Uncle Drew Finishes Hard in the Paint

Uncle Drew (2018)

Uncle Drew was way better than it deserved to be. It is a movie based on a Pepsi commercial from 2012. It should not have worked. It should not have had any funny moments. It should not have had any emotional moments. It should not have had any athletes acting adequately. It should not have had any rampant product placement. Actually, it should have had the last one, but the rest was a surprise. I am blown away by how much I enjoyed Uncle Drew. By every measure, it should have been irredeemably bad, but it was equal parts cheesy humor and cheesy sports movie clichés that it worked. I am having trouble finding the words through my shock. I knew that Nick Kroll and Lil Rel Howery would be able to lighten up their scenes, but the humor from the basketball players was much better than anticipated. I wasn’t too surprised with O’Neal, Miller, Leslie, and Webber because they are on-air veterans, but Kyrie Irving was better than mediocre, which isn’t fair. One person shouldn’t have more than one multi-million dollar talent. Beyond just the cast, the actual story was simple, but coherent and fast. Everything made sense, and while some of the jokes were swiping at low hanging fruit, there were plenty of deeper cuts and references for NBA fans. The only scene that felt out of place was the dance off in the club, which was meant to feel like a parody, but was too earnest and it just fell flat. I can’t say that Uncle Drew was a good movie, but I had a good time and it was enough to cement my opinion that the Celtics should not trade away Irving to make room for Lebron James. I give Uncle Drew 4 out of 6 geriatric ballers.

On a side note, there were no trailers before the movie, which was weird. The theater played their usual commercials, then their “Don’t be a tool in the theater” segment, and then the movie just started. I am curious if the theater did that on purpose because the last commercial was the Sprite commercial with Lebron James as a baseball closer. It really hammered home the message that Lebron and Kyrie can never coexist, and it is all because of soda.