vincentlynch-moonoi As you can tell, I'm not a fan of Woody Harrelson, but especially when this film came out I was quite a fan of Wesley Snipes. But I have to begrudgingly admit that Harrelson is right for the part and does well here. And Snipes is great here, and near the peak of his career.I'm also not a basketball fan, or of sports in general...another reason I know this is a really good movie. It's race, but it's not racial. And what I mean is, both the white and the black main characters have massive flaws and are just trying to get through their lives as best they can. Harrelson's character come out a bit pathetic, but I've know people like that...who just seem lost in life. I question the inclusion of actress Rosie Perez here. Her voice grates on me something awful.The plot is pretty decent. Two hotshot amateur basketball players meet up and find they can score pretty well on the courts. But, there's plenty of tension between them, but also the seeds for a lasting friendship. The Jeopardy angle is "cute". This is one of those films I pull out about every 10 years to watch again.I watched it this time, but didn't think the Blu-Ray version was of particularly good quality. Okay, just not Blu-Ray definition.

Jacob Shelow In White Men Can't Jump, Billy Hoyle uses other players' expectations of what a typical street-ball basketball player looks like to his advantage to hustle them. He is a white guy who dresses "like a chump" so that other players doubt that he can play. The first guy that Billy hustles is Sidney, who is one of the best players in the area. These guys join forces as two of the best hustlers to go around and play against whoever is willing and good enough to bet money on a game. The movie very effectively captures the attitudes and atmosphere surrounding this form of basketball, while also incorporating bits of comedy that make the movie more entertaining. As someone who enjoys the game of basketball, this movie was very intriguing to me as it successfully introduced a brand of basketball that I am unfamiliar with. This movie focuses equally on the hustler lifestyle and the everyday troubles these basketball hustlers face as well as the sport of basketball. Sports certainly don't seem to be the only emphasis of this movie, which may steer some viewers away from this movie. If one is looking for a typical basketball movie, then this may not be the movie for you. Although, it still teaches sports fans, specifically basketball fans, about a sports culture that may seem foreign to the majority them, which may be captivating and make this movie worthwhile to others.

johnnyboyz 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.

Spikeopath After Billy Hoyle hustles Sidney Deane on the basketball court, Deane offers Billy a proposition about teaming up to hustle the courts of Los Angeles. They are a great team, they are in fact wonderful players, but egos and greed are sure to become a problem, oh and Billy has some rather unsavoury characters after him to return a debt he owes. Can the boys resolve their differences? Can they keep their devoted women happy? All will be revealed in White Men Can't Jump.White Men Can't Jump is a fine sports movie, offering up more than just a basic sport heart, it's funny, sly and really a rather effective piece of drama. The basketball scenes are very well handled by director Ron Shelton, with slow motion spins and beady drips of sweat glistening in the heat, and the chemistry between Woody Harrelson (Billy) and Wesley Snipes (Sidney) is first class, but really it's the power of Shelton's writing that makes this a most engaging picture (see also Bull Durham & the similarly undervalued Tin Cup).After following these two guys thru their very rocky relationship you get to a point where you feel that we are about to wander down formula road, but Shelton pulls a trick to make the final last quarter an excellent, none conformity piece of film, one that judging by the less than favourable rating on this particular site, has not been wholly appreciated. Shame that, because other than Rosie Perez doing her best to annoy the viewers to death as Billy's suffering girlfriend Gloria Clemente, White Men Can't Jump is one of the better sports movies of the 90s. 7.5/10