![]() I think it might be because this is different to most sports films. Now, this film doesn’t have a high rating on IMDB and I must admit that I am struggling to figure out why. *spoiler* The real genius of it is that when the fight does start and Roper realises that there is a chance that he will be embarrassed, he starts to take the fight seriously and quickly dispatches Conklin, making you realise all along that Conklin’s hype was all style and no substance. Even Rev himself starts believing the hype and that Conklin can overcome the odds and defeat Roper. You as an audience member genuinely believe that Conklin can win and Roper’s weight gain aids in that. The hype comes from the fact that they manage to convince the nation that Conklin is on the same level in terms of ability as Roper, that despite the several years of being nowhere near competitive boxing. So where does the hype come from and does it work? Roper refuses to take him seriously and puts on a lot of weight, but can Conklin pull off the biggest shock in boxing history? The team start hyping Conklin up to be more than he actually is, convincing everyone that he has a chance of winning, including Conklin himself. Meanwhile, Rev successfully converts a political activist named Mitchell Kane (Goldblum) into joining his team and together, along with the rest of the team, they successfully manage to get Conklin inserted into the Top 10, that despite the fact he has never competed in a professional match, thus granting him a title match. Conklin now tours with his rock and roll band and is initially uninterested in fighting, that is until Rev tempts him with the money that the fight will generate and the promise that it can be donated to charity. ![]() ![]() ![]() Roper wins fight after fight and it isn’t long before the money from each fight starts to go down at an alarming rate and in a meeting with his team, Rev comes to the realisation that people are tired of watching black guys fighting black guys and that the only way to get people’s attention is to have a match between two fighters of a different race, but with no non-black fighters in the Top 10, there aren’t many options available.Īfter some research, it is discovered that only one man has ever defeated Roper, a former amateur boxer that defeated him convincingly before quitting the sport. Roper has been on top for a while but is regularly refusing to fight the rightful number one contender. Rev Sultan (Jackson) is a boxing promoter and his main fighter, James Roper (Wayans) is the undisputed champion. They usually find a way, regardless of how ridiculous that way is, and sports films are rarely executed in a believable way. I would say that most sports movies are predictable as it’s very rare that the person or the sports person that the film is following don’t win in the end. Rocky, for me, is one of the most overrated franchises in movie history because you know that regardless of how difficult the opponent may seem after the first film, Rocky will always win somehow, and that’s why I don’t like them, they’re predictable. I’ll grant you that there aren’t that many boxing movies, but other than this I can’t think of another boxing film that I actually like, and yes, I do include the Rocky franchise in that statement. I’m going to also put this disclaimer before I start writing, I don’t like boxing and I’m not very keen on movies about the sport. The Great White Hype, much like A Night at the Roxbury, might not be a film that I watch on a regular basis, but it is still one of my favourite films from the 1990s and although it doesn’t have a high score on IMDB, I think it is stylish and a well told story about how easily corruptible sport can be if you have the right contacts. What swayed me however was seeing on IMDB that it had barely over 7,000 votes, a relatively low number, and the Facebook fan page didn’t seem to have a lot of likes either, so that’s what swayed me to talk about what is one of my favourite sports films. I’ve been debating for a while whether to review The Great White Hype as it did modestly well at the box office, taking just over £8 million worldwide, and it has a brilliant ensemble cast with some of the biggest name actors of the 1990s. With there being current investigations into alleged corruption in FIFA, it seems appropriate to write a review for a film about corruption in boxing. I’m about to donate some money to the remove my foot from your ass foundation!Ĭast : Samuel L Jackson, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Berg, Corbin Bernsen, Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davis, Jamie Foxx and Salli Richardson-Whitfield
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