Marquez Canery

English 101
Nicole Williams
Review Analysis

My Opinion on their Opinion

The first thing I noticed off the bat was that the first review, I believe is too short. Bob

McCabe from Empire Magazine had some good things to say about the movie and even gave it 4

out of 5 starts. But the one thing I don’t understand is why he didn’t have a lot more to say. If he

believes the movie was a great success, then it should be easy to give more reason then he

actually did. He has some positive things to say about the actors; Wesley Snipes and Woody

Harrelson, but He also has two negative opinions about the movie. His negative opinions were

that he believed the movie itself was too long, and he also felt that the sub plot with Rosie Perez

didn’t really go anywhere. I personally believe that this was a horrible review and disrespectful

to the movie itself. I understand that everyone will not like every movie that comes out but if you

are going to right a review on one, you should be a little more specific on what you liked and

what you didn’t.

The second review that I chose was a review by Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago

reader. Mr. Rosenbaum thought that the movie was action packed and entertaining, but like Bob

McCabe from the first review, he feels that the movie in general doesn’t go anywhere and should

have had more of a solid ending. What I loved from this review was the reference to the Spike

Lee movie, Do the Right Thing. This is actually one of my favorite movies and even though they

have completely different story plots, I do see a lot of similarities when he comes to racial issues

and lessons being taught and learned. He saw the movie as a whole bunch of different stories of

two “Basketball Hustlers” and how they used their “street” skills to make money. He also
noticed how all the adventures and games that Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson went

through helped them build a friendship even when they weren’t always on each other’s side.

The last review that I picked was written by Hal Hinson; a staff writer from the

Washington Post. This review was written in 1992, but I believe it’s one of the better well-

written reviews that I found on this movie. He starts off by talking about the way the characters

in this movie communicates. He says that they tend to talk just to talk but at the same time to

express themselves. I found that interesting because I noticed that in the movie they do use a lot

of slang and like to talk trash on the court. I agree with him when he says that the Basketball

games played where more than just the plays itself, the words that were said had a lot to do with

the outcome of the game as well. I also like how he clearly differentiates the two main

characters, which shows he was really paying attention to the movie.

He describes Sidney, (Wesley Snipes) as a smoothie king with liquid moves and a fly

patter, He also points out the fact that Sidney would just be satisfied with a lay-up, he would

have to dunk the ball and show that he has style. And Billy, (Woody Harrelson) was described as

one goofy-looking piece of white meat. But this look that Billy had wasn’t just his regular look,

it was a look that he knew would help him get his “hustle on”. It shows how people think that

whites can’t keep up with blacks when it comes to playing Basketball, but Billy clearly shattered

that when he beat Sidney in a shoot off.

This is a real specific review and really gives people the insight on the movie. I I really

like the way that he used specific examples from the movie to prove his point and explains what

he thought about it. This review is more than just a review; it’s also a quick summary, which is a

positive attribute to a successful review I believe. If you have already seen this movie then it will

be easier to understand everything that Hal is speaking about, but if you haven’t seen the movie
at all it still wouldn’t be hard to understand because he refers back to the movie a lot. I believe

that these reviews as a group on general give a great description of the movie and would make

people want to go out of their way to go watch it. The first and second could have been a lot

better if they would of used more specific details like that last review, but as a whole they all got

the job done.