Hustle

People talk a lot of smack about Netflix, because 90% of the stuff they have is garbage, they haven’t added a great, or even very good, TV series for a while and the sequels mostly lack the charisma of the originals, but, in their defense, they do keep adding comedy specials and films, and even though most of those are garbage, too, they occasionally come up with a gem.
Hustle, with Adam Sandler and Queen Latifa, is such a gem. I thought it was going to be like Sandy Wexler, and there were definitely similarities, but it was also a little bit like Rocky. The running up the hill montage was a bit over the top obvious homage, as was setting it in Philadelphia, but it all worked in the story, so you can’t say it was just Rocky with basketball, either.
It was a sweet, thoughtful story about men who loved their families, it was a rags to riches fantasy tale realistically told, it had some humor but it wasn’t your typical Adam Sandler cringe humor fest, it was simply fucking brilliant all around, including the music.
I like this version of Adam Sandler. Spanglish, Sandy Wexler, maybe Blended, and this. Oh, I kind of like it when he plays for the cheaper laughs, too. Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Anger Management and Fifty First Dates were all great films, but I like this new, non-childish, more sensitive Adam Sandler.
If you like sports movies, and appreciate watching Adam Sandler when he’s not pretending to be a big, middle-aged baby, you’ll like this.
And I hope Netflix keeps films like this coming.