Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

SnoopyStyle 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.

FilmBuff1994 White Men Can't Jump is a good movie with a well written storyline and a great comedic cast.Its not an outstanding comedy,but it has plenty of funny scenes and there is good chemistry between Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes.The movie is almost two hours long which I think is certainly too long for a comedy like this,the plot definitely felt tiring after a while.Wesley Snipes was a really good comedic actor in this,I liked him even more than Harrelson,which says a lot because I'm a huge fan of Woody Harrelson,Snipes was really funny and confident and he definitely should have starred in more comedies.White Men Can't Jump is a good movie that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good comedy if they got some time to kill.A con artist who hustles basketball games joins forces with a talented player to double their chances.Best Performance: Wesley Snipes

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.

Dennis Littrell 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!)