Uncle Drew Parent Guide

Basketball is a fast paced, high scoring, exciting game. One would expect a movie based on the sport to have the same qualities. But, life, as the saying goes, is full of surprises…

Uncle Drew begins with Dax (Lil Rel Howery), a shoe salesman and amateur basketball coach, who has scraped together a team and the $5000 entry fee for Harlem’s famed Rucker Tournament. One week before it begins, his team is wooed away by his nemesis – a cartoonishly immature rival from his teen years named Mookie (Nick Kroll). Humiliated, broke, and homeless when his girlfriend kicks him out (only to let Mookie move in), Dax decides his only hope is to find another team and make a desperate try for the Rucker’s $100,000 prize.

Wandering through Harlem, Dax stumbles across Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving) as he trounces a young man on an outdoor court. Dax is familiar with the old man’s legend – a brilliant player who threw away his chance at winning the 1968 Rucker when he slept with a teammate’s girlfriend and destroyed the team. Despite his advanced age, Dax recognizes real talent. He begs Uncle Drew to play for him and eventually agrees to his demand to choose all the players. Not surprisingly, Uncle Drew wants to reunite his 1968 teammates, despite their age and interpersonal conflicts.

Uncle Drew’s idea of a winning basketball team could only be taken seriously in movie land. Their first pick is Preacher (Chris Webber), who is being chased from his church by his incensed, baseball bat-wielding wife (Lisa Leslie). Next, they head for an arcade where they find Lights (Reggie Miller), nearly blind and relying on his granddaughter (Erica Ash) to help him play the games. Next stop is the seniors’ center where they find Boots (Nate Robinson), almost catatonic, on psychiatric lockdown, and in a wheelchair. The last stop is at a dojo where Uncle Drew gets punched by Big Fella (Shaquille O’Neal) who has been teaching a karate class and nursing a 50 year old grudge.

The rest of the movie follows the predictable formula used in underdog sports movies, but Uncle Drew pushes past this genre and reaches into the realm of fantasy. On the eve of the tournament, Uncle Drew manages to restore Lights’ vision and get Boots out of his wheelchair and running down the court. (Clearly, muscles do not atrophy in Hollywood.) To no one’s surprise, Dax’s and Uncle Drew’s team makes it through the tournament and there is vindication and redemption all around.

Despite its unrealistic aspects, Uncle Drew has some positive messages about unity, teamwork, forgiveness, and not stereotyping people based on their age or physical appearance. Even with these good messages, this movie might struggle to find an audience. Children, ‘tweens and basketball fans of all ages will likely feel that this movie is paced too slowly. It takes a very long hour of driving around and talking before the characters finally make it to the basketball court. Older teens and adults may find the canned plot and improbable conclusion too hard to swallow. And adults old enough to seethe victory of elderly players as some kind of wish fulfillment will probably object to the pounding music.

As they look at their shambolic team, Uncle Drew tells Dax, “Play the game the right way, it fixes everything.” Maybe so. But Preacher’s warning is a better fit for this movie. “You can’t always play your way out of your problems.”