Blue Chips (1994)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writer (WGA):

Ron Shelton (written by)

Release Date:

18 February 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot:

A college basketball coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive.

Plot Keywords:

College | Basketball | Rural | Single Parent | Gratuities

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Nick Nolte	...	Pete Bell
Mary McDonnell	...	Jenny Bell
J.T. Walsh	...	Happy
Ed O'Neill	...	Ed
Alfre Woodard	...	Lavada McRae
Bob Cousy	...	Vic
Shaquille O'Neal	...	Neon
Anfernee 'Penny' Hardaway	...	Butch McRae
Matt Nover	...	Ricky Roe
Cylk Cozart	...	Slick
Anthony C. Hall	...	Tony
Kevin Benton	...	Jack
Bill Cross	...	Freddie
Marques Johnson	...	Mel
Robert Wuhl	...	Marty

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Peru:14 | Spain:T | UK:15 (video premiere) | USA:PG-13 | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Frankfort Senior High School - 1 S. Maish Road, Frankfort, Indiana, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The crew, including Shaquille O'Neal stayed at the Howard Johnson in Lafayette, Indiana for two weeks during filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: During Western's season finale against the Coast, about midway through the game a Coast player goes up for a dunk and in the background a side scoreboard clearly reads 00 as the score for Western.

Quotes:

Pete Bell: Boys, the rules don't make much sense. But I believe in the rules. Some of us broke them. I broke them. I can't do this. I can't win like this.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Directors: The Films of William Friedkin (#2.13)" (????)

Most Underrated Sports Movie Ever!

I'm not a big sports movie guy, so I went into this not really expecting much other than killing 90 some minutes. I loved it! To see the struggle of a school and coach as they attempt to create a legit winning team in an environment of corruption was interesting. Then when they join that corruption it becomes exciting, you just know it's gonna blowup some time. Nick Nolte carries this film throughout it's entirety, and amazingly the real life players do a great job of acting and the rest of the cast is perfect. I love how they took real players and coaches and brought them into this film, it fits perfectly. The last 35 minutes of this film is brilliant. I've seen many people here talk of how bad this film is, I wonder if they just don't care about sports that much like myself, or have some underlying bias about admitting the corruption exists and always has in much of college sports. I don't care for sports! But I loved this film. The ratings this film gets on here really ticks me off, what is it, a 5.5 star average? I've learned one thing on here and other review sites, if you let others judge for you, you'll miss a lot of good movies.