Viewed in
2011
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Nick Nolte stars as a college basketball coach tempted by shady recruiting methods to return to hoops glory.
Liked
Extremely recognizable cast.
Disliked
Lack of interesting story.
Thoughts
It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
I was surprised by how many recognizable faces were in this cast, such as Mary McDonnell, Ed O'Neill, Robert Wuhl, and Alfre Woodard. Nolte carried the movie well as a cross between Bobby Knight and Bill Parcells. Scene-stealer award went to J.T. Walsh, delicious in all his sleazy goodness.
Basketball fans should recognize a ton of people, not just Shaq and Penny Hardaway. There were numerous famous coaches, media, and players from Dick Vitale to Bobby Hurley to Calbert Cheaney to immortals Larry Bird and Bob Cousy. Shaq was actually quite charming here; I could see why he attempted to have an acting career.
Another surprising aspect was that the shady recruiting angle did not feel dated at all. It's probably not a good sign for college sports' integrity that these rule-breaking's have not changed all these decades.
What made this mediocre was the writing. It brought nothing new to the table regarding intercollegiate recruiting, and it just ended up being a series of boorish tantrums by Nolte, pontificating about integrity and playing by the rules. Spliced between these lectures were nonsensical basketball sequences. For some dumb reason, all these famous ballers played themselves, but on fictional teams. So Tar Heel George Lynch played for "Texas Western" coached by Rick Pitino, and Blue Devil Hurley was teammates with Cheaney. Huh?
Even more silly was the cheesy device of epiloguing what happened to everyone in the aftermath "Player X played for Team Y". These characters were fictional, yet the movie strived for a realistic look into the sport, using real athletes and coaches. The nonsense was hilariously bad.
Anyway, Blue Chips was mostly entertaining because of the cast. But logic, creativity and intelligence was much to be desired.
What I would change
No idea.
