Barnes & Noble

After going deep with Bull Durham, director Ron Shelton took it to the hole with this glimpse inside the world of basketball. This is not the glossy NBA model, or the nominally less glossy NCAA model, but the smack-talking world of street hoops in L.A., where hustlers Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) and Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) make their livings on blacktop. Hoyle is slow, Deane is quick; Hoyle shoots better than he jumps, Deane jumps better than he shoots. First on-court rivals, then allies (although, in the Shelton tradition, trash is still talked with reckless abandon), the two try to play their way to financial success, if only to satisfy their significant others (Rosie Perez and Tyra Ferrell, respectively). While the movie's fashions haven't dated especially well, the dialogue still pops with profane life and the basketball sequences have much more zing than most NBA highlight reels. Snipes stands out as Sidney: He seems to be having a blast here, certainly more fun that he's had in the 20-or-so movies he's made since. Lively and audacious with enough spirit to make up for its lack of big bodies in the middle, White Men Can't Jump has as much game today as it ever did. Dave Roth

All Movie Guide

Ron Shelton (Bull Durham) wrote and directed the basketball-oriented seriocomedy White Men Can't Jump. Woody Harrelson plays Billy Hoyle, a white con artist who hustles basketball games with black players, lulling his victims into the misguided notion that white men can't match up with black hoopsters. One of his victims, African-American Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), becomes Hoyle's "agent," arranging his various inner city scams. Deane doesn't feel as though he's selling out his own people; he goes along with Hoyle to provide a better life for his wife, Rhonda (Tyra Ferrell), and son. The film breezes through several zany sequences, including one liberal-baiting satirical moment set at a black/white "solidarity" basketball game arranged by an ambitious politician. Crooked gamblers intrude upon the last scenes of the film, but Hoyle is rescued by his girlfriend, Gloria (Rosie Perez), a Jeopardy freak who realizes a lifelong dream by winning big on the Alex Trebek-hosted game show. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 024543005346
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:55:00
• Sales Rank: 20,244