La couleur de l'arnaque

First of all, this movie is funny. Even if you're not an insider to the world of boxing, this film makes many references you'll recognize and goes over the top with it and with some of the flamboyant people who have graced the sport.

Then there is the whole idea of finding a white boxer, besides the obligatory "Rocky" that is, that people can get behind to breathe new life into the sport.

Here you have every stereotype of that world thrown in from the promoters to the media personnel who made boxing what it is today -- Hype.

Here is a promoter who is keeping his client from fighting the one guy who can actually beat him (hence ruin their meal tickets), to come up with someone else to make Hype and recover funds he already spent that he can't pay the boxing champ. That among other things. Samuel L. Jackson is fun to watch as is Jeff Goldblum and Jamie Fox and Damon Wayons as the over-hyped champ. Rounding this out is the usual bottom feeders played well by Jon Lovitz and Corbin Bernsen. This movie can be uneven at times, but overall its entertainment, and a sarcastic view into the boxing promotion world like no other. Two stars out of four.

The situation is perfect. It's one of the movies where there is nothing bad to refer to. It's about only one match, and how it exposes the contradictions of this world; which's here the community of boxing. I loved how the whole characters declare something moral while achieving their hidden, so materialistic, aims. In fact, the shown scene is for America when money is god, and 99 % of the Americans are so godly!

The casting is the movie's biggest hit; everyone was in the right place. The script is lissome, coming to its point without any elongation. The characters are made in a way that suits the desired in this drollery of a movie. It harmonies smartly, carrying out itself as enjoyable, being an enough compensation from director (Reginald Hudlin) for his previous, real bad, movie (Boomerang - 1992).

It was so good to an extent that forces you to ask why it was that short? Why the gifted supporting actors (Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, Jamie Foxx,..) didn't have more on-screen time with more material? Actually, it's not basically a comedy inasmuch as a satire; that could bother some I suppose, since the funniness wasn't as high as the sarcastic criticism, with comic actors around while not making many laughs. However, it said all what (Oliver Stone)'s surely heavier, louder, and longer movie (Any Given Sunday - 1999) stretched and overload, 3 years later, and in focused nice way as well.

(The Great White Hype) is a jest where the substance is itself the surface totally unlike the world it sneered at. It's only imperfect point is that some jests can't be used more than once. So, despite how I liked it, I may find nothing in it to be re-watched again, except for (Damon Wayans) running after the ice cream's van of course!

Finally, do I smell a point of view in the title about how the great hype is "white" in the first place?!

"The Great White Hype" soundtrack was the first soundtrack I ever bought. I think it's one of only two or three I've ever purchased. But never mind the soundtrack we're talking about the movie.

TGWH was funny and entertaining especially if you are a boxing fan. It's particularly funny if you can see certain personalities in the various characters. Reverend Fred Sultan (Samuel L. Jackson) was a Don King type of promoter who was fleecing his fighters. James "The Grim Reaper" Roper (Damon Wayans) was a Mike Tyson type of fighter, almost too dominant. Terry Conklin (Peter Berg) was pretty much every white heavyweight in the 80's and 90's. And all of the rest of the characters, from the entourage, to the challenger, to the various other boxing industry characters--they were all lampoons of the real deal.

As a boxing fan, and as a fan of all of the actors in this movie, I enjoyed it.

IMO, this movie was severely underrated for its time. It was purposefully cheesy, but precisely insightful (even prescient) about a wide array of problems within boxing, as well as about the use of racist rhetoric and promotion to fuel sales. Today, we have seen the explosion of the internet and social media take these concepts to a new, terrifying level.

The entire cast was excellent, leaning into the cheesiness of their roles and script, but doing so in a very funny way. Three standouts for me: Jackson's performance as the devious yet charismatic master promoter was delightful; Peter Berg is great as an idealist whose good heart but dim wits get used as the center-piece for one of the very things he hates most; and Salli Richardson-Whitfield is absolutely stunning both in her beauty and in her commanding presence despite her male-dominated environment.

A *major* disappointment, especially considering the great cast (Jeff Goldblum aside. I *hate* Goldblum - he's a one-dimensional actor who plays the same bloody character every film he makes and it's not even a good character!!) Samuel Jackson, Damon Wayans, Jamie Foxx, Jon Lovitz (okay, he's also one-dimensional, but *his* character's *funny*!!) and Corbin Bernson...this should be an ace in the hole! But a poor script and worse shooting makes this film hit ground zero pretty fast. It's sloppy, it's long-winded, it shouldn't be shorter, it just needs to be put together more strongly. For example: the Goldblum interview scenes are all horrific. They should be canned or completely redone (preferably with a better actor;).

And it's a comedy yet it's decidedly un-funny. Wayans elicits a laugh or two, and Foxx is amusing...but these two guys should be good for non-stop laughs! And Jackson is almost *too* smooth for this role. He's also much too brilliant an actor...he's poorly suited for a role that's not nearly as competent as he is.

All in all: I actually liked this better the second time I saw it (which isn't saying that much). It's more amusing than I remember it to be. But that's still not enough. It's hardly a keeper - with this kind of cast (oh, by the way - nice cameo by Method Man but someone shoot Brian Setzer PLEASE!!!) it could be SO SO SO much better! 5/10.