White Men Can’t Jump - Great B-ball Flick

This is one of my all time favorite movies!  There is just something about playing a little b-ball and talking a lot of smack on the blacktop that gets me going, and brings me back to that time.  The chemistry between Wesley Snipes and Woody Harreldson is great throughout the movie and add greatly to the overall enjoyment.  The only thing that brings this movie down is Rosie Perez, but that’s o.k., it’s a basketball movie!

Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes star as a pair of hoop hustlers in this comedy of friendly rivalry and constant cons.  Even if you are no basketball fan, the film’s many game segments generatesinterest in the personality clashes of its protagonists. Harrelson plays Billy Hoyle, a professed college dropout traveling the country with his girlfriend, Gloria (Rosie Perez), trying to make a buck by betting on his own prowess as a basketball player in pickup games.

Billy owes money to loan sharks and hoodlums who are after him for thousands of dollars they lost when Billy decided not to throw a game for them. It seems like the goons are spending more than thousands chasing Billy from one side of the nation to the other, but it’s a plot gimmick that helps drive the story. Gloria, in a further stab at quirkiness, is forever memorizing trivia from old almanacs in the hope of one day being called as a contestant on “Jeopardy.”

During a free-throw bet on a court on California’s Venice Beach, Billy meets Sidney Deane (Snipes), another basketball hustler. Besides picking up money on ball games, Sidney works as a part-time building contractor while trying to finance a new house for his wife and kid. When Billy and Sidney meet, they see a hustling partnership in the works, a black player and a white player, the white guy playing the nerdy geek who doesn’t look like he’d be able to dribble except through his teeth. The film follows their ups and downs in games, their hustles, their personal squabbling, their outright fights, and their continual wise cracks.

Admittedly, the formula is hackneyed and could get tiresome quickly if it weren’t for the energy of its stars and the inventive style of its writer-director, Ron Shelton. Shelton, you may recall, was the fellow responsible for “Bull Durham,” the sprightly Kevin Costner comedy about baseball. Shelton does much the same thing with “White Men Can’t Jump,” keeping the punchy dialogue and clever repartee going at a healthy clip. Mainly, though, he deals with character. Sidney is the cooler, more quick-witted of the two men, so bright, in fact, that it’s hard to understand why he wastes so much of his time trying to con people out of a few bucks on a basketball court instead of pursuing his contracting job. Maybe he just likes the game or likes the danger. Billy, on the other hand, is hotheaded and none too sharp, seemingly dimwitted at times. He loses his temper easily and can’t for the life of him keep cash in his pocket, most of which he loses to Sidney. He lives by a romantic code of honor among thieves; it’s OK to victimize somebody you don’t know, but you must never cheat your partner.