On B List of Movie Reviews
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Blue Chips (1994)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
10/03, 8/15
8/15:
Blue Chips is a weird departure for William Friedkin who's more suited to edgy action and psychological thrillers.
The biggest positive is Nick Nolte's performance. I just wish that he had more to work with; there's not enough depth for his
character, and the complexities of the situation aren't complex enough. In other words, Blue Chips is too simple.
By the way, the basketball scenes are boring to watch; maybe that's the point. To get a good feel of
the corruption that still continues in NCAA sports is to read Confessions of a Spoilsport and
Beer and Circus by William Dowling and Murray Sperber, respectively.
I'm surprised that, since universities receive federal and state money, Congress allows this level of corruption
to go unchecked because college students are shelling out hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education but to be
sacrificed for the sake of glory in football and basketball. It's immorally and fundamentally wrong, and it's consumer fraud, period.
Hence, sports have no place in college and should be permanently separated.
Back to the film, Ron Shelton is the screenwriter. I don't like his movies because his stories have always been full of
shit. The right man for this project should be David Ward, and he, as evidenced in
The Program, would've gotten the job done correctly.
All in all, Blue Chips is a misfire in the examination of corruption in big-time college basketball.