White Men Can't Jump

 

White Men Can’t Jump 1992

• Director: Ron Shelton
• Seen by this director: Bull Durham
• Cast: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Wesley Snipes – Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues
• Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Glass Castle, The Hunger Games x 4, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, Zombieland, A Scanner Darkly, A Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EdTV, The Thin Red Line
• Rosie Perez – Riding in Cars with Boys, Fearless, Night on Earth, Do the Right Thing
• Tyra Ferell – Jungle Fever, Boyz n the Hood
• Why? A favourite. The cast.
• Seen: Twice before. Now 22 May 2021      

       Billy (Harrelson) has no trouble with self-confidence. He’s the best basketball player on Venice Beach in LA. Sez he. But Sid (Snipes) and everyone else in the world know that white men can’t jump. And besides he’s the best.

       A match made in heaven.

       They set out making money pretending that they can’t play. But who’s hustling who?

       The quick snappy dialog is funny, but it doesn’t ignore racism, sexism and poverty.

       Snipes and Harrelson are great, but the real star is Perez as Billy’s smart and smart-mouth girlfriend Gloria who is going to triumph magnificently on Jeopardy because she’s stuffing herself with more useless facts than anyone in the universe, which she declares in the thickest Brooklyn accent you have ever heard in your life, even if you’re from Brooklyn yourself. She raises an entertaining 3* film to 

4* of 5