Hustle

Adam Sandler’s “Hustle,” it seems to me, takes place in the same universe as Adam Sandler’s “Uncut Gems,” not because the former is about Sandler’s NBA talent scout finding a Spanish diamond in the rough and the latter is about Sandler’s jeweler pawning Kevin Garnett’s NBA Championship ring to place a spectacularly ill-advised bet, but because each film is about Sandler’s character hustling. And in “Hustle,” Sandler himself is essentially hustling us, the audience, which I say with love, putting the salesman shine on a movie that when you drill down is almost nothing but sports montages and sports clichés, even finding a way to essentially take the woeful Did Anyone Come To His Birthday Party? Subplot of “Draft Day” and sell it, yielding an improbable movie that is like “My Giant” born again as Darcy Frey’s “The Last Shot.” (All quiet charisma, Anthony Edwards is Stephon Marbury.)