Blue Chips
Blue Chips
PG-13 | 18 February 1994 (USA)
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Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.

Reviews
Perry Kate

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Pacionsbo

Absolutely Fantastic

BelSports

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Stephanie

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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RaoulGonzo

Nick Nolte plays a college University basketball coach forced to break the rules in order to stay competitive. He deals with guilt and struggles internally with something he has always been against.What a surprise Blue Chips was, expecting a below par sports movie (based on reviews) but found a thought provoking and entertaining 110 minutes. To begin with it hits the normal sports movie beats but just when you think the drama is going one way, suddenly it doesn't and that only adds realism to the action.William Friedkin does an excellent job in creating a tense and real life atmosphere, almost documentary style at least during the game-play scenes that makes you feel fully immersed. It's clear Friedkin and co have thoroughly researched this area and you get a sense of that while watching. The use of real life Basketball players and coaches adds to the authenticity.During the drama the film deals with the shady dealings that no doubt goes on in American sports at college level (It's a massive deal, where careers and futures are made). A story of greed, cheating and pressure to win. Nolte is great in the role and gets to show off his soft side while also providing his well known manic style. Blue Chips really is an under-rated film although not perfect it deserves to be more well known.

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Rodrigo Amaro

The vicissitudes of winning or losing a game and doing the best you can to be successful at it whether playing clean or pulling some dirty tricks are what makes of "Blue Chips" an nice film whose main character played by Nick Nolte has to fight against the odds of losing another championship for another consecutive year. Here's a full-mouthed Basketball coach with lots of anger, high intelligence, knows how to conduct a team but he doesn't have much of a good team, and to built the team of his dream, he's gonna have to select new players but not in the traditional and right way by giving extra things to his players in order to get them on his team and also in college. He can't follow the rules by the book, the ones he created to himself in order to be successful at what he does but will he manage to play the game regardless of ethics?So, "Blue Chips" nicely builds its discourse of the importance of winning things in a fair way and shows how much someone can lose by breaking the rules. However, for a sport themed film this isn't so great as it could be, where's the director's energy to conduct the games scenes? It's not much involving when we have to watch the games but the dramatic and funny scenes compensates the trouble. Lacks energy, some thrills and at times even the dramatic sequences are monotonous and uninteresting. Nolte confuses extreme passion for a game with some overacting but he gives a decent performance here (but can you imagine Bob De Niro in this role? It would be excellent!). And along with him we have good supportive acting by Mary McDonnell, J.T. Walsh, Ed O'Neill and basketball legends Bob Cousy, Shaquille O'Neal among others. Right at the beginning Nolte gives this speech to the players about the impossibility of winning a game by being half-assed. You can do whatever half assed except winning. Wiser words were never spoken before and this film proves this when you have a great director like William Friedkin behind all this when it's quite visible he's not much suitable for this (and what's strange is Ron Shelton wrote this film and he's a specialist in making sport themed flicks, so why he didn't directed it in the first place?). So, in the end you can do things half-assed but just don't expect to win much sympathy, awards and recognition with it. Good film but it could've been better considering the talents involved. 6/10

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johnh087

Blue Chips, for a sports movie, was very well done and well put together. Pete Bell, played by Nolte, is a Bob Knight style coach at Western University, a fictitous university in LA (think UCLA). After a few sub-par seasons, he has his first losing season as head coach and to keep up with the other big programs (think Kentucky and Michigan), he needs to recruit some top players, or blue chips, to come to Western. Strictly against under the table recruiting, Bell is forced to make a tough decision. Recruit good but not great players and perhaps lose his job due to losing as head coach, or go after the top 10 recruits to keep his job and start winning again. The movie plays out well and supporting actors, JT Walsh and Shaq, give solid performances. As for the basketball action itself, this movie probably has the best game sequences I have ever seen in a movie, with real college players filling as extras. There is also a load of cameos, including Rick Pitino, Dick Vitale and Larry Bird to name a few. Blue Chips is a solid movie and a very good sports movie.

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Jeff

Blue Chips - starting such wasted talent as Nick Nolte! Not to mention such all star actors as Shaquille O'Neal. From the get-go, it is not the smartest of movies, but it did have its fair share of entertaining value as the movie progressed. I thought Shaq would be a dismal actor, but he came to play, or at least more than Nolte did. I felt Nolte and his character were wildly out of control, not balanced with the movie, and simply not quality. I clearly understand that his character is a wild individual, but the odd mood swings, and multi-persona touch that he added to the character was weird and distracting.Props to Shaq for dunking nearly continously during the film - once again showing that his shooting range is typically 2-3 inches. A shame too, because the movie highlight this stereotype and runs with it. Penny was alright, but in this day in age, where is his almost a forgotten player, it was more of a nostalgia to watch him in the movie.Overall, the movie sucked. The moral plot was weak, and there was little else to the content of the film. By far the worst part was the ended which gives rather weak explanations of what happens post-ending. 5/10 stars for some decent basketball footage, and a different type of basketball movie. But it lacks five stars for poor plot, acting, and a sloppy ending which tries to tie together a bunch of moral stuff without much success.

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