Sick Product of a Sick System

Memorable, crazy movie

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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 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.

A movie that on the surface appears to be about sport - basketball- has a much deeper undertone if you look closer, a movie that uses the sport as a metaphor for the distinctions between blacks and whites in America. I've always loved this movie, i first saw it many years ago when i was about 14 and felt the wit and chemistry between harrelson and snipes is top notch, now im older i see things i didn't see before. Personally i feel you can take the movie in two ways. you either see it as a buddy comedy or a movie which shows how blacks and whites view each other. the way in which snipes is presented may be a cliché - black man, ultra confident, feels that coz hes black hes better than harrelson - but is this a cliché? most of the black guys in the movie feel that harrelsons character billy is a 'chump', and are quick to put him down. even the movies title 'white men cant jump' is a thinly vieled reference to the viewpoint of black America. this is not a racist perspective, its simply how it is, sidney (snipes) even gets into a discussion with harrelson about jimmy hendrix, about his apparently white drummer and how billy cant listen to hendrix, he can only hear him. billy for his part, uses the fact that hes a white guy to his advantage when he and snipes are hustling. these class colour elements serve to make white men cant jump a far better movie than it is given credit for, and is worth a better look if you think its just another sports comedy. David Ford

'White Men Can't Jump' borrows from several well-worn movie genres: the con-trick movie, the sports movie, the odd-couple movie; and plays with racial and sexual stereotypes as well. But Ron Shelton's film, about a pair of basketball hustlers, buzzes with such energy and fizz that you really don't mind, and the cast led by Woody Harrelson (who plays a man frequently as stupid as he looks) and Wesley Snipes (a huckster with a day job) play off each other with aplomb. Moreover, there's a fundamental honesty behind the comedy: the film's treatment of racial subjects may be lightweight, but not false. There's even a fun soundtrack as a bonus; I found it an unexpected pleasure to watch.