I love basketball movies. They are fun, typically campy, and offer viewers an interesting concept for how a basketball team can be formed. In Space Jam (one of my favorite movies to this day), Michael Jordan teams up with characters from the iconic Looney Tunes franchise, and in Air Bud, a golden retriever is recruited to play basketball. Uncle Drew offers a new concept: what if all the players on a basketball team were 65-year-old men?
In Uncle Drew, an amateur basketball coach/Foot Locker employee Dax (Lil Rel Howrey) needs to recruit a team for a Harlem streetball tournament known as “The Rucker.” He needs a new team after his old one was stolen by his childhood rival, Mookie (Nick Kroll). After seeing the titular character, Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving) play, Dax is convinced that Drew can help him form a team to win The Rucker. Drew recruits his old teammates who he used to play with (who are also his age) while also convincing Dax that there’s more to the game of basketball than just skill.
Uncle Drew hits all the beats of a generic sports movie — the team gets together, they struggle, and in the end they learn to work together. However, the pacing of how and when these moments occur often seems sporadic and unplanned. The movie hits a halt when Dax and Uncle Drew are recruiting the other members of the team. The main issue is there’s no chemistry between the two and their relationship never really develops. They more or less have the same dynamic for most of the movie. On top of this, while Dax plays the straight man, Uncle Drew never plays the role of the comic relief.
One thing to note in Uncle Drew is that Kyrie Irving as the main character is not very compelling. He isn’t bad, but he doesn’t do anything to propel the movie forward or make it funny. In Space Jam, Michael Jordan is not a good actor. However, the movie distracts you by having Looney Tunes do most of the heavy-lifting, so Michael Jordan just has to be there and play basketball. In Uncle Drew, the supporting cast of characters do little to make the movie funny or help take some of the load off Irving. The most entertaining character on the team is Big Fella (Shaquille O’Nea)l, and that’s because it’s just funny to watch Shaq on the screen do silly things.
The premise of Uncle Drew is silly, but the movie rarely leans into this. Yes, there is a great sequence where Uncle Drew’s team has a dance off against some young club goers. That is probably one of my favorite parts of the movie, but these moments are few and far between. There are brief moments where characters see what these old men are doing and are shocked by what is going on — but this is never a focus of the movie. The reason Uncle Drew should be interesting is that any time someone sees these senior citizens play well the viewers in the movie should become ecstatic and freak out like most NBA Players during the dunk contest. Unfortunately, the reactions to Uncle Drew’s team are a smile and “well that was interesting.”
Even the funny moments take the viewer out of the movie. One involves a player making fun of Shaq’s character because he can’t make free throws. This is purely an inside joke for basketball fans, and there are too many (or not enough if that’s what they’re going for) in the movie.
At the end of the day, it seems that Uncle Drew is a movie for basketball fans. If you want to see some of your favorite players dress up as senior citizens and play some basketball and have yourself a few laughs, then Uncle Drew is for you. Unfortunately, I think most audiences will just leave the theater mostly confused with maybe a few chuckles.
Rating: 5/10
