Ron Shelton’s 1992 comedy white men can’t jump A true cold classic. Three movie stars, Wesley Snipes, Rosie Perez and Woody Harrelson, top the list. It’s an entertaining movie that spends a lot of time hanging out on a basketball court in Venice Beach, where the characters talk endlessly about nonsense and even play killer hoops. And it’s a multi-layered character drama, with racial tension being one of several layers in a story about hustlers and trust.
2023 remake version white men can’t jump, directed by Calm, It’s a much simpler comeback story. Kamal Allen (Sinqua Walls) is a former basketball prodigy who ended up in college baseball when she got into a brawl and ended up in jail. Ten years later, Kamal balances his time between working as a delivery driver, working with his girlfriend Imani (Teyana Taylor) and her kids, and picking up balls in the high school gym. .
Here he meets Jeremy White rapper Jack Harlow), an unemployed man with many side jobs, an obsession with juice cleansing, and a personal style that has been described as an Instagram hippie.
Photo: Parish Lewis/20th Century Studios
Jeremy loves basketball. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the NBA and college balls, and despite having surgery to repair two ACL tears that still cause pain, he sees his future somewhere in the game. I believe. (Thus, the juice cleanses.) Jeremy is also really nasty, and his inability to act as a serious person, coupled with his killer shot, makes him an unlikely ringer on the court. In time, Kamal teams up with him to play pick-up games for money.
Written by Kenya Barris and Doug Hall, 2023 white men can’t jump “Remake” is just a name, and it is a gut repair that someone decided that the “repair” part was not necessary. The result is a movie with missing teeth. A clichéd tale of a great man, derailed by anger, who learns something from his struggling white teammate and rewards them by learning to take one or two things in life seriously. .
2023, when style and substance are confused white men can’t jump Focusing squarely on basketball, it recedes its characters into near-nonsense. There is no hustle and bustle in the busyness of the characters. They just place their bets and play against whom they think they can win. The risks involved in deceiving people (used in the original film to give the story a sense of urgency and stakes) are absent in the new film.
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Photo: Parish Lewis/20th Century Studios
Frankly, Kamal and Jeremy are no match for the original 1992 version of Sydney and Billy. They look like Jack Harlow’s blue-eyed gaze. Nice on the court, but hollow between the ears. Their romantic subplot is like a sitcom, in which they easily put basketballs on people they care about, and the originals used the women as foils, and their charisma and charm were the only things that made them stand out. It is very different from the efforts of men trying to get ahead. basketball.
the strangest decision white men can’t jump It’s in Jeremy’s torn anterior cruciate ligament. This is a character trait that exists primarily to make the film’s title literal. Jeremy, the eponymous white man, is simply incapable of jumping. If the movie calls for it, he can do it. As with many ideas presented in a movie script, the subsequent plot places little faith in it. It’s full of jokes that it’s no longer surprising that a white boy can hit a ball, as if that was the sole point of the original film (which, by the way, already made it to basketball greats). It was released for the first time in the year when Larry Bird, who was prospering as one of the .
It’s nearly impossible to find a heartfelt appreciation for an original work white men can’t jump with something new. Scenes are reinterpreted and referenced, but the remake isn’t built to do what the original did. a particular one A relationship between a white man and a very specific person of a different racial background. Every dialogue in the original film has meaning. You can study conversations like a good ball player studies their opponent’s game. In the new film, it’s all Jack Harlow pitifully mumbling that there are jokes he can’t tell because he’s white, and hopes the audience will laugh like they’ve never heard this self-awareness.
original white men can’t jump The film is still worth watching 31 years later because of its idiosyncrasies. It stays in the conversation and keeps the entire basketball game going. Watching Wesley Snipes’ portrayal of Sydney move from scene to scene, he becomes a different person in front of Billy, in front of his wife Rhonda (Tyra Ferrell), and both. It’s a complete portrait of a complex human being. It appears when you sweat in your coat.
The same applies to Billy, played by Harrelson. Billy isn’t necessarily racially enlightened, but she’s someone who’s aware of the dynamics going on in spaces different from hers. For him, basketball is a direct expression of deeper pride, which he continues to hold back while his girlfriend Gloria (Rosie Perez) blatantly tries to communicate with him.
new white men can’t jump Everyone probably has a hard time keeping it in their minds the day after they see it. All character interactions are straightforward, and all motivations and weaknesses are voiced. All jokes are aimed at the camera, not the characters. The result is a movie that the viewer has virtually nothing to think about. Maybe in 31 years someone will try again.
new white men can’t jump is streaming on Hulu. The OG 1992 version is on Hulu and can be rented or purchased. Amazon, vuduand streamed on other digital platforms Free with ads on Roku Channel.
