Hulu Movie Review: White Men Can't Jump

Somewhere in a typical Hollywood producer’s office, there might be a checklist to determine the criteria for deciding to do a remake of any movie. One criterion might be the passage of time, the popularity of the movie, the times the movie has been shown on Cable TV, the references to the movie on social media, and its box office profits when it was first released.

For those of us who remember the original “White Men Can’t Jump” released in late March 1992, it’s impossible to believe that 31 years have passed. This original movie is one of the best sports movies ever made, and probably the best of its kind ever produced about Basketball. White Men Can’t Jump starred, Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes and their personal friendship was evident in their chemistry during this story. The basketball scenes during this film were also outstanding, showing some of the impressive basketball skills of both Harrelson and Snipes during the many contests and games. Actress Rosie Perez was also outstanding in her role as Harrelsons girlfriend and dealing with his constant gambling. The IMDB rating for the original White Men Can’t Jump is 6.8 out of 10.

Unfortunately, the IMDB rating for this new version is only 3.9 out of 10. The reason for this is while there are some good ideas in this new film and it is not just a duplicate of the original, the story, and humorous dialogue are not strong enough to compare favorably to the original movie. One of the checklists missing in this remake attempt is that the screenplay was not good enough to even consider making this remake from the start.

This new version stars rapper Jack Harlow, and Sinqua Walls as the two main characters. They have OK chemistry together but nothing memorable. I did appreciate the decision to use some of the same famous Los Angeles venues for this remake but the most surprising thing about this remake is that the basketball scenes are not nearly as good as they are in the original film.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this remake are way too low 29%, with my rating around 50% and a pass.