NBA greats step up their comedy game in ‘Drew’
At times the basketball comedy “Uncle Drew” feels like a clever “Saturday Night Live” short film stretched to the point of pulling a hamstring in an effort to become an actual movie.
Or should I say an inventive series of TV ads stretched to movie length, seeing as how it’s based on Pepsi Max advertisements with NBA star Kyrie Irving playing the title character, a onetime playground legend who still has game decades after his prime.
No matter. Even though “Uncle Drew” is outlandish and predictable and downright corny, I loved the positive energy of this film, I got a kick out of the winning performances from a cast of All-Star comic actors and All-Star, well, All-Stars — and I laughed out loud at a steady diet of inside-basketball jokes.
Come on: When a whitehaired, 70-something, karate-loving man-mountain played by Shaquille O’Neal gets frustrated on the court and says to a ball hog, “Pass the ball, KOBE,” that’s pretty great.
Lil Rel Howery (who stole every minute he was onscreen as TSA officer Rod Williams in “Get Out”) stars as Dax, a diminutive and slightly portly part-time basketball coach and fulltime sneaker salesman who is getting his team ready for the annual Rucker Classic — a legendary, outdoorcourt tournament in Harlem featuring some of the best freelance players in the country. Every year, Dax’s team loses to a squad coached by his nemesis, the trashtalking d-bag Mookie (Nick Kroll), who has haunted Dax since he blocked Dax’s potential championshipwinning shot when they were kids. It looks like history will repeat itself this year when Mookie steals Dax’s star player, Casper (Aaron Gordon of the Orlando Magic) and Dax’s shallow, trash-talking girlfriend Jess (Tiffany Haddish, in her comfort zone and easily scoring numerous laughs). An old-timey barber urges Dax to seek out the legendary Uncle Drew (Ky- rie Irving, virtually unrecognizable beneath the superb makeup) — and while Dax is scouring the outdoor courts of New York in a desperate quest to assemble a new team, he stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend himself.
Turns out Uncle Drew still has game. After Uncle D schools a “young blood” in a game of one-on-one, Dax recruits him to play in the Rucker Classic. Drew agrees — but only if he can assemble the roster.
In “Blues Brothers” fashion, they put the band back together — a group that eventually includes Preacher (Chris Webber); Preacher’s wife Betty Lou (three-time WNBA MVP Lisa Leslie); the nearly blind former sharpshooter Lights (Reggie Miller); the mountainous Big Fella (Shaq), still nursing a grudge against Uncle Drew after Uncle D’s terrible betrayal, and Boots (Nate Robinson), who is in a wheelchair and lives in an assisted living facility.
Of course there’s a moment when the geriatric squad walks toward the camera in a slow motion. Of course there’s a danceoff in a nightclub, pitting the grandpa squad against a bunch of trash-talking young ones. Of course there’s the time-honored sports movie ending, when everything is on the line and it’s all down to ONE … LAST … SHOT.
Howery and Haddish are terrific, as we’d expect. It’s more of a surprise that basketballers Irving, Miller, Robinson, Leslie, et al., are also quite good.
I’m gonna go out on a limb: This is Shaquille O’Neal’s best performance since “Kazaam.”
There. I said it.