Adam Sandler plays a washed-up basketball scout in the teaser for Netflix’s Hustle
The sports drama feature is another production by Lebron James
Aux News Netflix
Lebron James is sticking to what he knows by producing another basketball film, albeit a vastly different one than the dreaded Space Jam: A New Legacy. For Netflix’s Hustle, Adam Sandler has been recruited to lead the film about a washed-up former basketball scout who happens upon an incredible talent.
Sandler stars in Hustle as the down-on-his luck scout who discovers a promising player (Juancho Hernangómez) with a tarnished past in Spain. Sandler’s character takes the athlete under his wing, and brings him to the States where sets out to take the hidden star all the way to the NBA.
The full cast of Hustle includes Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, Kenny Smith, Ainhoa Pillet, Raul Castillo, Jordan Elizabeth Hull, Maria Botto, Heidi Gardner and Robert Duvall. Hernangómez, a Spanish-born NBA player currently playing for the Utah Jazz, makes his acting debut in the film.
In the teaser, Sandler gives Hernangómez a serious talking to about the difference between raw talent and an obsession with “the game.” He says loving the sport to the point of obsession will beat out talent on any given day.
Hustle marks the ninth movie Sandler has starred in for Netflix since signing what was originally a four-movie deal back in 2014. Under this deal, he’s starred in The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, Sandy Wexler, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), The Week Of, Murder Mystery, and Hubie Halloween, as well as the 2018 musical comedy special 100% Fresh. He’s also got a sequel for Murder Mystery lined up at the streamer starring Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Tony Goldwyn, Jodie Turner-Smith, and more.
Prior to 2020's Hubie Halloween, the actor received well-deserved praise for his performance in the Safdie Brothers’ Uncut Gems (or if you’re Julia Fox, Uncaht Jamzz) as big time basketball gambler Howard Ratner.
Hustle premieres on Netflix on June 10, 2022.
54 Comments
OBLIGATORY:
Adam Sandler is usually so good when he puts on his drama hat (Uncut Gems and Punch-Drunk Love are two of my favorite movies), so damn, maybe I’ll watch a fuckin basketball movie
You mean his drama beard?
I love his drama beard almost as much as I love a response that’s better than the original comment
Is that what they call whatever 25-year old smokeshow is supposed to unbelievably fall in love with him?
Say what you will, but it’s been a while since Sandler’s had a smokeshow younger than 40 in a movie. Don’t get me wrong, Julie Bowen is still pretty damn hot, but she’s like four years younger than Sandler.
Julia Fox in Uncut Gems?
There you get the “fall in love with him” part, where the whole point is she was just fucking him because he was rich and her betrayal is instrumental in his downfall.
Tom Cruise?
The best Adam Sandler basketball drama is clearly 8 Crazy Nights
Watch The Meyerowitz Stories. His performance in that is just lovely. Ben Stiller is very good in it as well.
He could bring dignity to a serious BASEketball movie. Call him, Trey and Matt, let’s do this! Dude.
The embedded video starts at 1:03 instead of the beginning. How do you guys keep doing this?
Watching the clip but not understanding the difference between “copy” and “copy from this time”? Yeah…seems pretty self-explanatory.
“Teaser” indeed.
They don’t even proofread anymore
I saw this film the first time when it was called “The Scout”.
76er’sQuestioning if you love the gameObessesion beats out talent speech
Anti Ben Simmons propaganda machine confirmed
Fuck Ben Simmons. Sorry, I couldn’t resist
“and brings him to the Sates”Where’s the proofreader poster at?
Remember when they made this movie with Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser, only it was about baseball and it was called The Scout?
Remember when they made this movie with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk and it was called “The Basketball Recruiters,” and it was less than seven minutes long?
Someone probably remembers when they made this movie with Ben Affleck called The Way Back but no one seems to have seen it.
I remember when Adam Sandler’s stupid fucking band played over Mr Show’s performance at the first Festival Supreme. I’m sure it was an honest mistake, but it was also deeply emblematic of 90s comedy.
Yeah, that’s pretty much perfect.
I had the same thought. Glad I’m not the only one who remembers that one.
Wait, movies can do things more than once?
I only remember the Kevin Bacon one
Remember when they made this movie with Jon Hamm, only it was about baseball and it was called Million Dollar Arm.
Didn’t Nick Nolte do something like this with I want to say Larry Bird?
Remember when they made this movie with Will Smith and Jae Head but it was called Hancock?
No, but I remember it starring Nick Nolte and Shaq and being called Blue Chips.
So it’s the Albert Brooks/Brendan Fraser movie “The Scout” but sports gender swapped. Right down to finding the disgraced superstar in a Spanish speaking country
I like ho comedians all have the desire to be loved and admired. Really comes out in these kinds of roles.
Who you callin’ a ho, ho?
It’s just a ho-asis here at the A.V. Club.
A guy who doesn’t work can definitely play his way out of a sport. But according to everyone I’ve known who was involved at the pro level (not that many, but still…), every single one of the guys on the roster was The Man at every step from little league through college or minors. Talent wins every time.
Yeah, but some people are The Man mostly because they work their asses off, not because they were exceptionally gifted physically.
What I mean is even the guys you see grinding every day just to stay in a pro league are the very most talented athletes at their sports. What they do with that talent is up to them, but there’s a baseline of natural ability that no amount of work can overcome.I had this conversation with Jeff Bagwell (randomly met him at a charity event) not long after he retired, and he was working as a roving minor league instructor for the Astros. I asked him how many guys manage to work their way into the major leagues, and he said none. Plenty don’t make it because they don’t maximize their talent. But every single player on a MLB roster was a bad motherfucker at every level before getting there.
I disagree with you, but it’s a 70 second long trailer.
It’s hilarious to me that this script is insisting that “talent versus hard work” is a thing at the pro level. It’s easily been 20 years since “lazy savants” could even begin to enter a serious conversation about best-of-the-best in any of the big-money sports.Andre Agassi was a classic example, and, as much as people loved him for his image and his TV commercials, he got eclipsed for most of his career by guys who worked harder. Winning that one French Open was his winning lottery ticket into the tennis history books for his era, and, like I’m saying, the next era basically just blew his era out of the fucking water. You could nab multiple versions of Federer, Nadal, and Djcoviditch from various points in their unusually long careers, and all of them would probably grind peak Agassi into dust.
If they wanted to get real, Sandler’s character would be skipping over natural talent, height, and hard work, and skipping straight to the serious stuff:1) Can you keep your genitals inside a relatively stable orbit of discreet and willing people, and your shit together on social media, so that the endorsements keep rolling in?2) Are you willing to let a shady private doctor inject highly experimental performance-enhancing designer drugs directly into your ass cheeks, subsequent to signing a byzantine (and likely unenforcable) NDA?
Adam peaked on Remote Control. All downhill from there.
This trailer looks like another case of NBA player turned lead actor who can’t act in a movie.
Ironic as Garnett was good in Uncut Gems!
Yes, he was, but KG always had that extra intense and funny kind of personality. Hernangomez just sat and stared in the trailer and though I watch a lot of NBA, I don’t know much about him off the court. So, who knows.
According to an interview with the Safdies, they were keeping their options open as to what NBA player they would wind up casting. Whoever it was, they would have to not have aged much and three consecutive games in their Finals needed to have an arc of win-loss-win. At one point they were circling Kobe.
What part will Kevin James play?
Don’t you mean Rob Schneider?
We get it. Happy likes to hoop
Oh…an Adam Sandler movie…
Think he’s a tedious creep even in those handful of performances critics rave about. Pass.
“He says loving the sport to the point of obsession will beat out talent on any given day.”Sorry Bud, ya gotta have both. Yur fucked.
The concept of Hubie Halloween is so stupid, but it makes me laugh. I might eventually break and watch it
Jesús Shuttlesworth.