Not all movies about basketball are as good as “Hoosiers” with Gene Hackman and its two Oscar nominations (click here for my review), just as all golf movies can never be the classic that is “Caddyshack” (although many have tried and all failed since). However, director William Friedkin nearly hit a three-pointer with “Blue Chips” in 1994 and was able to entertain with good work with his actors as well as a top-shelf’s worth of supporting efforts from two NBA stars. The reason? Most likely it’s the writer. Here’s one time where ethics wins out in sports – but remember, that’s just fantasy sports. You know, the real fantasy sports.
‘Blue Chips’
(1994; 108 minutes; rated PG-13; directed by William Friedkin and starring Nick Nolte, Mary McDonnell and J.T. Walsh)
WINNING THE WRONG WAY ISN’T HIS WAY
(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion and trivia and updated links on May 16, 2018. I again expanded the review on April 22, 2023.)
I haven’t ever written a review where I started with a movie’s writer, but I will today. Screenwriter Ron Shelton is the reason that the basketball film “Blue Chips” with Nick Nolte is worth watching. After all, he penned a few other good sports screenplays: say, “Bull Durham,” “Tin Cup” (click here for my review) and another hoops film, “White Men Can’t Jump.” Also, Shelton was not just the co-writer on “Tin Cup” and the other two, as he directed all three.
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Shelton obviously tried too-hard, too-fast to push the zen-like philosophy of golf in “Tin Cup” and didn’t take his time like he did with the dogma of the cult that is baseball in “Bull Durham.” And, while “Blue Chips” is a good film, it’s not a great film for all the work of Shelton and director William Friedkin, who also directed “The French Connection” (click here to read my review of that multiple Oscar winner). I’m not sure it could have been a “great” film, but it has great jobs by big-time NBA stars Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway and offers the best post-game press conference of all time on screen.
The story for “Blue Chips” is simple. Nolte is “Pete Bell” and he’s the head coach of a university whose former championship team is on a downward spiral. Why? He won’t cheat: At his school, there are no “gifts” to family, no cash to players and so no incentive. Such a totally different picture in the 2020s and nearly 30 years after the film’s release, where payments are now made openly and under-the-table “gifts” are not needed any longer.
So, all Nolte’s ethic does is push away the top recruits. In the wake of his first losing season, Nolte, against his better judgment, caves and lets a blustering, egotistical booster start handing out the cash, favors and gifts – and three of the country’s top prospects come running to the bling. The film also shows how big-time coaches recruit (some might call it “stalking” today) the nation’s top players and will do just about anything to get an edge … and still do so today.
However, winning by cheating doesn’t have the taste that even an honest losing team giving its all can bring. Nolte simply can’t live with it and after winning the big game walks off the court and stands up in front of everyone and admits – EVERYTHING. He even mocks his own university’s giving a tractor to one recruit’s father.
Along the way in “Blue Chips” you’ll see (then) NBA star (legend in his own mind) O’Neal get coached up to take the SAT – hint, he doesn’t need it – and a terrific supporting performance by Mary McDonnell as Nolte’s ex-wife and ex-tutor to the team who grudgingly agrees to work with O’Neal.
All in all, it’s a pretty good ride … especially with the cameos by basketball’s elite at the time. Check out the list at the end of the review.
A three-time Oscar nominee (not for this one), Nolte is almost as good here as he was in his work a decade earlier in “48 Hrs.” with Eddie Murphy. Nolte also did “Under Fire” and “Teachers” in the 1980s before getting his first nomination for 1992’s horrid “Prince of Tides” along with the execrable effort by the overrated Barbara Streisand (I believe you can take a hint here about how I feel about that film). In this one, he’s just right with his sarcastic wit, passion when necessary and the all-out energy needed in his profession. He even joins the singing at a raucous church service (he’s familiar with all religions from the recruiting trail). I also like Nolte in “The Deep” and “North Dallas Forty” (click here for my review). He was also nominated for “Warrior” and “Affliction” and I liked him in “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”
The biggest treat of “Blue Chips” is “Shaq” O’Neal and Hardaway.
Both are bought, not brought, onto the team. Each has his own reason. Hardaway, who plays “Butch McRae,” uses his talent to help his mom (Alfre Woodard) get a better job and house; and O’Neal, who plays “Neon Boudeaux,” just because he wants to (he turns down the offer of a Lexus). Both are uncommonly good athletes stepping into a film arena and they are truly fun to watch each time they’re on screen – especially O’Neal since he always appears to be pushing everyone’s buttons just for the fun of it (as he does in real life).
O’Neal has a bunch acting credits in TV and films (often playing himself) and after his first movie with “Blue Chips” has been in films as diverse as “Kazaam” and even the execrable “Freddy Got Fingered.” O’Neal did manage to get nominated for a “Razzie” award for the “worst new actor” of the year for this one … but I have no idea why this performance would be singled out. Hardaway has only one acting credit after “Blue Chips” and it was him doing an episode of TV’s “Cribs.”
Now, here are your supporting actors …
- As the third member of the terrible trio, Matt Nover as farm boy “Ricky Roe,” who is a Larry Bird-like player, does a nice turn in the role and manages to quietly keep up with the other two. Nover’s only acting credit is for “Blue Chips” and he was actually the Indiana boy that he portrayed so well in this film (but he didn’t accept gifts to get a scholarship, I believe).
- While two-time Oscar nominee (not for this one) McDonnell is the erstwhile interest of Nolte, she crafts a solid piece of work out of a role that could have been window dressing in the wrong actor’s hands. She plays it smart, sharp and in control and pulls it off well. In “Blue Chips,” McDonell was coming off her two nominations in the previous three years (“Dances With Wolves” and “Passion Fish”) when she made this one. She’s also been in “Independence Day.” I liked her best over all these in “Sneakers” (click here for my review) with Robert Redford.
- Two rather wasted roles with good talent is J.T. Walsh as eager-to-buy-wins booster “Happy Kuykendahl” and Ed O’Neill (no relation to Shaq) as the investigative sports reporter so cleverly named “Ed,” who is out to nail Nolte for the coach’s previous favorite player, who cheated. Both actors are good, but really don’t get the chance they deserve here. I guess it was at the expense of O’Neal and Hardaway and I wouldn’t turn it around today, even if I even had that choice. Walsh was in “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “A Few Good Men” before his death at 55 of a heart attack, while O’Neill, who is best-known for the TV sitcom “Married With Children,” was in “Dutch” (click here for my review) and was as putrid as the putrid “The Adventures of Ford Fairlaine” (check this one out if you want to see one of the 10 worst films of all time – click here for my review).
- Another Oscar nominee who does a good job is Woodard, who plays “Lavonda McRae.” She’s a tough-as-nails negotiator as she secures the future for her son and family Woodward, who was nominated for “Cross Creek” a decade earlier, was also in the wonderful, little-remembered “K-PAX” with prime lowlife sumbag, but supremely talented, Kevin Spacey.
- Two other supporting actors lost in the crowd are basketball great Marques Johnson and Robert Wuhl. Both are shunted aside with tiny roles. Johnson, plays “Mel,” was also in Shelton’s “White Men Can’t Jump” in his 23 acting credits and Wuhl has had a prolific and eclectic career from his first film (“The Hollywood Knights” – click here for my review) to the irreverence of the HBO specials called “Assume the Position with Mr. Wuhl.”
A final observation: At the end, Nolte is walking away from the multi-million dollar program and onto the dark streets. He comes across a bunch of kids playing pickup hoops and likes the game of one. He saunters over, begins coaching the kid up. Before the credits tell you what happens to the main players, you can’t help but wonder what would happen today if a middle-aged man walked onto a public basketball court and began talking to 10-year-olds?
Only in the movies. Just like a big-time coach admitting guilt. Remember, this one is fantasy hoops.
“Blue Chips” was the 58th ranked film at the domestic box office in 1994 with $23 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. The No. 1 film was “Forrest Gump” with $329.6 million (and I still haven’t seen that one … I refuse to bow to social convention by watching it). Here are the other films from that year that I’ve reviewed:
- “Little Giants” (great kids football flick) – click here for my review
- “True Lies” (outstanding Arnie action) – click here for my review
Assorted cast notes (via IMDb.com and today also via Wiki):
- Directly from IMDb.com: “At the end both Neon and Butch McRae, played respectively by Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway leave school early to play pro ball. In real life both O’Neal and Hardaway left school early and played pro ball; ironically together early in their careers.”
- Directly from IMDb.com: “Said to be based on the career of Tates Locke while coach at Clemson University from 1970 to 1975, as told in the 1982 Sports Illustrated exposé.”
- Nolte shadowed legendary college hoops coach (and major asshat) Bobby Knight during that coach’s 1992 season.
- Knight, being the asshat that he is, refused to wear makeup for his appearance on film.
- In a most puzzling report, Nolte is said to have written a 200-page novel about the character “Pete Bell” in order to immerse himself into the character. I truly doubt this happened (or at least it was a good story on the promotion trail) as a real novel … Nolte might have called it one, but I doubt his acting talent translates to being a novelist.
- Here is the bulk of the basketball players and coaches in the film (taken from the “Blue Chips” page on Wiki): Jim Boeheim, Kevin Garnett , Allan Houston, Dick Vitale, Nolan Richardson, George Lynch, Larry Bird, Travis Ford, Rick Fox, Calbert Cheaney, Matt Painter, Rex Walters, Rick Pitino, Bobby Hurley and Bob Knight.
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The fictional university is called Western University and is located in Los Angeles, California. Western University is also the name of the fictional university in ‘One on One‘ (1977) starring Robby Benson. This was also a movie about college basketball. The fictional Western University in this movie was also located in Los Angeles.”
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