For many reasons, I questioned the idea of remaking a classic 90s film like White Men Can’t Jump. Much like the other 90s Hip Hop film remake this year, House Party, some of the issues with remaking this is that so much has changed, and so much of the core of the film’s charm and heart is connected to that early 90s world. The first one came out when Jordan was going for his second championship; the Dream Team hadn’t played yet, and New York rap was still working its way back to prominence after the explosion of G-Funk. Basketball was a bit rougher, publicly, in terms of trash talk and play. The slam dunk was king, and seeing Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Rosie Perez was a perfect odd couple combination. That film was more about these two people learning to be friends and trust each other after their egos basically messed up their lives. This film was also about hustling out here from the people they played to each other. It has so many Black actors that were favs of Black audiences. It’s easily one of the best Basketball movies ever made as it showed not only ball in a great light in how it’s shot and framed but also the feeling of street ball and how it’s different from organized gym play. On top of all that, it’s a beautiful LA movie.
That brings us to this movie, one where it feels like they stunt cast the popular white rapper of the day to fill the shoes of a great actor and also for many wondering if this could work. We don’t even wonder if a white person can dunk now and everyone can shoot the three ball, from the smallest guard to the biggest big. So what is this movie about? Well, it’s similar in the fact that it’s about these two different people learning to be friends and coming together to achieve a goal that there is a cash prize, yet it’s very much about basketball as we think of it now. This is a pure sports movie. Sinqua Walls plays Kamal, a young man who is a star high school prospect that things did not go the way they expected. He’s shouldering guilt from feeling he’s letting his father down and not living up to his potential to even denying how much he loves the game to a certain degree. Jack Harlow plays Jeremy, a former college star player who had a pretty bad injury that he’s trying to find any medicinal way of overcoming and returning to playing the game he loves at any cost. With both needing funds to cover things in their lives, they decide to team up after playing each other in a pick-up game.
To me, a lot of this film is about these two young men overcoming these traumatic events in their youth that cause them to stagnate in their adulthood. Kamal can’t achieve his potential unless he forgives himself and actually goes for what he wants, while Jeremy needs to accept his fate and focus on what he’s good at now with his knowledge of the game. I think Walls and Harlow work well together, as well as Teyana Taylor and Laura Harrier as Imani and Tatiana as the respective love interests of our main characters. Both add believability to the relationships, and Harrier brings the right amount of heaviness to her character in her dynamic with Harlow. Calmatic, the director, does a great job filming the basketball. He also directed the earlier mentioned House Party remake this year, and in both, I feel he has a good handle on comedy. He also does a fantastic job of showing off Los Angeles, and the city always looks beautiful. I must also take note of Myles Bullock and Vince Staples as Kamal’s friends, and they feel to take the over-the-top comedic friend that Kadeem Hardison played in the original. They gave me a chuckle each time on the screen. Also, the late Lance Reddick plays Kamal’s father, Benji, who starts out referencing Lavar Ball, the famous basketball dad of the Ball brothers. Then it’s able to turn into a more fuller role that Reddick is perfectly played.
Now I have one issue, and it’s one that people who have read my reviews for a bit, and it’s Kenya Barris. He co-wrote the film, and for me, it has too many White people and Black people are different, and there is conflict and jokes about it over and over throughout it. This movie has more White guys are like, and Black guys are like this jokes than the 30-year-old movie from 1992. That movie was way more subtle with its race-odd couple jokes, and that movie came out a month before the uprising. I feel the performers, the story’s theme, and plain old good-looking basketball helps to pull away from this. It’s just something for me that, after watching his stuff over the years from Black-ish on that, is getting old like this is getting to be a bit much for other Black folks, my guy. Now with all that being said, I hope people give this a chance, as I think this can work for those who loves the old one and for current folks that want to see a basketball comedy. It was a really good time.
Score: B