Uncle Drew can't buy a bucket

Kyrie Irving in Uncle Drew. Image courtesy Lionsgate.

There is something at least mildly intriguing about the Uncle Drew commercials. For a piece of pure commercialism, they have a little soul and grit, a little mystery hidden underneath the inherent silliness of the premise. The cinematography is exceptional for a commercial, depicting the simple beauty of a basketball court at night. The ads do little to hide their nature (I doubt people are chugging Pepsi Max at courts across the country), but for commercials those nuggets are chill and cool and still fun to watch.

And yet none of that translates into Uncle Drew, the feature-length adaptation of the commercial series. Despite ripping off the story arc of the Pepsi commercials, the movie adaptation went in a far more comedic, broad direction. The smooth simplicity of the Pepsi Max commercials are gone, replaced by forced wackiness, weak sauce storytelling, and stale old-man jokes. Even as vessels to sell a bland Pepsi product, the commercials are far, far superior than the cinematic adaptation, a rather disturbing fact that results in an often disheartening cinematic viewing experience.

In both the commercials and the movie, Uncle Drew is a streetball legend (played by Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving) who goes around basketball courts across the country to school some uneducated, impetuous ballers. The plot basically follows the story from the commercials, with Uncle Drew running back his old squad back (older versions of former NBA players Chris Webber, Nate Robinson, Reggie Miller, and Shaq, as well as WNBA great Lisa Leslie) for a tournament at the legendary Rucker Park. They're playing on behalf of the desperate Dax (Lil Rel Howery), whose star player Casper (Orlando Magic forward Aaron Gordon) and the rest of his team is swiped by longtime rival Mookie (Nick Kroll). Dax's girlfriend Jess (Tiffany Haddish) also dumps him early on, but he meets the far cooler Maya (Erica Ash) in the second act, and they inevitably hook up after Dax hits the big shot to end the big game.

As a film, Uncle Drew is pretty dire. None of the basketball players save Webber (who gets the best line of the movie) can act, and much of their activities on screen amount to time consumption.The plot is carried by sport clichés and even more filler that makes for what feel like an endless movie. Writer Jay Longino's script is covered in illogical decisions, gaping holes in continuity, and uninteresting, exposition inflated dialog. There are jokes that appear on occasion, which are immediately commented on by Dax to undermine whatever humor might have existed in the first place. It’s easy to tell Howery is trying to improvise throughout, despite the absence of decent material to spin off from. Director Charles Stone III seems unenthusiastic about his material, and it shows in the film's overarching sloppiness and laziness. As a basic piece of filmmaking, Uncle Drew fails phenomenally.

Yet even all of the sloppiness and laziness can’t strip Uncle Drew of its unadulterated love for basketball. The movie hints at an interesting idea about how basketball is a cornerstone for a community, a sport people can gather together to admire athletic brilliance and smooth crossovers. Uncle Drew is pretty OK when it puts the camera in front of the players and just shoots the game, giving its players some time to shine. And even if the cast can’t act, they can all ball, with Irving showcasing his splendid handle and Webber capturing glimpses of his unique brilliance as a player. Even Gordon, completely wasted on the Orlando Magic, gets a few moments to shine. The glimpses of these players messing around the court are the closest Uncle Drew gets to having a highlight. 

 

A smarter filmmaker would make the court the soul of this movie. Alas, the basketball is dispiritingly sparse in Uncle Drew. The movie talks about the spirituality of the sport without really showing the effects it has on the soul. Rucker Park is a great setting for a movie like this because of how much it embodies the sense community the sport can breed, yet the movie hardly takes advantage of having such a splendid church to pray in. There might be something to Uncle Drew if the basketball came first; the movie still wouldn't be good, but it would at least be something worth watching.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 103 minutes

Genre: Comedy

tl;dr

What Worked: Chris Webber, Tiffany Haddish, Nick Kroll, the basketball

What Sucked: The plot, the jokes, Kyrie Irving's old-man voice, Shaq's old-man makeup

Watch Instead: Blues Brothers, Love & Basketball, Gunnin' for That #1 Spot, Above the Rim