The Great White Hype (1996)

What makes it different from others?

Lack of good storyline.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Money corrupts and absolute money corrupts absolutely. Some of the lines go something like this. "I get my brains beat out and what I got for it? Two Rolls Royces!" "Well, that ain't bad." "But you got EIGHT!" It's a boxing satire in which opportunistic promoter Samuel L. Jackson, as a loud and beturbaned fakir, living in a gilded palace and surrounded by double-D trophies, decides that revenue is falling because nobody wants to pay to see two black guys beating each other up in the ring. The solution? Find some white guy who doesn't have a chance and match them up in Las Vegas.The white guy is Peter Berg, Golden Gloves champ from some years ago who has gone on to a career in heavy metal in Cleveland without ever having fought professionally. Being a rock star isn't as bad as it might be. After a set, back in his crowded dressing room, his assistants usher groupies in one at a time for his appraisal. He shakes his head twice and nods on the third try, and she goes down on him while Jackson makes his pitch.It's pretty amusing. Flagrant hypocrisy often is. Molière did it better in "Tartuffe" but this is no slouch. I laughed out loud, sometimes at business that was going on in the background. The non-Irish Berg enters the ring wearing a kilt, accompanied by "Danny Boy" on the pipes and a couple of dwarfs dressed as leprechauns. He's a Buddhist who is only fighting to relieve the "homeless situation in America and the United States as well." There are a lot of B stories and some of them are lost in the shuffle. Jon Lovitz disappears half way through. Some of the pauses for laughter are too long, suggesting the movie isn't quite as funny as its makers thought it might be. And it does go over the top with aimless slapstick at times.Yet it IS funny from time to time and if you can put up with a lot of noise and rushing around it's worth catching. None of the performances can be faulted.

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.

There's something in this movie to offend EVERYBODY: those of African descent, those of Jewish descent, those of dumb white guy descent, fight fans, music fans, you name it! Its saving grace is that it's so damn funny. Sam Jackson has WAY too much fun as the Don King-like boxing promoter who engineers a championship match for his fighter, played by Damon Wayans. (No, Damon doesn't exactly look like a heavyweight, but he's not meant to.) Jamie Foxx is hilarious as the frantic manager of a legitimate heavyweight contender passed over for Peter Berg's dim bulb. Rocky Carroll -- who's so serious on the excellent THE AGENCY -- here shows his comedy chops. I love this movie! (8 out of 10)

I have to admit that when I rented this movie, I was expecting a dumb comedy that would fail to show the reality of boxing. However, this film is a very funny film that also has a rather keen insight into the current state of boxing. Samuel L. Jackson plays a "Don King" type guy that is stuck with the problem of having a champ that might be too good. No one wants to pay to see the guy, because there are no quality fighters out there to challenge him. So, Jackson goes about creating a contender for the champ. What is the one thing you need to get people in the arena to watch? Well, a white challenger of course, experience not necessary. Surely many white Americans will pay to see one of their own knock down the overly cocky, black champ. Berg plays the "Great White Hope." The beauty of this film is the comedic way that it shows the real life corruption in boxing today. Fights are fixed, promotions are staged and very rarely do you have the best fighting the best. Moreover, we as viewers fall into the same trap that boxing fans do. Here you have an unqualified contender, that has no prayer of beating the champ. However, as we see the hype done by these snake oil salesmen, we start to believe that Berg's character actually has a chance to win. If you are a boxing fan, you will love this film, because it is real. Even if you are not a boxing fan, you will enjoy it. Very funny film and great acting performances. Believe the hype!