‘The Dink’ review: A sports comedy reminiscent of those from the 2000s

The Dink suffers the effects of a post-Ted Lasso television landscape, with some throwback comedy. 

Ted Lasso, for all its strengths, has led to what can only be dubbed the ‘Ted Lassoification’ of sports comedies. Streamers have spent the last few years chasing that same fish-out-of-water humor, underdog optimism, and heartfelt redemption. Apple TV itself attempted to recreate the magic of its football-focused hit with its golf series Stick.

Netflix followed suit with its basketball comedy, Running Point, and the recently released golf series, The Hawk, while NBC commissioned and then canceled the short-lived Stumble. Although Hollywood is no stranger to sports-centric films, that trend is increasingly spilling over onto the small screen. Apple TV’s latest release, The Dink, turns its attention to the rivalry – or perhaps more accurately, the snobbery – between tennis and pickleball.

The problem with The Dink, much like many of the projects that have followed Ted Lasso, is that it never fully explores what it sets out to say. Former tennis prodigy Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson) once looked destined for greatness.

The Dink fails to look beyond its initial premise.

Nicknamed “The Hammer,” he was a junior talent to be reckoned with before a wrist injury derailed his professional career almost as quickly as it began. Decades later, he is stuck at a suburban country club run by his father, Chuck (Ed Harris), teaching tennis to children while clinging to stories – some fabricated, some not – of what might have been.

When another wrist injury leaves him unable to play competitively in a winner-takes-all duel between tennis players and pickleballers over whether the country club should expand its pickleball courts, his doctor, Dr. Stone (Ben Stiller), prescribes pickleball as the quickest route back to recovery.

Reluctantly picking up a paddle, Dusty soon finds himself immersed in the very community he mocks and befriends Candace (Mary Steenburgen), the woman he previously tried to ban from the courts after she interrupted one of his tennis lessons with an errant pickleball.

A cast reminiscent of the 2000s and 2010s comedies.

While the plot itself ranges from entertaining to middling, one of The Dink’s biggest strengths is its cast. The film feels like a throwback to the ensemble comedies of the 2000s and early 2010s, when recognizable comedy actors delivered memorable supporting turns or scene-stealing cameos, regardless of how little screentime they had.

Beyond Johnson, Steenburgen, and Stiller, familiar faces, including Chris Parnell, Lennon Parham, Fortune Feimster, and Patton Oswalt, also appear. There is a nostalgic quality to seeing so many veterans share the screen that makes the film slightly more enjoyable than the script alone would suggest.

Andy Roddick even appears as himself, playing the longtime rival that Dusty believes stole the career he was destined to have. Once Chuck recruits him to lead the tennis side of the duel, Roddick becomes another reminder of everything Dusty failed to achieve.

Mary Steenburgen stands out as a major highlight.

Harris is excellent as Dusty’s overbearing father. However, Chuck never develops beyond the familiar archetype of the impossible parent whose approval always feels one victory away – a conveniently left until the closing scenes to give the film its happy ending, despite a lack of meaningful character growth on his part.

The real draw, however, lies with Johnson and Steenburgen. Johnson remains as pathetically likable as ever (unless you have just watched his turn in Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed). Dusty is frustratingly immature, constantly reliving his glory days while chasing validation from a father incapable of giving it. Johnson tugs at the heartstrings, revealing the lonely man beneath Dusty’s bravado as he struggles to move on from the life he imagined for himself.

Steenburgen, meanwhile, is the film’s standout. Candace grounds the story with a warmth that balances Dusty’s emotional immaturity. Rather than indulging his ego, she challenges it, allowing their partnership on and off the courts to develop naturally. Together, Johnson and Steenburgen develop an easy, lived-in chemistry that elevates material that is not nearly as strong as their performances.

The Dink wastes its potential.

The film spends so much time building its relationship that it naturally feels as though it is heading toward romance. A shared movie night watching The Graduate, a country music playlist, and increasingly personal conversations – all culminating in Dusty showing up for someone other than himself or PJ – point in that direction, making it difficult not to invest in them as a couple.

The Dink ultimately backs away from its strongest idea and chooses to celebrate platonic friendship over romance – much like Ted Lasso. While it resists cliché, the decision feels oddly at odds with everything the film has spent the previous hour establishing. Candace and Dusty are easily the most compelling part of the story, forming a partnership more engaging than the ongoing tennis-versus-pickleball feud led by Chuck. Had the film trusted that relationship instead of repeatedly circling back to Dusty’s need to impress his father, The Dink might have found the emotional core it spends much of its runtime searching for.

More sports, less comedy.

For a comedy, The Dink is not funny often enough. There are isolated laughs, particularly whenever Dusty and Candace face off against Gail (Cleo King) and Judy (Lynne Marie Stewart), but those moments are too infrequent. Much of the humor relies on exaggerated reactions to pickleball, and moments intended to be funny, such as Chuck’s insistence that the sport represents the downfall of humanity, do not land as intended.

The biggest issue is that it is difficult to understand why The Dink exists in the first place. Beyond capitalizing on pickleball’s growing popularity, it says little about the sport, aging athletes, parental pressure, or moving on from failure. Each theme settles into predictable familiarity, never developing enough depth to become genuinely compelling. It is, however, entertaining, particularly when it focuses on the sport itself. Although the cuts during rallies can become distracting, the practices, matches, and long-awaited duel live up to expectations.

The bottom line.

The Dink is watchable but ultimately forgettable – a sports comedy that rarely becomes particularly funny, never digs especially deep, and refuses to fully commit to the ideas that make its premise intriguing. That said, Johnson and Steenburgen elevate every scene they share, forming a pairing worth tuning in for.

The Dink debuts globally on July 24, 2026, on Apple TV+. Watch the trailer below. 

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Images courtesy of Apple TV+.