The film starts with a short documentary on Rucker Park Legends. Famed basketball players like Dikembe Mutombo and Steve Nash talk about one of the all-time greats, Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving). He was exceptionally great at the game and would play with a team of his own, but they split up after Drew allegedly slept with one of his teammates' girlfriends.
In the present, we meet Dax Winslow (Lil Rel Howery), a basketball coach. He is visited by his childhood nemesis Mookie (Nick Kroll), who seeks to take Dax's star player, Casper (Aaron Gordon). Dax tries to appeal to Casper and ask him if he needs anything. Knowing Dax works at a shoe store, he requests a new pair of Jordans sneakers, which Dax says he will secure for Casper once they arrive.
An amiable, good-natured film that delivers little of substance other than a pleasant "forget about the outside world" experience for 103 minutes. Sometimes that's good enough.
Uncle Drew is more than a vehicle to sell cola, not to mention basketball's chief product-placement fetish, sneakers. It's also a sweet-intentioned bit of summer fun.
The message is undercut by the fact that they're all decades younger than the movie says they are, and under the amateurish old-age makeup, they aren't actors enough to make it work.
Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, JB Smoove and Nick Kroll are terrific, as we'd expect. It's more of a surprise that basketballers Irving, Miller, Robinson, Leslie, et al., are also quite good.
Its heart is in the right place, but some lively performances from the better-than-you'd-expect ballers-turned-actors can only paper over a thin, cliché-riddled script so much.
"Uncle Drew confirms the urban legend that the best stand-up comedy, face-to-face drama, and spontaneously creative choreography can be found on city basketball courts."
