La couleur de l'arnaque

Okay, it's not the best film ever made, but it's an affable little number which'll certainly keep you entertained for an hour and a half. The storyline always seems secondary and the satire's never quite as punchy (ahaha... ha) as it should be, but there are some great comedy moments and a host of memorable characters (Damon Wayans' drawling pot-bellied champ, Peter Berg's peabrained challenger, Jeff Goldblum's rambling TV crusader, John Rhys-Davies' sweaty, foul-mouthed trainer) - and Sam Jackson's permanent big grin is all too infectious. Genuinely funny comedies aren't that easy to come by these days, so this one could definitely be a contender, give it a shot at the title, stick it up your ring etc. I'll get me coat.

I have to admit that when I rented this movie, I was expecting a dumb comedy that would fail to show the reality of boxing. However, this film is a very funny film that also has a rather keen insight into the current state of boxing. Samuel L. Jackson plays a "Don King" type guy that is stuck with the problem of having a champ that might be too good. No one wants to pay to see the guy, because there are no quality fighters out there to challenge him. So, Jackson goes about creating a contender for the champ. What is the one thing you need to get people in the arena to watch? Well, a white challenger of course, experience not necessary. Surely many white Americans will pay to see one of their own knock down the overly cocky, black champ. Berg plays the "Great White Hope." The beauty of this film is the comedic way that it shows the real life corruption in boxing today. Fights are fixed, promotions are staged and very rarely do you have the best fighting the best. Moreover, we as viewers fall into the same trap that boxing fans do. Here you have an unqualified contender, that has no prayer of beating the champ. However, as we see the hype done by these snake oil salesmen, we start to believe that Berg's character actually has a chance to win. If you are a boxing fan, you will love this film, because it is real. Even if you are not a boxing fan, you will enjoy it. Very funny film and great acting performances. Believe the hype!

"The Great White Hype" is a wacky, raucous, and mediocre comedy which pokes fun at what is doubtless pound-for-pound America's most corrupt sport. The film shows the connection between hype and the Pay Per View take in a major boxing event. However, it fails to carve out the players' real personas with sufficient clarity to make the film good satire and deliver a KO blow to the sports bad guys while giving the good guys a spot. A lukewarm watch for the public at large, "...Hype" will be most enjoyed by boxing fans.

"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.

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?!