COURT JESTER “
Irving plays old-time baller with dazzling skills in ‘Uncle Drew’
MOVIES
Uncle Drew” is unabashedly simple and straightforward, a comedy without complexity.
The goal is winning the Rucker Classic, a legendary street ball tournament in Harlem that awards a sizable cash prize.
Pint-sized Dax (Lil Rel Howery) sells sneakers and doubles as a team manager. He’s maxed out his credit cards and borrowed from his shop-till-you-drop girlfriend Jess (Tiffany Haddish).
Despite all of this, Dax’s team bolts for a greener pasture embodied by arrogant big-mouth Mookie (Nick Kroll, easily stealing this show).
Jess follows, throwing Dax out and taking up with Mookie.
Enter Uncle Drew (26-year-old NBA star and Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving), a white-haired codger who rounds up a geezer team to show the young’uns how to play basketball the old-fashioned way.
Will he beat the pants on the smarmy upstarts who presume this prestigious Harlem tournament is theirs for the taking?
Do you have to ask? And that makes for a weird disconnect. Because no one is expected to take this overthe-hill gang for anything but guys playing dress-up.
“Uncle Drew” is actually an extension of an online series of Pepsi-sponsored shorts that began in 2012 and have reportedly been viewed 51 million times on the soft drink’s website.
“Uncle Drew” doesn’t seem like one big commercial for the soft drink or ESPN, another producer, but it does seem like you’re watching a kind of live action cartoon.
The performances are broad, the scenario predictable. The fun really is in the familiarity, good vibes and genial charm of a large ensemble that never ever winks or condescends to the material but offers conviction and dedication.
Shaquille O’Neal is the most familiar face among a crew of retired NBA stars. There are fast moves, well-edited and shot, for the competition games and a smile-inducing moment when the old guys take to a disco floor and do their thing.
They may not be the Temptations but they’ll really get a hold on you.