Despite only the briefest of glimpses, Hustle already looks better than Adam Sandler's other Netflix movies. Since 2016, Sandler and his production company Happy Madison have enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the streaming giant Netflix, producing a swathe of successful zany comedies including The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, Murder Mystery, Hubie Halloween, and Sandy Wexler. Yet Sandler's latest project, a sports drama named Hustle, looks set to outdo his other work on the platform to date.
First revealed via Netflix's glossy 2022 movie preview in February, Hustle follows former basketball scout Stanley Beren (Adam Sandler), who tries to remake his career by bringing a generational, diamond-in-the-rough talent from Madrid to play in the NBA. Netflix's aforementioned 2022 teaser allows a peek at five separate clips from Hustle, ranging from the film's basketball training sessions to an impassioned Beren giving his recruit a stirring speech. We The Animals' Jeremiah Zagar is in the director's seat for Adam Sandler's new movie, while Queen Latifah, Robert Duvall, and Ben Foster all star.
Yet even from the film's limited amount of preview content, Hustle already looks better than Adam Sandler's other Netflix movies. Hustle appears markedly different from Happy Madison's (and by extension Adam Sandler's) other Netflix productions, taking a more serious tone while finding humorous beats along its narrative journey instead of delivering rip-roaring laughs from beginning to end. This more serious tone of the movie, and a more dramatic role to boot, is where Sandler's best work has been born in recent years, meaning Hustle is already set to top his other Netflix fare.
While Sandler's Netflix movies have undoubtedly been a commercial success, many have drawn an abysmal critical reception. Murder Mystery, for instance, was announced as not only Netflix's most-watched movie of 2019 but also their most streamed piece of content in nine different countries that year. These huge streaming numbers did little to insulate Netflix's Murder Mystery from frosty aggregator responses, however, with many critics lambasting Sandler's comedy as a lightweight and mediocre offering from the Happy Gilmore star. This commentary has become a theme across many of Sandler's Netflix movies that seemingly do enough to pass as a serviceable Sandler comedy while categorically playing it safe.
In contrast, Adam Sandler's recent projects away from Netflix are a much smaller, higher-quality body of work. The pinnacle of Sandler's other turns is the Safdie brothers' Uncut Gems, with Sandler's serious role infused with comedic hits that earned him several prestigious end-of-year accolades and awards. Hustle's approach initially appears far closer to Uncut Gems than Sandler's recent Netflix films, with the 2022 teaser clip showing Beren passionately berating his mentee backing up this idea. Contrary to Sandler's undeniable success with his unique brand of Netflix late-night comedy, Uncut Gems shows that Sandler has genuine acting chops bubbling under the surface. Hustle's gritty sports-drama premise mixed with heartfelt scenes (and just a smattering of Sandler's comedic charm) looks set to provide Sandler with a winning formula once again and make it his best Netflix movie to date.