The presence of Ben Stiller as both lead producer and supporting player furthers the impression that The Dink wants to do for pickleball what Dodgeball did for that sport. Jake Johnson stars in the watchable but entirely vanilla Apple TV sports comedy, which spins a tale of underdog triumph around a once-promising tennis prodigy who rediscovers his mojo on a pickleball court. If that sounds dorky and formulaic, well, it is, despite Johnson’s appealing screen persona and a brief detour into misguided May-December romance. As original streaming movies go, it’s not the worst, nor is it at all memorable.
Josh Greenbaum, who has worked in both narrative features (Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar) and docs (Will & Harper) and directed the upcoming Spaceballs sequel, knows his way around comedy. But there’s only so much vitality he can inject into Sean Clements’ predictable screenplay. 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.
The Dink
The Bottom Line
Too bad it’s not ‘Barb and Star Play Pickleball.’
