White Men Can't Jump

Writer-director Ron Shelton, whose "Bull Durham" was a big hit, has come up with another raunchy macho comedy, this time set against inner-city basketball.

The focus is on Woody Harrelson (Woody on TV's "Cheers"), playing his familiar good-natured goof with a harder edge than usual, as a basketball hustler hitting the courts of inner-city Los Angeles. As the film opens, he almost meets his match in Wesley Snipes ("Jungle Fever," "New Jack City"), a motor-mouth wiseguy who takes Harrelson for a chump and loses a bundle as a result.

It isn't long before Snipes gets the bright idea that he and Harrelson should team up and work the streets, taking money from black basketball suckers who will also mistake Harrelson for a chump. They do, and the film's first half-hour or so, chronicling their comic adventures, is a riot.

But then, Shelton goes serious on us. Striving for a message about racism and seeking a tenuous odd-couple flavor, he builds tension between Harrelson and Snipes via doublecrosses and then much-needed favors.

Harrelson is on the run from mobsters, and he and his "Jeopardy"-obsessed girlfriend (Rosie Perez), who devours trivia books preparing for her destiny - an appearance on the show - are constantly changing motels while trying to raise enough money to get the goons off their backs. Snipes is married (to Tyra Ferrell, of "Boyz N the Hood," who has little to do here), has a child and wants desperately to move out of his crime-ridden neighborhood.

But these subplots seem contrived and artificially downbeat, especially after the first half-hour of hysterical comedy. In fact, the film never really comes alive again until the moment when Perez finally makes it on "Jeopardy," which provides a hilarious set-piece.

Shelton's film is so raggedy that it never finds its focus, despite another terrific performance from Snipes, one of the finest actors in movies today. Despite that, however, the picture is easily stolen by Perez, a fireball actress whose vibrant personality provides a much-needed shot in the arm every time she appears on the screen.

Still, it's not enough to hold it all together. "White Men Can't Jump" doesn't exactly self-destruct, but it winds down in a way that is bound to disappoint.

It is rated R for violence, sex, nudity, profanity and vulgarity.