Blue Chips

It's Shaq, making his motion-picture debut, who in the end turns Blue Chips into a slam-jam-thank-you-man experience sure to please basketball fans who aren't looking for more emotional involvement than a typical night at the O-rena. [8 Feb 1994, p.16]

The movie is told almost entirely from Nolte's point of view, and he makes an immensely likable character right from the top. Read full review

There's a good dose of reality in this story, even if the script occasionally becomes too preachy. The end sequences especially could have been toned down. Read full review

I wish Blue Chips had pursued its indictment further up the food chain. But it brings off its tricky double mission, being entertaining while not letting anybody off the hook as it reminds us that amateur athletics is big business. [18 Feb 1994, p.39]

William Friedkin's Blue Chips, somewhat flawed but pungently honest, is one film that manages to beat the odds and stretch beyond the formula manipulations. [18 Feb 1994, p.05]

Blue Chips is in many ways like a modern Frank Capra movie, about a battle between corruption and idealism, money vs. love, the pack vs. the individual. It's an Americana story about white farm boys and black ghetto kids bringing their talents together in a pure endeavor and about the cynical forces that would pollute that. [18 Feb 1994, p.C3]

As written by Ron Shelton - who with "The Best of Times," "Bull Durham" and "White Men Can't Jump" has turned the sports movie into his own cottage industry - a crowd-pleasing story has been crafted into a sharp indictment of modern sports as a business, in which victory isn't so much earned as it is bought. [18 Feb 1994, p.D3]

But I'll admit, as Western's climactic "big game" drew to a close, the personalities and situations Shelton and Friedkin created made it tough to guess exactly how the game would end. That's high praise, considering how predictable most jock flicks are. With that kind of heads-up play, and Nolte strong in the pivot position, Blue Chips scores. [18 Feb 1994, p.7]

Only late in the game do they make an unforgivable mistake. Blue Chips falls apart when the film makers, figuratively speaking, haul their soapbox right onto the court. Most of the time, Blue Chips is too energetic to sound self-righteous. Read full review

Fans, at least, should enjoy the realistic touches. The cast is full of real players, announcer Dick Vitale is obnoxious here, too, and that's really coach Bobby Knight in the big game vs. Indiana (though his tan betrays Chips' summer filming schedule). And though O'Neal can barely grunt dialogue, it's fun to watch the Orlando Magic superstar make Nolte look like David Cassidy whenever they share a frame. [18 Feb 1994, p.5D]

As a movie, Blue Chips is more journeyman than star, but, once in a while, it hops off the bench and shows a surprising flash of talent.[22 Feb 1994]

At its best, though, Blue Chips is really about the wiggy, muscle-twitch world of high-pressure college athletics. The movie is best around the edges, when it's jamming and anecdotal and not taking itself so heroically seriously. Read full review

The folly of Blue Chips is that the film makes this greased-palm corruption seem an even bigger sin than it is. (It's like a political drama made by someone who is shocked, shocked at the sleaze of campaign financing.) Read full review

A good concept fails to become a good movie in this predictable tale of corruption in college basketball, featuring the ubiquitous superstar and corporate pitchman Shaquille O'Neal. Read full review

The performances of Mary McDonnell as the coach's ex-wife and Alfre Woodard as a ballplayer's ambitious mom raise the dramatic levels to such a degree that you might want to see the movie for their performances alone. Read full review

But this serious film feels strangely unfinished, as if it hadn't been fully thought out. [18 Feb 1994, p.G5]

If it wasn't for some exciting roundball action, Shaquille O'Neal's hulking-dunking presence and a wonderfully guttural performance from coach Nick Nolte, you'd slither off the bench asleep. Read full review

The problem with this film's earnest script about corruption in college basketball is that the usually witty Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump) wrote it long before he developed his familiar jivey style. Not even an unsentimental basketball fan like director William Friedkin can wash away all the corn syrup. Read full review

More numbing than exciting.

The picture amounts to little more than an uninspired, almost perfunctory exercise in "big game" manipulations. Read full review

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. [18 Feb 1994, p.C2]