What Men Want (2019)

Every so often, I see a TV show or movie that makes me think that there are no original ideas left.  I ask myself if we’re almost at the point where it will be impossible to write a script that doesn’t borrow heavily from something else.  A few years pass and something else comes up.

To be fair, I don’t get the impression that What Men Want is presenting itself as anything new.  It’s a remake of What Women Want, except the genders of the main characters are reversed.  Instead of a man being able to hear women’s thoughts, a woman is able to hear men’s thoughts.

Ali Davis is the woman who gains psychic powers.  She’s a sports agent that wants to make partner.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t quite get how to connect with men.  This is a problem, since most of her coworkers are male, as is the big star her agency wants to recruit.

As is usually the case with newfound thought-reading abilities, the inability to control the ability proves too much.  Ali is hit with all manner of male thoughts from getting a prostate checked to the usual lewd thoughts.  She’s scared until she realizes that she now has an in.  She can sneak into the secret card game that no one wants her to attend.  She can read the mind of Jamal Barry, the would-be client.  She can even read the mind of her hot neighbor with the patently adult nickname.

Ali wants to get an edge only to realize that many of the men are just as worried and insecure as she is.  The movie plays the concept for laughs, though.  There’s a doctor with a drug habit.  Ali is able to get two male coworkers together.  She even takes the lead at a meeting to recruit Jamal.  Stuff like that.  If you’ve seen the trailers you’re going to be in for absolutely zero surprises.  There’s even a case where Ali lies and it comes back to ruin a potential relationship.

Most of my problem with the movie is that it wasn’t as nuanced as it could have been.  Even if say it’s a comedy, jokes tend to be better when there are several layers of meaning.  Here, there’s very little that you could understand differently on a second viewing.  It’s a fun movie, but I don’t think there’s going ot be a lot of replay value here.  I’d wait to rent it on DVD.

IMDb page

Uncle Drew (2018)

Many years ago, when MMORPGs first came out, people seemed to be addicted.  The truth was that such games charged by the month, prompting people to play as much as possible.  I’ve noticed that MoviePass has had a similar effect on me.  Since the program charges by the month, there’s little incentive not to see a movie if I’m even marginally interested in it.  Such is the case with Uncle Drew.  My parents and I went out to see a movie and this was one we could all agree on.

The movie is about a man named Dax.  As you may have gathered from the coming attractions, he’s coaching a team entered in the Rucker Classic.  He’s literally put all of his money into the tournament.  Unfortunately, his entire team defects to his archrival, Mookie.  Thus, Dax has to get a new team together.  By chance, he meets a legend by the name of Uncle Drew.  Uncle Drew played in the tournament years ago, but he and his team disappeared before the final game.  Drew agrees to get his team back together for one more game.

I will admit that I probably wouldn’t have seen the movie in theaters had I not had MoviePass.  I probably would have waited for it to come out streaming, if anything.  This isn’t to say it’s bad.  It’s just that with three people going to see a movie, we needed something that we’d all agree on and this seemed the safest choice.

I’d warn of spoilers, but that’s kind of pointless here.  You can see a lot of the plot twists coming.  First, the team is geriatric.  Dax and Drew visit an actual nursing home to pick up one of the players, who’s bound to a wheelchair.  Another is legally blind.  So, yeah.  It’s about people you wouldn’t expect to be able to hold a ball beating those that would seem more capable.  And, yes.  They do quite well for themselves.

This is going to be my biggest spoiler:  You also know that one of the players will have to be replaced, most likely due to injury.  It’s just a question of when and how.  We also get not one but two replacements.  This leads to another cliché of Dax having to confront Mookie about their past.  Dax never could get over being denied what would have been the game-winning shot.

I also find it odd that in any movie involving a tournament, archrivals will be seeded so that they’ll have to face off in the finals.  The teams will never face off in the first round and both teams will definitely make it all the way, no matter how many obstacles are thrown at them.

It’s also a noticeably male-dominated movie.  Dax’s initial girlfriend, Jess, seems to be little more than an annoyance for him to move past.  Even the love interest, Maya, is little more than that.  She’s granddaughter to Boots and initially just his caretaker.  Yes, Preacher’s wife agrees to play, but it’s only for the final game.  The women are there, just not as main characters.

The movie was based on a series of commercials that Kyrie Irving stared in for Pepsi, hence Pepsi co-producing the film.  It also explains a lot of the product placement, like Pepsi vending machines and Gatorade-bottles.  (Gatorade and Pepsi are both produced by PepsiCo.)  I even noticed a sign for Oberto, which was distributed by PepsiCo subsidiary, Frito-Lay.  The product placement wasn’t over the top, but it was noticeable.

Despite all of this, the movie is enjoyable.  I wouldn’t call it memorable.  It’s the kind of movie you would probably see in a group because everyone can agree on it.  I don’t know that you’ll get a lot of replay out of it, though.  It’s an excuse to see basketball players star as older basketball players.  This is where a lot of the humor comes from.  Boots is unresponsive until Drew throws a basketball at him.  Later on, he can miraculously walk.  Boots is nearly blind and can’t make a shot at a Dave & Busters.  With corrective lenses, he can do quite well for himself.

There is a certain logic in having basketball players play basketball players.  Shaquille O'Neal is no stranger to acting.  The other basketball players don’t have as many credits to their respective names, but do alright.  I’m not sure I’d rush to see it unless you have one of the pay-by-the-month programs like MoviePass or AMC’s A-List.  I think most people will be happy waiting for it to come out on DVD.


 IMDb page