On G List of Movie Reviews

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The Great White Hype (1996)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 7/21

GreatWhiteHype
7/21: The Great White Hype is stupid, funny, and perfect as a Samuel L. Jackson vehicle.

Instead of a shocked-by-an-electric-jolt hairdo, Samuel L. Jackson dons a turban for the Don King role. At one point, he meets Vincent Vega, who asks for Jules of Pulp Fiction. Then again, how can Vincent be alive since he was gunned down on the toilet?

Much of the premise is based on the 1982 boxing match between Gerry Cooney and Larry Holmes. Setting off a racially charged promotion of which Gerry didn't appreciate, Don King called him "The Great White Hope" since there hadn't been a Caucasian heavyweight champion in twenty-three years when Swede Ingemar Johansson emerged victorious over Floyd Patterson.

Of course, the outcome of the fight is predictably how it happened for Mike Tyson and Peter McNeeley which was the biggest scam in the pay-per-view sports telecast history. People paid fifty bucks only to see the match to end in mere seconds after blinking a few times.

All in all, The Great White Hype isn't far from the truth when it comes to the boxing scene during the 90's which eventually did in the sport.