Wesley Snipes Movie:

Editorial Review:
Writer-director Ron Shelton's 1992 follow-up to the baseball comedy-drama Bull Durham involves a different sport: basketball, as played on the neighborhood hustler circuit. Woody Harrelson is Billy Hoyle, a good shooter using his white complexion to fool black players into thinking he can be stomped in easy bets. Billy's banter-filled matchup against Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) on a public court leads to a partnership in which Sidney becomes Billy's manager, taking the white outsider on a tour of the tougher sections of Los Angeles, where he plays homeboys for a few bucks. Inevitably, the two come apart over their innate competitiveness, a situation that has to be reevaluated after Billy gets into trouble with some underworld creditors. Meanwhile, Billy's girlfriend (Rosie Perez) sits at home preparing herself for a maybe-someday date appearance on Jeopardy. As with all of Shelton's sports-related movies (Tin Cup, his script for The Best of Times), White Men Can't Jump is less about the fine points of the game than it is the rules by which players survive it. The script is literate and crackling with wit and satire (a scene in which a politician sponsors a black-white "solidarity" game is hilarious). The actors are entirely in sync, and the scenes under and around the hoops are a thrill to watch. --Tom Keogh

White Men Can't Jump [Region 2] Reviews:
Great Movie, how'd I forget?
2009-09-04 - I was scanning the channels one night and "White Men Can't Jump" was on FMC. So I watched it and forgot how good of a movie it was. After it was over I decided this is one for the kids to watch since they never got the chance. Ordered it on Amazon and now it's included in Daves Playlist. Awesome!

Entertaining? Yes. Realistic? No.
2009-08-23 - 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.

white man can't jump
2008-02-17 - The movie was excellant. This is the type of movie to have in your collection.

A very funny movie
2007-07-24 - Woody Harrelson of "Cheers" fame teams up with funnyman Wesley Snipes in a basketball themed movie where the two con their way around LA's basketball courts to earn a living.

My favorite part of the movie is when Billy Hoyle's (Harrelson) girlfriend Gloria Clemente (Rosie Perez) appears as a contestant on the hit quiz show "Jeopardy!" and wins $14,000 thanks to categories she had been studying during the first couple scenes of the movie.

This movie will surely get you laughing when you watch it. I highly recommend it.

White Man CAN Jump
2006-07-02 - I've always enjoyed Ron Shelton's films - well written and directed, and this film features Woody and Wesley in full flow. They make such an ideal couple they did Money Train right after this. But give the script and directing credit. This is a simple but well acted and crafted film. The chemistry is great. I enjoyed watching it again. Feels as fresh as it did the first time...