White Men Can't Jump
Published March 2, 2024
Film info
- Title White Men Can't Jump
- Director Ron Shelton
- Year 1992
- Run time 1hr 55m
- Genres Comedy, Drama
- Tagline It ain't easy being this good
Streetwise Sidney Deane is king of the court, until the arrival of Billy Hoyle threatens his income from beating rival teams. When Billy proves his prowess on court, Sidney decides to dupe him, but soon realises he can make more money working with the pretender to his throne, and the pair set out to take LA by storm.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 1:08 | Definitely a more jazzy start than I was expecting. |
| 4:39 | Having a nap on a basketball seems like an uncomfortable choice. |
| 11:38 | So he does know the score! |
| 14:02 | SOMEONE go first, for goodness’ sake. |
| 19:50 | “How much money did you make today?” No hi or anything. |
| 29:22 | You have to have so much confidence to hustle. |
| 35:30 | His tie-die baseball cap is reminding me of Marty McFly. |
| 39:23 | She’s not wrong about the differences between men and women but if I was thirsty… I would want a glass of water. |
| 51:59 | “All of it. Most of it. Roughly… all of it.” |
| 1:08:06 | This is more of a contact sport than I was expecting. |
| 1:21:33 | Carrying a photo album of people you’ve killed doesn’t seem very smart. |
| 1:28:30 | The format of Jeopardy continues to confound me. |
| 1:35:27 | How can she possibly trust him at all? |
| 1:50:31 | I like them being reluctant friends. |
Thoughts
Recently spotted that there was a remake of this and as the original was made in the 90s, it fitted perfectly into one of our 90s nights. I didn’t know anything about it, and was pleasantly surprised. Overall, I enjoyed the film and it was an entertaining couple of hours, but if I drill down into it, there’s a lot I didn’t really like.
Most of the story is about men being awful to each other and to their better halves, that fragile ego on display at all times. There’s a lot of heckling and chatter which makes it a noisy movie with barely a minute of quiet, and it feels a bit long considering the amount of actual story there is within.
But even with all those complaints, I liked it. Good basketball, great actors, a very 90s vibe.
Rating: 4 / 5