UNCLE DREW (20180 – My rating: 8.5/10

Uncle Drew is a sports comedy directed by Charles Stone III and written by Jay Longino. Being that I’m not a lover of comedies, I didn’t know what to expect of Uncle Drew. All I can say is, I’m glad went to see it. To my surprise, a 5:05pm showing on a Tuesday, only had the 2 front rows available. I’ve changed my opinion of animated films and I think I will have to change my opinion of comedies. Keep reading to find out what all the fuss is about.

Uncle Drew is a basketball legend, especially in his neighborhood. Years ago, he was supposed to play at the Rucker Classic with his team, but due to an (unknown to everyone else) conflict, he and his team broke up and disappeared the night before the competition. He seemed to have disappeared, as no one had heard from him since that night of the Rucker Classic.

—  SLIGHT SPOILERS BELOW  —

Currently, Dax (Ashton Tyler) is an underappreciated coach of a team called Harlem’s Money. Broke and disillusioned with the condition of his current team, Dax also has a longstanding rivalry with Mookie (Nick Kroll). Mookie is a great basketball player and on a winning team. He also has a lot of mouth, as he steals Dax’s star player, Casper Jones (Aaron Gordon) and Dax’s girlfriend, Jess (Tiffany Haddish), who kicks him out of her apartment, leaving Dax homeless as well as broke.

An older neighborhood acquaintance, Angelo (J.B. Smoove) who hangs out in the barbershop, suggest that Dax try to find and meet Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving), after he is turned down by all the players he approached. Sad and bewildered, Dax oddly gets to see Uncle Drew play in the park. Drew turns out to be an exceptional basketball player, despite his age, so Dax approaches him and convinces Uncle Drew to join his team. However, there’s a condition. Uncle Drew wants his own team which consist of Preacher (Chris Webber), who has a wife, Betty Lou (Lisa Leslie) and a ministry, Boots (Nate Robinson) who’s in a wheel chair and in a nursing home under his granddaughter’s care Maya (Erica Ash), Big Fella (Shaquille O’Neal) who is enormous and teaches a karate class and Lights (Reggie Miller) who is partially blind.

To see where this all leads is hilarious.  Dax and Uncle Drew begin an adventure that will have you laughing the whole time.  Uncle Drew is utterly ridiculous but fun despite it’s craziness.  This movie is a delightful fantasy that will take you away from all the stressful politics, and negativity of the day.  I highly recommend it.  Everyone clapped when the movie ended — that’s always a good sign.  Check it out!

 

ROUGH NIGHT (2017) – My rating: 6.5/10

Rough Night was a rough movie.  While some of it was funny most of it was a play on male bonding comedies done many times before.  I found Rough Night down right silly yet tolerable.  There were quite a few “not so bad moments” along with too many annoying moments, as well.

The movie starts in 2006 with 4 friends Jess (Scarlett Johansson), Alice (Jillian Bell), Frankie (Ilana Glazer) and Blair (Zoë Kravitz) in their first year of college.  During this period of friendship and bonding, they are doing what first year students do, attending silly parties and performing senseless acts, like spitting a ball across the room to break a rubber boob.  Oh my, what a party that was.  Guys dressed in thongs, women dressed in ridiculous outfits that served no purpose and everyone just drank and did stupid things.  Nothing that really resembles a real party like dancing and meaningful conversation.  The film then takes us 10 years in the future where Jess is running for office and is engaged to be married to Peter (Paul W. Downs).  She seems to be out of touch with her old friends from college except for her upcoming bachelorette party. Alice, who always considered herself Jess’s best friend, decides that the four friends should spend the weekend in Miami partying. They are also joined by Pippa (Kate McKinnon), Jess’s friend from a semester she attended in Australia. The friends get high and party at a club and then decide to hire a male stripper (Ryan Cooper).  When the stripper arrives, the adventure really gets going.

The series of events is the meat of Rough Night so I can’t list what follows.  There’s a death, misunderstandings, an unexpected trip, unexpected sex, oversexed neighbors (Ty Burrell and Demi Moore), robbers, wild emotions, make ups, break ups, bodies, handcuffs, drugs, burner phones, diamonds, boats, a cop (Colton Haynes), hellos and good-byes.  Rough Night is a roller coaster of crazy.  It starts off crazy and ends crazy with crazy in the middle.  Good acting — but doesn’t measure up to any of the guy bonding movies like The Hangover Trilogies.  I would wait for the DVD.

 

FOCUS (2015) – My rating: 7.5/10

I go back to my statement a few weeks ago about Hollywood running out of new ideas for new movies.  I think if you’re going to do something that’s been done a million times before, you had better be two steps ahead of everyone else.  The trouble with Focus is, I started feeling like every word spoken was part of a con.  First, let me explain what Focus is about.  A con man Nicky (Will Smith), with a crew of cons has made his career about conning people out of their money, valuables and sometimes, even their dignity.  A wanna be con women Jess (Margot Robbie) tries to pull a scam on Nicky but fails.  She then persuades Nicky to teach her the tricks of the trade.  Together they manage to con half of New Orleans before it’s time to move on.  It’s interesting to see what and how scams and cons are pulled off.  Focus makes a person want to stay at home, forever.  In this world, there’s no trusting anyone.  I liked Focus but it’s nothing new.  So, is it okay to take an old concept and try to make it entertaining and different?  It’s absolutely okay to try but not easy to achieve.  Focus was entertaining for the most part but predictable.