Product Details

• Actors: Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferrell, Cylk Cozart
• Directors: Ron Shelton
• Writers: Ron Shelton
• Producers: David V. Lester, Don Miller, Michele Rappaport
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 2, 1996
• Run Time: 115 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302459702
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,416 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Writer-director Ron Shelton's 1992 follow-up to the baseball comedy-drama Bull Durham involves a different sport: basketball, as played on the neighborhood hustler circuit. Woody Harrelson is Billy Hoyle, a good shooter using his white complexion to fool black players into thinking he can be stomped in easy bets. Billy's banter-filled matchup against Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes) on a public court leads to a partnership in which Sidney becomes Billy's manager, taking the white outsider on a tour of the tougher sections of Los Angeles, where he plays homeboys for a few bucks. Inevitably, the two come apart over their innate competitiveness, a situation that has to be reevaluated after Billy gets into trouble with some underworld creditors. Meanwhile, Billy's girlfriend (Rosie Perez) sits at home preparing herself for a maybe-someday date appearance on Jeopardy. As with all of Shelton's sports-related movies (Tin Cup, his script for The Best of Times), White Men Can't Jump is less about the fine points of the game than it is the rules by which players survive it. The script is literate and crackling with wit and satire (a scene in which a politician sponsors a black-white "solidarity" game is hilarious). The actors are entirely in sync, and the scenes under and around the hoops are a thrill to watch. --Tom Keogh

From The New Yorker

A resourceful, sneaky-fast comedy about playground basketball. Ron Shelton, the writer and director, focusses on grown men trying to make a living at a boy's game, and he does full justice to the sweet absurdity of that enterprise. He keeps his eye on the fine points of playground culture and lets the story's meaning-and its humor-emerge from the details. The heroes, Sidney (Wesley Snipes) and Billy (Woody Harrelson), are addicted to the game. As a two-man team, they venture into the tough, hostile inner-city neighborhoods of Los Angeles and try to hustle the kings of the local courts. It's a great con: everyone assumes that Billy can't play the speedy, shake-and-bake style of black playground ball. Shelton and his crew (which includes cinematographer Russell Boyd and the editor Paul Seydor) have put together basketball sequences that capture the free-flowing rhythms of the game. The two-on-two contests here give us the delicious feeling a player gets when he's almost out of control: flying but lucid. Harrelson's performance is rich, subtle, and delicately funny. And Snipes is just amazing: everything he does seems to leap off the screen. Shelton orchestrates the narrative like a veteran point guard: he's a wily pro with a streak of playground showmanship, and that's an ideal style for movies as well as for basketball. The picture has a generous spirit and a deep appreciation of play, and it moves with a distinctive funky grace: it takes things as they come and trusts itself to handle them. Also with Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferrell, Kadeem Hardison, and Marques Johnson. The terrific soundtrack features music by Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and Ray Charles. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Classic comedy that rocketed 2 stars to fame, June 13, 2000

By 

David P. Chesher (Kansas City, Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Men Can't Jump (DVD)

If you like basketball at all, you're going to love this movie. If you like to make fun of your friends, you're going to love this movie. Witty comedy that doesn't offend (that's hard to come by these days).

Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) is a street-wise basketball player with something to prove. He heads to Venice Beach to hustle big-time players for money. Hoyle bites off more than he can chew when he meets up with Sydney Dean (Wesley Snipes) and becomes the victim of a hustle himself. However, Dean and Hoyle can't deny the bond of friendship between them, no matter how hard they try. When Billy loses his girlfriend because he loses all of their money and Dean's home is robbed they turn to each other for the solution...the ultimate pick-up game vs the legends: Eddie "The King" Farooq and "Duck" Johnson. $2500 to play, winner take all. Do they win? Well, as Gloria would tell you, "Sometimes when you win, you really lose. Sometimes when you lose, you really win. And sometimes when you win or lose you actually tie. And sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose." Yeah, it's confusing. But that's the way it ends.

Classic comedy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now that's how you make a film, October 26, 2005

By 

Ronnie Clay "R.C." (Winnsboro, Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Men Can't Jump (DVD)

This film has got to be one of the best I've ever seen. Right from the beginning when Billy and Sydney are first introduced to each other it is undeniably pure genius. It has many different elements to it all brilliantly done comedy, drama, romance and of course the best of them all - basketball. I love hearing the trash talking out on the courts.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not spectacular, but it's an alright movie, December 3, 2000

By 

jasenao (Dothan, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: White Men Can't Jump [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"White Men Can't Jump" is a pretty good movie. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson both have their lives fall apart in some way after they lose all their money, and all they have to turn to for help is being basketball hustlers and working as a team at that.

"White Men Can't Jump" does have a few funny parts to it, but it doesn't have as much comedy as you might think. Snipes and Harrelson both discover the highs and lows of being basketball hustlers while they show their skills on the basketball courts and in life. The basketball sequences of the movie are somewhat exciting, but they're not the best parts of the movie. However, the movie did keep me interested the whole time I was watching it. If you like basketball movies or if you just want to see an alright movie, I would recommend watching "White Men Can't Jump." You'll find out one thing from watching it at least, some white men can jump.