'The Great White Hype' review by Captain Raptor
For the benefit of those of you who haven't heard of it (namely everybody), The Great White Hype is a comedy about a dishonest boxing promoter, played by Samuel L Jackson, attempting to drum up interest in the undefeated champion by pretending that an untrained amateur is a legitimate contender. The reason I decided to watch it starts and ends with the fact that it stars Samuel L Jackson, and no amount of critical apathy could put me off. Which is good, because there was a lot of it.
It's an apathy that I share. Samuel L Jackson is all smiles and smirks in a performance that completely charms, but is let down by a script that can't supply the dialogue to match his combined menace and charisma. The concept combined with the film's talented cast (Jeff Goldblum, Jamie Foxx and John Rhys-Davies, amongst others) is basically enough to carry it, but the film doesn't really manage to marry these two concepts. There's such a wide range of characters all attempting to be played with some degree of likeability that the film spends too long introducing them all that they barely get any opportunity to be funny, and some of them are just dropped from the film. The performances are all good enough, apart from Damon Wayans, who seems completely opposed to putting any sort of energy into his act. There's a lot of components and a lot of them had some great potential - Samuel L Jackson as a roguish, over-the-top fight promoter, the attempts at a satirisation of boxing culture ("He's white. In boxing, that means he's Irish"), the Coen-esque feel of' 'get a strong cast and outlandish characters trying to double-cross each other' - but it ultimately comes to no avail.
The set-up and early scenes of the film, while not particularly amusing in and of themselves, gave a promise of something madcap and comical that was yet to come. Really, the most impressive thing about the film was that I never felt bored or frustrated. The complete misfiring of all the film's promising elements should really make for an incredibly jarring experience, which was not the case, although that might be more related to the sub-90 minute runtime. It's not funny. The more astute of my readers might recognise this as a major flaw in a comedy film, and what do you know, they'd be right. I laughed maybe a total of four or five times throughout the whole film, mostly at the outbursts of John Rhys-Davies' absurdly racist boxing coach, which is a very cheap and easy way to get laughs. The most enthusiastic I ever got about the film was in the final fight scene where I noticed that both Method Man and Peter Dinklage reared their heads, and if the best thing about your film is a chance to notice some of your favourite cult icons in the background, then something has gone horribly wrong somewhere.
Watching The Great White Hype was not a bad experience. At no point was I actively bored. It technically qualifies as entertaining and it was probably more fun then doing nothing. So, yeah, it wasn't bad, but it's not a great indication of quality that those are the most positive things I have to say about the film. This is also taking into account that I am predisposed to enjoy something with Samuel L Jackson in about 50% more than I otherwise would have. I definitely wouldn't suggest that you go out of your way to see it, and it's not a film that's worth actively avoiding either. It's a brief, unexciting exercise in distraction. Let the good times keep on coming.
It's an apathy that I share. Samuel L Jackson is all smiles and smirks in a performance that completely charms, but is let down by a script that can't supply the dialogue to match his combined menace and charisma. The concept combined with the film's talented cast (Jeff Goldblum, Jamie Foxx and John Rhys-Davies, amongst others) is basically enough to carry it, but the film doesn't really manage to marry these two concepts. There's such a wide range of characters all attempting to be played with some degree of likeability that the film spends too long introducing them all that they barely get any opportunity to be funny, and some of them are just dropped from the film. The performances are all good enough, apart from Damon Wayans, who seems completely opposed to putting any sort of energy into his act. There's a lot of components and a lot of them had some great potential - Samuel L Jackson as a roguish, over-the-top fight promoter, the attempts at a satirisation of boxing culture ("He's white. In boxing, that means he's Irish"), the Coen-esque feel of' 'get a strong cast and outlandish characters trying to double-cross each other' - but it ultimately comes to no avail.
The set-up and early scenes of the film, while not particularly amusing in and of themselves, gave a promise of something madcap and comical that was yet to come. Really, the most impressive thing about the film was that I never felt bored or frustrated. The complete misfiring of all the film's promising elements should really make for an incredibly jarring experience, which was not the case, although that might be more related to the sub-90 minute runtime. It's not funny. The more astute of my readers might recognise this as a major flaw in a comedy film, and what do you know, they'd be right. I laughed maybe a total of four or five times throughout the whole film, mostly at the outbursts of John Rhys-Davies' absurdly racist boxing coach, which is a very cheap and easy way to get laughs. The most enthusiastic I ever got about the film was in the final fight scene where I noticed that both Method Man and Peter Dinklage reared their heads, and if the best thing about your film is a chance to notice some of your favourite cult icons in the background, then something has gone horribly wrong somewhere.
Watching The Great White Hype was not a bad experience. At no point was I actively bored. It technically qualifies as entertaining and it was probably more fun then doing nothing. So, yeah, it wasn't bad, but it's not a great indication of quality that those are the most positive things I have to say about the film. This is also taking into account that I am predisposed to enjoy something with Samuel L Jackson in about 50% more than I otherwise would have. I definitely wouldn't suggest that you go out of your way to see it, and it's not a film that's worth actively avoiding either. It's a brief, unexciting exercise in distraction. Let the good times keep on coming.
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