"Uncle Drew" is not near one of the best movies of the year. However, it's the most fun I've had at the movies so far this year. Absolutely. Watching NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving, Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal and other NBA greats in grey beard old-geezer makeup is hysterical. Especially, when the "Seniors" school street ballers on the basketball court. Kyrie is surprising hilarious gravitas as fictional ESPN 30 for 30 street basketball legend Uncle Drew, who mysteriously disappeared after his Team's tragic collapse in the Rucker Classic Finals in 1968. Never heard from again, until now 2018. Predictable? Yes. Genuine? Amazingly so.
Director Charles Stone III and Writer Jay Longino expanded the Pepsi concept series where Kyrie Irving donned old man prosthetics and punked unsuspecting street ballers in New York City. "Uncle Drew" tips off with the ESPN 30 for 30 parody of Kyrie's Uncle Drew. In the overtly canny setup short soft Dax, played by comically perplexed Lil Rel Howery, discovers Uncle Drew displaying his point guard mastery on the court. Sage-like Uncle Drew says, "This game's all mental." Trite, yet true.
Dax is the sad dude displaced from coaching is own team for the 50th Anniversary Rucker Classic, when his mortal childhood basketball nemesis Mookie, idiotically vain Aaron Gordon, hijacks the team and also his shallow girlfriend Jess, outrageous Tiffany Haddish. The barbershop scene almost out of Eddie Murphy's "Coming to America" inspires Dax to form his new team with the legendary Uncle Drew.
Uncle Drew enrolls Dax in "getting the band back together". Dax reluctantly accompanies Uncle Drew in his pimped out van with Lakeside 8 track tapes. Chris Webber is the Preacher. Lisa Leslie is his disapproving wife Betty Lou. Reggie Miller is Lights "Out", the seemingly blind former 3 point shooting god. Nate Robinson is Boots the wheelchair bound grandfather of pretty Maya, played by charming Erica Ash, who is also Dax's blossoming love interest. Shaq is Big Fella the martial arts Sensei of his own Harlem Dojo. All the basketball stars rock, especially Shaq in his goofy Zen-like focus. Really, it's Kyrie's balance of whimsical and sentimental that lands home.
Director Stone mashes up hilarious gags in the climatic arc of the Rucker Tournament. The old guys get their butts handed to them by the State Champion Girls Team in challenge pickup game. Kyrie , Shaq and company bust their dance moves in the hysterical hip hop throw down. Throughout the ridiculousness what struck me was the genuine sense of joy watching these guys.
"Uncle Drew" is unabashedly about the love of the game, about the love for the thing that gives you life. After the old dudes get trounced by the teenage girl ballers, Maya tell Dax that they got the love back. She says, "Just look at them." When Dax was a kid playing ball, he stopped daring for greater. So he also has something at stake.
Kyrie is the heart and soul of this often overplayed sports narrative. He offers surprising poignancy when he tells Dax, "It's about the love, Youngblood nothing else." "Uncle Drew" amidst some noisy lunacy is about the love. Go after what's in your heart. We all get older, yet love what you love doing. Be it basketball. Be it Aikido for me.
Uncle Drew offers some wisdom we can all take home. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Yeah, strive valiantly and fail while daring greatly. Amen, "Uncle Drew".
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