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Kyrie Irving in Uncle Drew.Quantrell D. Colbert/Lionsgate

  • Uncle Drew
  • Written by: Jay Longino
  • Directed by: Charles Stone III
  • Starring: Kyrie Irving, Lil Rel Howery, Nick Kroll, Tiffany Haddish, Shaquille O’Neal, Chis Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson
  • Classification: PG/104 minutes

Rating:

2.5 out of 4 stars

Soft drink. Soft film. The fun-enough basketball-based comedy Uncle Drew began life as a series of Pepsi-made short films starring NBA all-star Kyrie Irving as the titular street-baller who hustles his opponents by posing as a white-bearded codger. In this feature film tease-out, Irving’s strangely nephew-less Uncle Drew actually is an old man, albeit with his mad skills intact. He’s brought out of retirement by Dax, a diminutive Foot Locker employee (portrayed winningly by stand-up comedian Lil Rel Howery) desperately looking for love, family, redemption and a team to guide in an annual Harlem basketball tournament. He just might find all those things when he and Uncle Drew hit the road in the latter’s electric-orange Econoline, a shag-rug time capsule tricked out with an 8-track stereo that does not play the “rappity hippity hop.” They round up Uncle Drew’s septuagenarian gang (played by former ballers Shaquille O’Neal, Chis Webber, Reggie Miller and Nate Robinson). Facial prosthetics, Inside Hoops humour and Barbershop-styled trash talk ensue. Pepsi is one of film’s producers, but painkiller Aleve gets better product placement. Spare some for the arthritic plot, please.

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