I’m going against my personal rule and I am not watching the original before the remake. My reasoning is that as a remake, it is meant to be viewed on its own. Starring Jack Harlow and Sinqua Walls, White Men Can’t Jump follows two basketball hustlers entering a two-on-two to win big. Directed by Calmatic, who remade House Party earlier this year, White Men Can’t Jump debuted on Hulu on May 19th.
Without comparing this to the original, I don’t think this movie is that bad. But the dialogue is super cliche and stereotypical. It sort of felt like it was written for the 90s but with enough pop culture references and cameos to be relevant today. There were a handful of conversations that felt so painful to listen to, almost like they ripped it straight from the NBA 2k video game’s MyPlayer mode, along with the story. To make it worse, the same jokes are used repeatedly, and I didn’t find them funny to start with.
The acting wasn’t that great either. Harlow and Walls had their moments and I really think the writing hampered them. They had some decent chemistry, and they were able to dive deeper into their characters than I would’ve expected. The side characters of White Men Can’t Jump, however, weren’t that memorable at all besides knowing who they really were, except for Lance Reddick.
What makes this movie somewhat enjoyable are the basketball scenes. They clearly spent a great deal of effort on that. Harlow and Walls can hoop and I’m glad they let the scenes of them playing last long. They also felt excellent and were extremely fluid, and the extras brought in for those scenes were also good hoopers. While I think the movie does drag its feet because of these scenes, I’d rather watch them play pickup than do anything else.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, White Men Can’t Jump isn’t that special, but I thought it had its moments. It has the “watch while doing chores” value that I can appreciate. But how good can it be if a movie is at its best when you aren’t paying attention to it?
