The Great White Hype

Severely underrated boxing satire, featuring humor that ranges from subtle wit to cheap belly laughs. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson (in fine form) as Fred Sultan, a not-so-subtle Don King parody who holds sway over the world of professional boxing. Unfortunately for Sultan, most of white America has lost interest in the sport because there hasn't been a white contender for years. With dwindling funds and a huge outstanding contract owed to his current champion James Roper (played surprisingly well by Damon Wayans), Sultan decides to create his own 'great white hope.' He digs up Terry Conklin (Peter Berg), an amateur who once beat Roper as a teenager, but quit boxing to become an unspeakably awful rock musician. The cast is filled out by Jeff Goldblum as an anti-Sultan filmmaker, and Michael Jace as Marvin Shabazz, a deserving contender who keeps getting the runaround. Cheech Marin and Jamie Foxx play small but entertaining supporting roles. I'm not entirely sure why this movie gets such middling reviews. I guess satire doesn't move a lot of movie tickets. There's also a lot of racial humor in the film (of course), with whites insulting blacks, blacks insulting whites, and even people insulting others of their own race. If that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable, you probably won't enjoy this flick much. But those into sports or boxing will find a lot of laughs here, and this is a great "Guy's Night" movie. (Make no mistake, this is definitely a Guy Movie. There's only two speaking roles for women that I can remember, and both are basically superfluous.) Easily worth a rental, or even a purchase if you find it in the discount DVD rack like I did.

This movie has a lot of fun making fun of both the boxing world and itself. It's not really much of a movie, but it has moments. I recommend it as one of those movies that, if you're channel-surfing on cable and you happen to come across it, and there's really nothing else on, then watch it. It's not a complete waste of time, but it's not a movie that you should run out and rent.

I laughed at every scene in this movie! I happened to catch this one while channel surfing for nothing in particular, so I missed the opening moments. Being that I was 19 when this came out, the god awful patterned & silken pants suits ON MEN totally made sense to me. And despite the fact that in one scene, when the lead actress had her strongest scene, that glorious moment was overshadowed by "Shut Up" "B--!" from 2 different male actors-I still give this movie a thumbs up. Aside from that, it's truly worth your time if you want to escape into giggles & chortles for about 90 minutes. I mean, everything in this movie is absolutely absurd and can't possibly be reality. (Well except for the exploitative world of pugilism and debauchery-everything else is conjecture.)

When the champions promoter, Rev. Sultan, decides something new is needed to boost the attraction of boxing, he searches and finds the only man to ever beat the champ. The problem is that he isn't a boxer anymore and he's white. However, once Rev. Sultan convinces him to fight, he goes into heavy training while the current champ takes it easy and falls out of shape.... I'm guessing this film was only made to give the then relatively fresh Jackson trope a starring vehicle. After all, he was amazing in Pulp Fiction, DHWAV, and Fresh, but as a supporting role, rather than charge of a film. And the result is one of the most confusing things I have seen in a long time, and very boring to boot. So what we have here is Jackson showcasing his trademark yell in the guise of Don King, supported by a who's who of b-list actors, and a then quite famous Damon Wayans in a fat prosthetic. The film is a mix of Rocky III and The Naked Gun, but without the laughs or the thrill of decent pugilism. It doesn't have a message to give, other than if your greedy and try to take from the best, you will lose. There is some sub plot involving why a Black fighter is being usurped by Berg, but all that consists of is Jamie Foxx mugging, and Jackson laughing a lot. Goldblum is as great as always, but again, it's all about selling out, the wonderful message this film has. Be a sell out, become rich and arrogant, and you'll be famous. Only in America....

At first I was not interested in this film, but then I saw a preview of it and noticed that Samuel L. Jackson was playing one of his slimy characters I decided that I might give it a shot. It was only $1.50 a week at the video shop, so if I didn't like it then I would not have felt that ripped off. I remember when it was on in the cinemas. My sister had a free ticket and the only movie that we could see was this one. I decided not to and used my free ticket to see Independence Day. As I pull this movie apart, I will reveal a lot, so if you do not want to know what happens, read no further. Anyway, this was actually quite a good movie. As the title tells us, it is about hype. It is about manipulating things to gain money and power. The movie is focused around the Reverend (Samuel L. Jackson) who is the manager of a boxer known as Roper (Damon Wayans). Roper is the heavy weight champion but nobody is watching his fights because it is with other negros and as such boring, so the Reverend comes upon an idea of creating a great White boxer to take on Roper, and he comes up with a boxer who beat Roper when he was an amateur. The movie is about manipulation and how power does not fall. It is interesting to note that the Reverend is not defeated, rather he seizes on his opportunity to not only create a champion, but to keep the money rolling in. He tries to keep his champion happy, but Roper wants money, so he promises a fight, one with the white guy. This movie is incredibly well made because we all get caught up in the hype over the white boxer. He is little more than a heavy metal singer, but he beat Roper once and as such is the one who must confront Roper to make a great fight. Everybody believes the hype, and as such we get caught up in the hype. What adds to it is that we believe in the typical Hollywood ending where the White boxer wins and the Reverend becomes nothing. The end of this movie shows us that it is nothing more than hype as the White boxer is knocked out with one well placed punch and does not get up. It is also interesting to note that in this movie money makes everything. The Reverend has everybody under his belt, including the director of the boxing organisation, and what he says goes. When the investigative reporter walks in in his desire to blow the Reverend's sydicate open, he is thrown a job and money and instantly changes his morals. This movie shows us that morals collapse so easily with enough money, and that everybody has their price. This is a movie of corruption and manipulation, set in the decadence of Las Vegas. Okay I have probably given a lot away in this movie, but it is difficult to pull it apart without doing so.

Weak boxing comedy with mostly caricatures rather than characters, The film comes across more like an idea for a script, with the actors just trying to make it funny. Unfortunately the talent of Samuel L Jackson, John Lovitz, Jeff Goldblum, and Damon Wayans is mostly wasted. This definitely is not a "black comedy", although there are plenty of misfiring "Black" jokes. As for the spectacle heavyweight fight, it is almost a non event, and the buildup not much better. I maybe chuckled twice, and most of the attempts at humor seem forced. Also, there are several scenes that are interminable, and lose any comedic impact they might have had. In short, "The Great White Hype" was a huge disappointment as a comedy and as a boxing movie. - MERK

I used to be a boxing fan, until Don King and Tyson killed whatever credibility the sport had left, but I really enjoyed this movie. The whole beginning of the film with Wayans and Jackson going back and forth and the idea for the big PPV draw, seemed straight out of an actual King and Tyson meeting. The plot is pretty straight forward and most of the "jokes" miss, but it is a SATIRE not a comedy, so that is forgivable. Damon Wayans, Samuel Jackson, Cheech Marin, Peter Berg, and John Rynes-Davises, all give notable performances playing their characters well. The rest of the cast does a decent job of not taking the film too seriously with the notable exception being Jeff Goldblum, who tries so HARD not to make you laugh at him, that eventually you give up. It's like he was in his own film, trying to be so serious, but he is still able to help the film, but in a darker way than the rest. I will be the first to admit that most of the "jokes" that seem to pepper the satire seem to have been thrown in to generate a wider audience and alienate the ones that actually want to watch the movie. It plays more like a documentary on "How to Market a Fight," then an actual movie, but I like the amount of small details that went into making the film. It is too bad no one figured out "How to Market a Successful Film with the Guy from 'Pulp Fiction'" because maybe more people would had seen it. Overall it is still a must-see for those who like boxing or those who used to.

The film is about 1:21 and that's probably not helping it either. If this is supposed to be a takeoff on "The Great White Hope" of 1970 fame, forget it. Samuel L. Jackson stars with that amazing wig as a Reverend promoter up to his neck in disgrace. Everyone seems to want a piece of the action. John Lovitz is there as well as a reporter, played by Jeff Goldblum who goes over to Jackson's side for a piece of the action. Jackson has the idea that they can make more money by having a white fighter in the ring against their champ. They get a rock and roll singer who has not lost a bout. The film tries to show that while they all think that racism is not involved, it certainly is. We also have another black challenger who is constantly looking to challenge the champ and when he belts him in the end, Jackson immediately seizes this as an opportunity to promote their slugging to a future fight. The whole thing is rather silly at best.

IMO, this movie was severely underrated for its time. It was purposefully cheesy, but precisely insightful (even prescient) about a wide array of problems within boxing, as well as about the use of racist rhetoric and promotion to fuel sales. Today, we have seen the explosion of the internet and social media take these concepts to a new, terrifying level. The entire cast was excellent, leaning into the cheesiness of their roles and script, but doing so in a very funny way. Three standouts for me: Jackson's performance as the devious yet charismatic master promoter was delightful; Peter Berg is great as an idealist whose good heart but dim wits get used as the center-piece for one of the very things he hates most; and Salli Richardson-Whitfield is absolutely stunning both in her beauty and in her commanding presence despite her male-dominated environment.

This is the pits.there is not one funny scene in the whole movie.This movie has a great cast given nothing to do.i could not believe just how rotten it was.easily samuel l jackson worst movie.though he was the only good thing in the movie.its still a 1 out of 10