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In 2012, NBA star Kyrie Irving teamed up with Pepsi to star in a series of videos about an old man who takes to the basketball courts and shows the young kids how it’s done. And in Uncle Drew, the big-screen adaptation of those PepsiMax commercials, he joins with some old friends to return to competition.
Uncle Drew follows Dax Winslow (Lil Rel Howery) as he tries to turn his life around by coaching a team in the Rucker Classic basketball tournament in Harlem and taking home the $100,000 prize. After losing a promising team to his longtime rival, Mookie (Nick Kroll), Dax convinces Rucker legend Uncle Drew (Irving) to play—but only if they can get his old team back together. So they set out on the road, traveling to churches and nursing homes, to reunite old friends and patch old wounds on their journey back to the court.
Of course, the main draw for this film is just the novelty of it all: NBA legends transforming themselves into septuagenarians and taking to the court for some hoops and some laughs. Beyond that, though, Uncle Drew isn’t a surprising film. Part road trip comedy and part inspirational sports drama, it fits neatly into all of the same old formulas. The conflicts feel forced and generally underwhelming, and it takes quite a bit longer than necessary to establish the story and get to the action.
It also isn’t an especially hilarious film. It has plenty of clueless old guy jokes and a bunch of gags about Dax’s height. It’s amusing but not outrageous, relying heavily on the quirkiness of the concept to keep the laughs coming.
Somehow, though, it still works. The personalities are silly, and their stories are even sillier—yet, despite the formulas and predictability and the ridiculousness of it all, it has enough charm and humor to carry it through. It’s a story about friendship and regret and the love of the game. And no matter how many times we’ve seen a story just like this one—the typical against-all-odds sports story—it’s still the kind of crowd-pleasing movie that will have audiences cheering on the underdogs before walking out of the theater with smiles on their faces.
Uncle Drew isn’t a brilliant movie, but it’s cute and quirky and entertaining. And for basketball fans, the novelty of the all-star cast in old-age makeup alone makes it worth checking out.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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