White Men Can’t Jump

Once again we are hallowed with another remake based on the riveting classic and same name, White Men Can’t Jump. We keep reheating our excellently made pizza and hoping it will taste the same. It never does! We still and always will love you Lance! RIEP Lance Reddick!

White Men Can’t Jump 2023 follows 2 characters Kamal and Jeremy who are on 2 different paths in life but both have a similar passion for basketball. Kamal had a bright future in basketball but after an incident which showcased his anger issues he wasn’t able to pursue his dreams. Jeremy also with a bright future, planned in basketball suffered from ACL injuries which stunted his journey also. Both guys are struggling to let go of the dream so dont have prominent jobs which therefore means they struggle with finances. They eventually cross paths then team up to hustle the courts and aim for big cash prize tournaments.

Sinqua Walls plays Kamal and has come a long way from being the scrawny little Shawn from Power we met. He’s physically built like a full blown Le Bron James clone here. He shows an interesting character. A family man who just wants to provide for his family whilst battling some mental issues from his childhood which he hasnt dealt with. His anger displays are quite convincing. Unlike his Wesley Snipes counterpart whose anger dislpays were more composed and he always seemed in control. Overall it’s a good perfomance. Jack Harlow makes his debut on the big screen. He’s actually a big source of the comedy in this flick. You see the humour from his musical work translate to his character. He plays a vegan, smoothie drinking, smart mouth aspiring Youtuber. He’s funny, he’s witty and he’s not so much Woody but he carries his own when he’s on screen. He embeds this kind of Mr Positive aesthetic but also has some deep rooted anger issues. Laura Harrier and Lance Reddick have minimal roles but with his kind of voice, always brilliant. Teyana Taylor steps into the supportive, headstrong, hard working wife role. I dont know what she’s like in real life but she embodies these type of roles so well. Her romantic chemistry with Sinqua sits well on screen. Myles Bullock and Vince Staples provide the laughs with every appearance. They bounce off each other so well and provide a light element to the film amongst all the serious topics it covers.

I like that the back story of the characters were not just a copy and paste of the original. They created their own characters both looking for a sense of redemption based on their troubled pasts.

Both characters had an extra layer of story for that extra depth. Kamal feeling like he let his father down, with the loss of his father, he uses the grief to overcome his outstanding issues whilst we have Jeremy refusing to leave his family home till he achieves his basketball goals and feels like the provider of his family. The bromance development between the 2 was weak. There was a lack of build up to it but when they did get there it worked. With tools like the love for Ed Sheeran and the meditation bonding I feel like they could have been implemented these better. Nowadays any on screen death of Lance is felt 10x over and it was the same here. RIEP!

The film focuses alot on race. There’s the obvious racial different cast. The narrative and jokes are also racially based. First few times you can get a few laughs then it starts to get much where it feels like forced wokeness. We are not a fan of forced wokeness. There was a Hennessey joke which was very cringe. Race jokes nowadays need to be well thought out and inserted in to content with genuine intent. The case around mental health is always a serious topic and its handled gracefully here. The emphasis on the stigma of anti therapy speaks volumes. I liked how it was embedded in jokes at certain points but also stern at some points. The arc of our 2 main characters shows the main kinds of therapy on hand. Kamal is physically fit but requires meditation and the mental therapy whilst Jeremy is mentally strong and requires physical therapy to get over his drug addiction. Its a nice contrast. 

I personally feel like this movie could have stood on its own. Its not bad… it’s just doesnt measure up to the iconic original. What confuses me most is they changed everything from the back stories, to characters names etc from the original but opted to keep the title. Any other title and this film will be viewed in a more better positive light. Its a strange creative/marketing choice. Its a simple film, pretty straightforward. It was actually all shot within 2 months so the decision to shoe in some weird, shoddy, unnecessary CGI scenes was very weird to me. It wasn’t a kind of flying scene which needed the treatment so it was very bizzare.

Overall it’s not a bad film. There were just bad BTS marketing choices that are due to hold it back. It was a good choice to go direct to streaming because it wouldnt have worked in the cinemas. You won’t get your nostalgia fix here but theres an OK film to watch.

Did you enjoy this remake? Should there have been little cameos from the originals? Did you notice the CGI scene? What would you do if someone backed out a flamethrower on you LOL? React and comment below….