“Hustle” Movie Review

“Hustle” is the latest Netflix and Happy Madison feature starring Adam Sandler and Utah Jazz Power Forward Juancho Hernangomez. The film follows Adam Sandler who works for the NBA franchise Philadelphia 76ers as an international scouting agent. A scouting agent travels all over the world, seeking out players that could be potentially drafted by an NBA team and making a report to the franchise whether they believe they would be worthy of their draft pick.

         Early in the film we see that Adam Sandler’s character is well respected by the owner of the 76ers but not quite so by the owner’s son. Adam Sandler gets promoted from talent scout to assistant coach, but this promotion is short-lived when the owner has an untimely death. Once the owner’s son assumes control of the team, he tells Adam Sandler that he is being demoted to scout since he believes Sandler is more valuable as a scout than a coach. The only hope for Sandler to get his job back is if he can find the next great talent.

         I am a huge NBA nerd, and I felt that this movie was tailored for someone like me. The average viewer might not understand all the little references or cameos, but I felt the movie did a good job not depending on them for story development. Many current and former players make appearances in the film such as Juancho Hernangomez as the second lead and Minnesota Timberwolves Guard Anthony Edwards as the cocky adversary of the Juancho character. Other appearances include NBA legends such as Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Dirk Nowitzki, Julius Erving, and many more.

         While I thought the movie was well made, I felt everything was perfectly average. The story is very much what we’ve seen in many other movies and doesn’t do anything to make it holy original. It’s very much the kind of movie where if you’ve seen other sports movies about a player trying to make it in the league, then you’ve basically already seen this movie. The references to the NBA and other appearances by players are fun, but for the uninitiated, I don’t think it’ll be very interesting.

         I thought Adam Sandler did a good job portraying his character but it’s not the standout performance as the one from Uncut Gems; I thought that’s mainly because the writing in Uncut Gems was better. On the other hand, Juancho Hernangomez delivered a surprisingly good performance for someone who wasn’t an actor before this movie. 

Overall, I felt the movie was okay. I don’t believe it’s a movie I would be interested in watching again, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy watching it. If you have an interest in sports movies, I would say this would be worth the watch.