Basketball Movie Review
Uncle Drew
Kyrie Irving turns a Pepsi character into a feature film and recruits enough Hall of Fame-level old heads to make the casting more interesting than the plot.
The story is thin, the roster is ridiculous and the movie understands exactly why watching Kyrie, Shaq, Webber, Reggie and Lisa Leslie mess around with basketball is fun.
Movie details
2018 · 1h 43m · Comedy
Director Charles Stone III
- Kyrie Irving
- Lil Rel Howery
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Chris Webber
- Reggie Miller
- Lisa Leslie
- Uncle Drew began as a 2012 Pepsi Max short-film ad campaign starring Kyrie Irving before becoming a feature movie six years later.
- The feature's old-head squad is absurdly stacked: Kyrie Irving, Shaq, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson and Lisa Leslie all suit up.
01
The Take
Uncle Drew is a commercial character stretched to feature length, and you can feel the stretch. The trick is that the movie does not need a complicated story. It needs Kyrie in old-man makeup talking like every park legend who swears the game was better before you were born, then it needs to keep finding excuses to put basketball people around him.
02
Does the Basketball Hold Up?
The advantage is obvious: Kyrie Irving can do Kyrie Irving things without the camera hiding anything. Add Shaq, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson and Lisa Leslie and even the broad comedy gets moments of natural movement that actor-led basketball films cannot buy.
03
Best Basketball Moment
The old squad finally sharing the floor and letting each player's real basketball identity peek through the prosthetics. The movie is at its best when the joke gets out of the way and the hoopers start hooping.
04
Ball Cred
A fictional team loaded with actual elite players. The screenplay is not the source of the credibility; the cast is.