Tennis Stars in a “Pickle”
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
The Dink (Josh Greenbaum) rated PG-13 103 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Dustin—Dusty, or alternately “The Hammer” (his sports nickname coming from an early ability of powerful tennis serves)—Boyd (Jake Johnson) was trained from early boyhood by demanding father Chuck Boyd (Ed Harris) to be a domineering tennis pro, which he was on his way to becoming, collecting wins and trophies along the way until he met his match (so to speak) as a teen (played by Nathan Blair then) against an even-better player, Andy Roddick (Cooper Woestendick then, actual Roddick later), whose intimidating actions led to a mid-match bathroom break where, as Dusty’s story goes, he slipped on a wet floor (implications blamed Roddick), injuring his wrist, ending his career (although he much later admits he was so intimidated that day he slammed his racket on his wrist to prevent losing to Andy). Now, as a young adult he works half-heartedly at Dad’s tennis club, not putting much effort into teaching tennis skills to young kids. Then Chuck gets a challenge from pickleball players who want more courts, especially because the only one they have isn’t in proper shape. Chuck cites a rule that calls for a tennis tournament to settle any disputes, with the assumption Dusty will emerge as Dad’s finalist, especially because he’s in much better shape than the club’s other, older members; however, when Dusty attempts to jump over the net to congratulate a badly-beaten opponent he trips, severely injuring his right wrist again.
Dusty’s (sex-obsessed) physician, Dr. Stone (Ben Stiller), tells him pickleball would speed up his recovery so he grumbles but goes out to learn this objectionable sport where he ends up teaming with Candice (Mary Steenburgen), a considerably-older divorcee, whom he begins to become attracted to, even pretending to be her boyfriend to counter her ex-husband, Mitch’s (Martin Kove), flaunting of his new, young squeeze. Yet, Candice tells Dusty she’s not attracted to him, they part on bad terms. As the tennis tournament goes on, Dusty’s wrist heals, Chuck chooses him as his hoped-for champion, but Dusty finds out it’s only because the previous choice died in a freak accident. Angry, Dusty reconciles with Candice, plays for the pickleballers, learns his opponent will be Andy Roddick; after winning a coin toss Dusty picks the pickleball court in hopes of putting Roddick at a surprise disadvantage; nevertheless, Andy quickly learns the new game, starts piling up crucial points ⇒until pickle-proud Skip (Patton Oswalt) tells Dusty to use the dilapidated court to his advantage, which he does, then wins with a dink shot (soft serve just over the net, opponent can’t get to it fast enough). Despite knowing he must now provide more pickleball courts, Chuck’s happy Dusty finally beat Roddick. Six months later there’s lot of pickleball players at the club, including Chuck, with Dusty and Candice as teammates, close friends.⇐ (More plot details here if you wish.)
SO WHAT? If nothing else, I finally learned a few things about pickleball, not that my increasingly-mobility-challenged body would ever allow me on a court to see what skills I might (more likely, might not) possess, although Nina and I did agree on some interest in going down to our condo-complex clubhouse to see if either of us can still hit a ball over a ping-pong net. Fortunately, you don’t need to know anything, really, about pickleball to follow what’s happening in this intentionally-silly movie because it’s mostly about relationships that don’t work a lot of the time (although presented in manners that are usually more humorous than soul-crushing; probably the one with the least trauma is the long-standing friendship between Dusty and his constant-supporter, PJ [Aaron Chen]) with an inevitable final showdown that you can easily follow from the ongoing point-totals, even if you’re not clear how those points are achieved. You don’t even have to know much about constantly-complaining John McEnroe (playing himself) to appreciate the remarks from this grouchy tennis legend. However, while I got enough enjoyment from watching this movie I can’t say it was anything beyond predictable most of the time—the only real surprise for me coming from Candice’s uninterest in Dusty’s awakening attraction toward her (seeming encouraged by watching The Graduate [Mike Nichols, 1967] with her—but Candice is nothing like Mrs. Robinson—even as he’d never previously heard of the film nor knew who Dustin Hoffman was [I guess there’s no regular gathering of Dustins to share life stories], although he did easily recognize that Benjamin Braddock [Hoffman] was driving the wrong way on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge if he’s supposedly going to Berkely, a necessary visual compromise of the shot to be able to see him on the top deck of the bridge; I guess this Dusty knows the territory), so we thankfully didn’t have to get into cougar-concerns about their age gap. There’s really not much else to say about what goes on here, but it was never boring, the characters and conflicts were all well-presented, and pickleballers especially (the rest of us as well) would likely have a hard time finding their new sport so celebrated elsewhere.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: The Dink is a straight-to-streaming release, on Apple TV since July 24, 2026, free to that platform’s subscribers (or to anyone with their 7-days no-charge access offer, then $12.99 on a monthly basis should you choose to continue). The CCAL’s somewhat supportive of your possible interest in this movie with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at 75% but the Metacritic average score reverses those numbers to 57% as my 3 of 5 stars (60%) is close to the MCers as I found this presentation to be funny some of the time, predictable almost all of the time, yet still fun enough to watch given how the headliners in the cast were consistently enjoying themselves. One critic who also found enjoyment here is Carla Meyer of my local San Francisco Chronicle who says: “A broad, intentionally stupid sports comedy centered on pickleball, ‘The Dink’ pays homage to the ‘00s subgenre that included the gems ‘Dodgeball’ and ‘Talladega Nights’ and duds ‘Blades of Glory’ and ‘Semi-Pro,’ themselves all spiritual descendants of ‘Caddyshack’ (1980). […] Such full commitment to risky comedic asides evokes ‘Barb and Star’ the sublimely dumb 2021 Kristen Wiig comedy that was released on VOD rather than in theaters because of the pandemic. A cult favorite at the time, it has picked up critical steam since. [¶] Despite a plot that goes in and out of consciousness and a 102-minute runtime that approaches bloat, ‘The Dink’ matches ‘Barb and Star” in laughs per scene, and eventually, a sense of hopefulness. Don’t wait for it to be rediscovered.” Carla, thanks for these allusive-connections, saved me research time.
As you might assume, though, with this rather-tepid CCAL response there are others not so overjoyed with what The Dink delivers, like David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter (MC 40): “As original streaming movies go, it’s not the worst, nor is it at all memorable. […] Even an ensemble stacked with veterans of standup, sitcoms and sketch comedy fails to bring much edge to the material. When John McEnroe parodying his unfiltered tennis commentator style is the closest you get to funny, maybe something’s missing. […] Like most meat-grinder, non-auteur streaming originals, The Dink — named for an often-decisive drop shot — has the bland sheen of an insurance commercial. […] In truth, it’s not much of anything beyond background noise while you’re making dinner. The most imaginative thing about it is that it’s not called Pickleball.” I certainly didn’t find it to be nearly that bad, although I admit there’s nothing about the elements that constitute it to lure me back for a repeat viewing, so choose as you will as to whether this one goes on your schedule or not; while you’re contemplating that, you can be entertained with my standard review wrap-up of a Musical Metaphor, this time Queen’s "We Are the Champions" (1977 News of the World album) where during the movie, you can practically hear Dusty singing “You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it / I thank you all / But it’s been no bed of roses / No pleasure cruise / I consider it a challenge before the whole human race / And I ain’t gonna lose.” Pickleball may never overtake tennis in popularity, but its supporters in this story have certainly found their outdoor calling.
SHORT TAKES
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