#4: White Men Can't Jump (1992) PREAMBLE
I love sport and by extension i cant resist sports movies. In the 90s like all other people my age, i loved basketball. Maybe it was because channel four had the Sunday morning highlights show with Mark Webster, who was (and still is) cool and the game seemed good, Michael Jordan, Scotty Pippen, Charles Barkley etc etc, all those names still stick in my head so it obviously made an impression and NBA Jam was the computer game of choice, 2on2 b-ball it was and it was magic. Around that time though, White Men Can't Jump would be making its terrestial TV premiere and i, the big massive basketball junkie i was at the time, watched it.
40 WORDS OR SO
Sports comedy about a couple of mismatched basketball hustlers conning their way across the LA courts.
REVIEW
When i picked up the DVD box to re watch this after some years my abiding memory was that Rosie Perez was an annoying wee bitch in this! The glass of water pish (vid below) and the quote which i think i have always remembered wrong "you lost (she pronounces it loawst) all our fucking money Billy (again she pronounces it Bell-ee)" Yes these things plus every other scene she featured in that i could remember were enough to make my testicles retract into my stomach.
Well i was wrong, watching this now as a grown up i realise that she isn't that bad, in fact her performance is pretty good and you certainly feel for her as her man, Bell-ee played by Woody Harrleson is a complete chump. i suppose that is another thing that i didn't realise when watching this as a teenager, WMCJ is about two basketball hustlers, Bell-ee and Sidney (Wesley Snipes) who are pretty damn cool, playing basketball all day. But in reality they are weak weak men, who have their women at their backs to keep them on the straight and narrow, White Men cant jump is actually a film about weak men, i said it and thus its true. it comes across as a comedy, two mismatched foes that become pals, one a white chump the other a superfly black guy, they con other players on the LA courts to make some cash and crack jokes about players mommas along the way. But in both their backgrounds they have women who are the strength of their relationships.
White Men Can't Jump is a different beast to most sports comedies, the generic bringing together of a dispirit bunch of no hopers to a championship or something, an inspiring coach who brings the best out of the underachievers. You know the kind. No, White Men at time concentrates more on looking good than winning, in fact this is how it deals witht he race issues inherent in its structure, Harrelson is basically the token white guy in bermuda shorts and grey tshirts, and Snipes in his baggy vest and flipped up hat (cool in 92 i am sure). a great scene is where they escape from gertting shot in Harrelsons motor driven by Perez and discuss hpow white guys dont get Jimmy Hendrix. The listen to it, they cant hear it, Snipes Sidney crows. That said there is a rather strange subplot that has perez's character studying and getting on gameshow Jepoardy which fits in too nice to the story but hey, its a film thats what happens.
What i am trying to say is that this film has been written off as a basketball movie, but its not, the basketball is merely the catalyst for the action (is this a maguffin, i am never sure) this is a film about human weakness and it is dealt with superbly. It has what looks like career turns from both its leads with terrific support from the rest of the cast and also the great LA landscape.
THE TOP 100, WHERE AND WHY
I am going to slide this one in under Grosse Point Blank and over Galaxy Quest. Its a good sports movie thats more than a sports movie, is there a better genre? Also for the simple reason, its not as good as GPB and i havent seen Galaxy Quest. To make up for that rather pathetic why i have hyperlinked the other films reviews in the series for ease of navigation, cos thats the kinda guy i am.
1. The Hudsucker Proxy
2. Grosse Point Blank
3. White Men Can't Jump
4. Galaxy Quest
Ruud Kerouac
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