White Men Can't Jump

Here is a charmless remake that has the same ideas and characters as the original, but none of the energy. Director Calmatic's idea of a sports film is to put a rap soundtrack on and show us poorly shot and edited basketball scenes that are tedious to follow and care.

There are lots of rambling in this movie. This is not neccessarily a complaint. There are lots and lots of trashtalk in the original White Men Can't Jump too, except those are brought with wit and delivered by actors that know how to act intimidating and over-confident. The actors here are as flat as a cardboard. Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrellson are way out of Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow's league.

So the story involves Harlow and Walls teaming up to play basketball. That's about it for the movie's depth in storytelling. The screenplay here has barely any emotional engagement. In the climax of the movie, in what was supposedly the high point of the movie, I felt nothing. Any other viewer will not feel anything. Not even our characters look like they felt anything. It's all a lazy string of basketball montages and dialogue so monotonous and uninteresting that it plays like a conversation you are stuck in and want to get out of.

This is a movie that thinks it has really cool vibe but is just a slog. Calmatic's previous film is House Party, another remake of a (somewhat) classic. Maybe it is time for him to work with material that are at least original. Maybe remakes like this shouldn't exist for the best.

Is this the greatest movie ever made? No.

Is it the greatest remake ever? Also no.

Was it a fun watch? Absolutely!

If you can just understand that this borrows the premise and setting from the original and understand that this is its own movie you will enjoy it so much more. Quit trying to compare it against the original. It really has some great dialogue and witty humor. The basketball scenes are fun and the drama seems believable.

Jack Harlow did a great job and was a believable hustler. Sinqua Walls really killed it and gave some serious heart.

Just go into this expecting to have fun and be entertained and you won't be disappointed.

I don't know why anyone thought this was a good idea because the original White Men Can't Jump is great with two characters played by two actors that are almost impossible to replicate. The chemistry between Walls and Harlow is cheesy at best. Wesley Snipes who apparently is not a good basketball player and they ran most of his basketball scenes in show motion especially that spin move that would never work against anyone still looks better than anything they were doing in this with people that are not bad ball players from what I've been told. Then there is Woody. Woody and Snipes were perfect and terrible together, but in a believable way. You could see them being life long best friends even after all the awful things they did to each other afterwards. I fell like I just reviewed the original against the new one and that's the very reason why this isn't going to be popular at all. It will be compared to the original because the original is a time capsule of sorts and beloved by most everyone. If you haven't seen the original watch it. Skip this. If you have hulu give this one a go I guess, but do not spend money on it.

I will say up front I didn't see the entire movie. I watched for 40 minutes and I had to turn it off! TOTALLY depressing movie. No fun, no excitement, just two lousy, bum dudes talking a lot of crap.

The first WMCJ was fun, had great realistic basketball action, romantic and sad all at the same time. It was a great movie from the opening scene until the end. This here, don't waste your time! Neither dude looks or moves like a baller. ESPECIALLY the black dude! He was so mis-cast in this movie. All he does is snarl, frown and be depressed. And he is the FURTHEST thing from a baller you could find. He's really not that good of an actor. I've seen him in other stuff and same role. Always a jerk. Nothing likeable about him at all. Together they have no chemistry and they definitely aren't funny like Woody & Wesley. The movie just went nowhere and I found zero joy in the 40 min I watched.

I'm sure most people will give it a watch based on the original but you'll see...

SKIP!

If you've seen the original, seriously, don't waste your time. It doesn't come close!

The best thing about this was Andrew Schulz and a few of the jokes scattered throughout the film.

To be honest this misses the mark and is just an average film, I know they had to change it up compared to the original, modernise it etcetera and they did that well, although in an annoying way, in my opinion, but I'm old enough to remember the original lol...

Which is a classic and still stands up today, there was no reason for a remake. This is just an average streaming film about basketball.

I'm trying to be vague here to avoid spoilers, but it feels like there's none of the ICONIC moments from the original, a lot of content and story missed out. It doesn't even feel like it's about the 2 of them, one is an extra in the others story and now the title doesn't even make sense...

Some okay acting performances and some of the soundtrack was alright I have to admit, but other than that nothing stands out.

The original is streaming for free as well, personally I feel like I've wasted an hour and a half odd, when I could have just watched the original, but I had to find out for myself since I'm a huge Schulz fan and he's mentioned it on Flagrant.

5/10 bang average streaming film, the funny moments saved it from being lower than that!