Our Flick of the Week is “Blue Chips,” a lightweight movie about an important subject in the sports world-illegal payoffs to prospective college athletes. The sport here is college basketball; most of the kids involved are black, and the bribes go to them, their families and their coaches.
The issue can be framed easily: College athletes are supposed to be amateurs with their eyes on their books as much as their playing fields, but big money is involved for the colleges and big money corrupts. Do the kids deserve a share of the pie?
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If you want to see a serious discussion of this subject, check out the Chicago-made documentary “Hoop Dreams,” which will be released later this year, following two young men as they move through high school to college.
If you want to see a simplistic treatment of the same material, there’s “Blue Chips,” which has a story line that is positively skeletal. Coach Nick Nolte, encountering his first losing season, caves in and allows alumni to bribe a trio of hoop stars to attend his college. He’s caught, and as the film ends, he condemns the practice. End of movie.
Believe me, that’s it. And as I sat there watching the picture, I kept waiting for the movie to begin-waiting for character development, for subplots. Instead we get a parade of famous basketball faces-Orlando Magic stars Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway as the illegally recruited players, Hall-of-Famer Bob Cousy as the college athletic director and Indiana coach Bobby Knight as himself.
O’Neal and Hardaway are likable enough in limited roles; Cousy seems a little ill at ease. But forget all that. “Blue Chips” is only a triumph of marketing. Its casting suggests an official basketball picture, but its script belongs on the bench.
“Blue Chips” is playing at the Biograph, Burnham Plaza, Esquire and outlying theaters. Rated PG-13. (STAR)
– (equals) New This Week
– NAKED (Music Box). Mike Leigh’s raw portrait of an angry young man railing at friends and foes in contemporary London. His is a spirit that will not die despite society’s complete lack of interest in him. David Thewlis gives an unforgettable performance. Not rated; suggested for adults. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
– REALITY BITES (Biograph, 900 N. Michigan and outlying). A would-be hip romantic comedy that runs downhill as a young college graduate (Winona Ryder) has to choose between two different young men, a nice capitalist (Ben Stiller)and a disaffected musician (Ethan Hawke). Nothing except movie convention explains her choice. Rated PG-13. (STAR)(STAR)