Uncle Drew (2018) review

Many folks of my generation will no doubt be familiar with the 1996 sports comedy flick Space Jam. Starring the legendary basketball icon Michael Jordan as himself, the film saw him teaming up with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes in a basketball game against a group of aliens. Upon its release, the film grossed over $230 million worldwide, becoming both the highest-grossing basketball film of all-time and one of the most famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask…) cult classics of the 90’s. But what some folks may not know is that the film was inspired by a Nike commercial that Jordan had done in which he played basketball with Bugs Bunny, which initially aired during Super Bowl XXVI. The only reason why I bring both this and Space Jam up is because today’s film, Uncle Drew, is a lot like it as far as its inception is concerned. It all began with a series of commercials in 2012 for the product Pepsi Max that starred current Boston Celtics star Kyrie Irving as the titular Uncle Drew, an elderly man who taught ‘youngbloods’ how to ‘get buckets’. These commercials proved to be a very big hit, and thus, now we have a feature film based around Irving’s character. The film is brought to us by veteran director Charles Stone III, who also helmed another notable sports comedy, the 2004 Bernie Mac vehicle Mr. 3000 (he also created the famous ‘Whassup?’ advertising campaign for Budweiser). And while this film is exactly what you’d expect from a sports film that was based off a soda product, it is also a genuinely enjoyable crowd-pleasing comedy.

In the city of Harlem, a young man named Dax (Lil Rel Howery) constantly finds himself dealing with bad luck ever since he was blamed for losing a high school basketball game. Despite his best efforts to recruit a team of skilled basketball players to participate in a local streetball tournament, he ends up losing all his players to Mookie (Nick Kroll), his longtime rival who was also the one who embarrassed him in that high school game years back. If that wasn’t enough, Mookie even steals Dax’s girlfriend Jess (Tiffany Haddish) as well. As Dax grows increasingly desperate about trying to win the tournament and collect its $100,000 prize, he ends up crossing paths with the most famous streetball player of all-time, Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving). Amazed at how the aging Drew is still able to hold his own against much younger and agile players, Dax manages to convince him to headline his new team on the condition that Drew can recruit his old teammates as well. Thus, the two embark on a crazy cross-country road trip to reunite Drew with his pals; martial-arts instructor Big Fella (Shaquille O’Neal), aptly named church minister Preacher (Chris Webber) and his wife Betty Lou (Lisa Leslie), blind sharpshooter Lights (Reggie Miller), and wheelchair-confined Boots (Nate Robinson).

Now to be perfectly blunt, folks, this is a sports film that has all the usual trappings that come with the genre. Its plot is extremely predictable in terms of where it goes with its characters, from Drew and Big Fella dealing with an incident from their past that caused a colossal rift in their friendship to Dax overcoming that embarrassing moment from his past. In short, this is not the film to go into expecting a layered plot, especially since it’s based off a series of Pepsi commercials. But as far as being a simple little sports comedy, this film at least succeeds at being just that. After an admittedly slow start (i.e. it takes a little while before we even see Uncle Drew himself), this film maintains a decently consistent track record throughout with its humor, which is all thanks to its entertaining cast. For being his first major foray into acting, Kyrie Irving’s got some nice comedic timing, and the same goes for the other NBA stars (WNBA in Lisa Leslie’s case) as well. The film’s non-NBA stars get some solid material to work with as well, especially Lil Rel Howery (AKA Rod the TS-mother****ing-A agent from Get Out) in his first major leading role as the straight man to all the crazy shenanigans that Drew and his friends get into. Because of all this, while there may not be that much to write home about with this film, Uncle Drew is still a good time to be had at the theater, with a nice, uncynical tone that thoroughly respects the old-school ways in which the game of basketball is played.

Rating: 3.5/5