White Men Can’t Jump (1992)

Directed by Ron Shelton. Starring Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes, Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferrell, Kadeem Hardison, Cylk Cozart, Marques Johnson, Ernest Harden Jr., John Marshall Jones, Frank Rossi, Eloy Casados. [R]

Harrelson and Snipes are credible and match up well as two streetball hustlers who join forces to make some cold hard cash at various L.A. outdoor courts, but their scheme and partnership are tested by their personal problems—Snipes is pressured by his wife to get a house in a better neighborhood, while Harrelson is untrustworthy with money and has mobsters after him over unpaid gambling debts. Writer/director Shelton clearly knows the territory, and although the basketball action tends to become repetitive (if not outright redundant), the colorful and very profane trash talk is entertaining all the way, the implication being that two different “games” are being played at the same time, one testing physical skill, the other testing verbal dexterity—it’s a rare sports-themed production where we’d rather hear the players jaw and waste time than actually compete. The wild card is Perez as Harrelson’s animated girlfriend, whose obsession with the game show “Jeopardy!” leads to one of the most novel (and least likely) tweaks to formula; a little of her goes a long way, but she’s utilized strategically to break up the hustling scenes with a combination of motor-mouthed nagging and spicy warmth, and then recede for a spell, perhaps to recharge her batteries. Alex Trebek appears as himself.

70/100