‘Uncle Drew’ turns a commercial into a fun, entertaining comedy

Posted on July 6, 2018

By MARK VIOLA

Back in 2012, Pepsi Max unveiled a series of commercials/short films revolving around Uncle Drew, an aging street basketball player who was actually NBA star Kyrie Irving under a lot of makeup. The shorts featured Irving — disguised as Uncle Drew — schooling groups of street ballers and were quite a hit on the internet and elsewhere. Honestly, I remember the Uncle Drew character more than I remembered that Pepsi Max was actually a thing until Pepsi changed the name in 2016.

Now, we have the movie “Uncle Drew,” co-produced by Pepsi, expanding on the story of the famous, fictional baller with plenty of other basketball pros joining Irving under the makeup. The result is an odd little basketball film that hits most of the usual beats you’d expect from an underdog sports flick, but it does so in such a strange, unabashed way that you can’t help but laugh even when the story itself is anything but original.

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