FIRST, LET's pretend Hubie Halloween didn’t happen.
With the sports comedy-drama Hustle, Adam Sandler sustains his run of “serious” movies, following the smash Uncut Gems. The Jeremiah Zagar-helmed film tells the story of tenured NBA scout Stanley Sugerman, played by Sandler, who stumbles upon Spanish basketball project Bo Cruz, portrayed by actual NBA pro Juancho Hernangomez. A series of unfortunate events leads Cruz to taking the unconventional route to the big league, with Sugerman putting his career on the line to help the former get there.
Oh, LeBron is in it, too, but in the producer role. Not a bad jump after being hailed Worst Actor by the Razzies for his performance in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Adam Sandler, super dry
We have to get used to this version of Adam Sandler. As much as I loved him in Click and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, dry Sandler is the best Sandler. The less he has to get physical — and shave — to make me laugh, the more his brand of comedy shines.
In Hustle, he lets the writing (Taylor Materne, Will Fetters) do its thing... then hits the mark with his understated acting. Queen Latifah, who plays Sugerman’s wife, complements Sandler with her sincere showing.
One could also argue that surrounding himself with non-actors (ballers) allowed Sandler to stand out, but I can’t deny the work that he has put in to add another dimension to his craft. I mean, it’s one thing to receive rave reviews, it’s another to change the industry’s perception of you as an actor.
Hustle likely won’t win Sandler an Oscar. But we think he'd just be satisfied with the respect of his peers.

How does the NBA players' acting stack up?
Alongside Sandler is Juancho Hernangomez, whose real-life personality couldn’t be farther from his character. In fact, The only similarity between Hernangomez and Bo Cruz is their nationality.
While the fictional character clawed his way to the league in his final year of draft eligibility, the real-life hooper was already winning medals for his country at 17. On the flipside, Cruz looked like he was about to develop into a solid two-way player by the end of the movie; the closest Hernangomez came to his on-screen potential was when he was traded to Minnesota, where he averaged almost 13 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the last 14 games of the 2019-20 season. (True story: When I looked up his stats online, I was surprised to learn that he’s now with the Utah Jazz.)
If you didn’t follow the game and saw Hustle, you would believe that Hernangomez was actually good — at least by NBA standards. Does that make him a good actor?
Moving on, there’s been a lot of praise coming Anthony Edwards’ way for his portrayal of the movie’s villain, top prospect Kermit Wilts. How do we know if he was really acting, though? If you’ve been following Ant-Man, you know that’s just the way he is: cocky and competitive as hell. If anything, give props to the writers for his Jordanesque trash talk.
More notes on NBA cameos:
Boban is the side character that you would root for.
Dirk’s phone call was short but silly.
Dr. J and AI had me hyped, even for a few seconds.
Where was Embiid?
As for the team the story revolves around, well, the Sixers keep losing with another second-round-exit [theatrical] performance from its supporting cast. And what’s up with the player mix in the final pickup game (Trae, Clarkson, Gordon)? It was also weird to watch Kenny flex his acting chops and not be seated beside Chuck during the Inside the NBA bit.

Does Hustle accurately portray the hustle?
I’ve read stories of how brutal scouting and recruitment is, even at the collegiate level. Hustle tries to paint the picture of the arduous process against the scenic backdrop of Philadelphia and Spain, but we get the sense that everything is painted over with a very broad brush.
For those who actually live Sugerman’s life, it's more than just the missed birthdays and remote hotels. Most of these talent agents face the harsh reality of possibly not finding that “missing piece” and sacrificing their prime [coaching] years. Hustle touches on the scouting slog, but ultimately, it’s not that different from typical feel-good stories about a sports underdog — in this case, a long-suffering agent and a cash-strapped talent — realizing his dreams.
If there are two things the film has going for it, it's Sandler’s self-reinvention, and its NBA star power. Those two go hand-in-hand. Knowing how big of a hoops junkie the actor is, doing scenes with the likes of Dr. J and Dirk must have been one giant wet dream.
So how does Hustle stack up against Adam Sandler's most recent serious movie? The comparisons to Uncut Gems were inevitable, but in actuality, the two Sandler starrers are as similar as Hernangomez and Bo Cruz.
Whereas the crime thriller is a gritty take on the volatile marriage between sports and gambling, Hustle is an aspirational look at the NBA grind behind closed doors. In Uncut Gems, basketball may be a driving element, but is really just a subplot. The sports comedy-drama, on the other hand, is basically a hoops fairy tale — the mythical cameos, almost-fantastic narrative, and [somewhat cringeworthy yet] happy ending.
Hustle has been described as Sandler’s love letter to basketball, and I can’t think of a better description.
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