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With the World Cup and Wimbledon in full swing, the studios have largely counter-scheduled British film releases in the face of sport in recent weeks. It is surprising that two sports comedies have debuted in theaters this week – the synchronized swimming film Rob Brydon Swimming With Men and a film by Pepsi Productions, Uncle Drew starring Lil Rey Howery and Tiffany Haddish alongside a team of professional basketball players disguised as old age prostheses.
Uncle Drew revolves around the seven-year-old Kyrie Irving, a 26-year-old NBA player, who appeared for the first time in a Pepsi Max pub in 2012. Here he is interpreted as an urban streetball legend of Harlem who must team up with the frustrated young coach Dax (Howery) to recover his shot during a major tournament.
Having lost his own talented players to a rival coach (Nick Kroll) and was thrown into the street by his shopaholic girlfriend (Haddish), Dax turns to Uncle Drew for help in to form a new team. What he gets instead is an old team, while the unlikely couple travels the country to assemble a list of players of the same age, played by Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, Lisa Leslie and Shaquille O & # 39; Neal. [19659003] Surprisingly, for a film commissioned by a soft drink company, it really has its heart in the right place. In the lineage of comedies directed by personalities who are not best known for acting, this aspires more to The Blues Brothers than to Space Jam in his tone, introducing his casting through a "mission". of God "road-trip style." It is therefore regrettable that the scenario of Jay Longino is not funny enough.
Of course, the film is mainly turned to laughter rather than laughter, and there is a very Funny physical comedy at a baptism, where the baby seems in danger of being soaked in a baptismal basin by Webber's overly enthusiastic preacher.This is not even a problem if the film follows all the rhythms of this kind of comedy in the times, because predictable as it is, it's still a softly entertaining watch.
But all you can draw from it is based on the amazingly good basketball casting In no case am I a fan of the NBA, but I still enjoyed performance as a performance.The use of prosthetics is consistent with some of Eddie Murphy's comedies. , but it is not there to hide the lack of player play from the players. It's a hot film that relies primarily on personality, and despite all the inevitable jokes about older men in the script, the players play sincerely, especially Irving, Webber and Robinson.
Their physical performances may be on the spot, but the film faces real problems whenever any of them has to say the slightest dialogue. Without being able to rub shoulders with the charm, you can see the most seasoned comic actors wading around with this material. Howery makes an obvious reference to Get Out which leaves you to think that he thought his character in Get Out looked like him, Haddish did what she does. better than she can, and Kroll delights in playing the most talented character he's ever played, including the literal shower he laid out in Sausage Party [19659003] Although the match scenes are largely tension-free, director Charles Stone III brings their own. Even he is in familiar territory, having traced a similar arc of a pro retiree returning to his game in the vehicle Bernie Mac M. 3000 . In the end, it's hard to get around the flaws of the screenplay, which has too few jokes and too many, far too many uses of the phrase "youngblood"
Uncle Drew has very nice comic performances and a sincere message, but his script by the numbers tempers him into mediocrity. If you discover it on Film4 one afternoon in a few years, there are a few things to like, but it's far too easy to recommend for sports fans right now. Still, at least that's more than just a soft drink answer to Space Jam .
Uncle Drew is now in British cinemas.
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