NOBODY CHANGED THE GAME LIKE WESLEY SNIPES
I’M NOT IN the habit of dismissing a movie based on 30 seconds of footage, but the first look at Hulu’s White Men Can’t Jump remake, due out later this year, did not inspire much excitement for me. Instead, it made me reflect on my fond memories of the original 1992 movie, a classic which owes much to the lightning-in-abottle chemistry between Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes. Without that at its centre, this new version feels especially ill-advised.
It’s the first of two upcoming movies recasting roles that Snipes made famous. Along with Denzel Washington and Will Smith, he was in contention for being the premier Black leading man in the ’90s, with hits like New Jack City, Jungle Fever and Demolition Man. It was a decade that saw Snipes showcase his versatility: he could go from crime flick to buddy comedy, from arthouse to mainstream, from romantic drama to a sports movie. In White Men Can’t Jump, he showcases both edginess and vulnerability as the cocky, charming demeanour of his basketball hustler slowly begins to fade.
And then came Blade.
A decade before Robert Downey Jr wisecracked his way to superstardom in Iron Man, Snipes blurred the line between actor and character with Marvel’s heroic Daywalker.
The unique selling-point here isn’t just that he’s dispatching the undead with impressive skill and weaponry. It’s Snipes — who did all his own stunts — looking impossibly cool while doing so, his inherent bravado and wit bleeding into his performance.
He’s left mighty big leather boots for Mahershala Ali to fill when Blade eventually makes his proper MCU debut.
You can still see flashes of that megawatt charisma in Snipe’s more recent work, whether it’s Coming 2 America
or the far superior Dolemite Is My Name. The latter sees him deliver a scene-stealing turn as character actor-turned director D’urville Martin, and is proof that he can still act with the best of them when he’s presented with the right material. And with a return to Marvel via animated series Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur
and the Kevin Hart-led Back On The Strip imminent, we can expect plenty more Snipes soon enough.
I’m eager to see where this new career phase will lead. As Snipes famously said in Passenger 57: “Always bet on Black.” Even now, I’m always betting on Snipes to produce some onscreen magic.