Hustle

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⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

As Tim says, this movie is a classic love letter to all NBA fans out there. It is an incredibly standard sports movie with all the regular beats, complete with a montage and some corny off-the-court family stuff. In terms of sports movies, this one is pretty lame and full of cliche.

However! This movie is a ton of fun for a lot of other reasons. Basketball fans know that Adam Sandler is a huge NBA fan and you could totally tell this was him living his dream and somehow that made me happy. This movie is full of not just cameos, but actual acted roles by NBA players. And they're not bad! Most are small and hard to screw up, but Anthony Edwards, the NBAs most loveable 6'6" adolescent, kills it in his villain role. And then Juancho is pretty good as the lead, and what he lacks in charisma he makes up for in otherworldly handsomeness. What a hottie! I guess I never knew what he looked like cuz he's not exactly focused on during actual games.

Sports movies are always weird for me because obviously these movies are made for the big time fans, but also big time fans know that this is not how sports work. Why is a scout training a player? Why are executives impressed by a guy shooting in an open gym? Why is it okay that a combine game is turning into a one on one match?! I always wonder who exactly the audience for these are, and why they can't just make a movie that actually operates the way normal sports do? A few tweaks would clean all that up.

So that's it. It's a pretty bad to average sports movie, bit filled with so much love for the NBA that it's hard not to love for the bigtime fan. Can't say I'd really recommend it to people otherwise, but the critics say otherwise. The people want the wholesome content! And this is certainly that.

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