Nick Nolte is Outstanding in his portrayal of a frustrated, ambitious basketball coach in 'Blue Chips'. The legendary actor, who's had a career full of amazing performances, tops himself, yet again with his portrayal in here.

'Blue Chips' Synopsis: A college basketball coach is forced to break the rules in order to get the players he needs to stay competitive.

'Blue Chips' is an interesting watch. Ron Shelton's Screenplay is grasping & often-confounding. It depicts a human-story, full of human-emotions & gives Nolte ample score to the anchor the film. William Friedkin's Direction is good.

Performance-Wise: Nolte is the life of the show. He's in complete command & holds the film from start to end. Its amongst his greatest performances, that proves us once again, what a fine actor Nolte is!

On the whole, 'Blue Chips' works & Nolte doesn't miss a single beat.

On its own, William Friedkin's "Blue Chips" has stood the test of time, focusing on a basketball coach who hopes to break his losing streak by cheating in his hiring practices. Nick Nolte's first scene - where he berates his team for their poor performance - makes you feel like you're walking on eggshells.

And then there's Shaquille O'Neal, making his film debut as one of the recruits. Shaq puts on a good performance, but his recent drift into anti-scientific mumbo jumbo (he believes the earth to be flat) makes his presence here less enjoyable.

Aside from that it's a good movie, with some impressive scenes of basketball games. Quite a different turn from the director of "The French Connection" and "The Exorcist".

Blue Chips gives us a view of high pressure college sports.It is a film about basketball that stars Nick Nolte as a college coach,Pete Bell,who was based loosely on Coach Bob Knight of Texas Tech,together with real- life basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal,Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway and Matt Nover as talented recruits.

Blue Chips examines greed, cheating, and "winning at all costs" in the world of college basketball. Pete Bell is the stressed-out coach on the verge of his first losing season, who hits the road in search of new players not already signed by a bigger school. He finds three prospects: a precision Chicago shooter Butch McRae,a giant farm boy Ricky Roe and a talented troublemaker Neon.

All three top prospects, wise to the ways of college basketball recruitment, make excessive financial and lifestyle demands before they can be persuaded to come to the school.Coach Bell, already haunted by accusations of underhanded dealings, doesn't want to dig himself a deeper hole but has no choice.

The movie was started really well.Director William Friedkin and Writer Ron Shelton made an accurate depiction of the reality of college recruitment and the morality play that schools figure in on the college sports.There was also a story about how college players get involved with game fixing themselves.The acting was great on Nick Nolte as usual.While the performance of Shaq was good for his first screen appearance.But in the end,it "chickened out" and opted for an implausible conclusion and resolved for a Hollywood ending.

But given its poor ending,Blue Chips is still an entertaining movie to watch especially for basketball fans.