White Men Can’t Jump did not need remaking. Rosie Perez, queen of the scene-stealers, made sure of that in 1992. “Listening versus hearing” remains among the all-time on-screen debates. Even the title encapsulated a time when basketball fandom in the 80s and 90s really was a black-and-white issue. The A-story about the mobsters hunting for their vigorish? Completely incidental. The R-rating for a comedy? No argument there.
That’s not to say the update, which premieres on Hulu, is an airball. Power’s Sinqua Walls certainly looks the part of Kamal, the hoops prodigy, to the point where the script even makes fun of his uncanny resemblance to the Miami Heat great Dwyane Wade. Teyana Taylor brings her true life experience as an NBA wife to the part of Kamal’s partner, Imani. Vince Staples and Myles Bullock are the best couple on screen, even when their chemistry is short-circuited at the end by a long-anticipated third wheel. Director of photography Tommy Maddox-Upshaw captures LA vistas in full golden-hour splendor. Marcelo Zarvos’s score is an unspoiled mix of old school and new. But none of it saves a film that undermines its own premise.
