson, who enjoys listening to Jimi Hendrix on the tape deck of his dilapidated car ("a classic") can really HEAR Hendrix. It's not enough just to LIKE him. Snipes is nonplussed to learn that Hendrix's drummer was a white guy.The movie is a fantasy. The likelihood of these two oddly matched hustlers making scads of dough on the courts of Watts, and walking away with their body parts intact, never mind the money, isn't particularly high. Three of the characters -- Snipes, Harrelson, and Perez -- are extraordinarily bright and articulate within the limits of their conventions. Perez wins more than ten thousand dollars on "Jeopardy." And the two men are whizzes on the court. The film SEEMS to be about race, but it's not. Except for the insults, race doesn't enter into the story at all. Harrelson might as well be black himself. He not only talks the talk, he dribbles the dribble. The whole issue of white racism and black solidarity is swept under the rug.That's not to denigrate the movie. It's a lot of fun. The air on the courts is foggy with the most gut-churning calumny. It becomes poetic at times. And the movie never turns sentimental. There are no important speeches on how we all have to live together -- men and women, as well as black and white. Thank God for small favors. The friendship that develops between Snipes and Harrelson never turns "warm." Like most male friendships, it turns on instrumental behavior -- joint effort on the courts. And the movie ends on exactly that kind of note.Not bad.