Playing for keeps

Year of release : 2012

Run time : 1h46m

Genre : Drama / Sports

Cast : Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Judy Greer

George Dryer is a former European football player who used to be famous, and very famous with the ladies.

He is now retired, and films himself talk about sports trying to get a job as a sports announcer.

He lives with rent, in the guest house of an Indian man, who reminds him he still didn’t pay him rent this month.

In an attempt to make some money, he sells his sports memorabilia, thinking he’s gonna get a lot of money, but he only gets 300 dollars for all of it.

George moved to Virginia to be close to his kid, as his ex wife lives there. He is always late to pick him up, because he’s trying to make money.

He takes him to European football practice, and seeing the coach is always on the phone, not knowing how to coach them, he takes over. He is a hit with the parents, especially the moms.

His ex calls him to tell him they all want him to coach the kids. After thinking about it, as he wants to be a sports anchorman, he takes the job. I don’t know if he is paid for the job, it might be a volunteer work.

He is a hit as a coach, as everybody loves how the kids got better at football, and Carl, a rich father, is giving him a lot of money for sports gear, and to put his son first, and have his daughter sing the national anthem when the game starts. George takes the money and does as told.

Because he complies with Carl’s wishes, they befriend, and is invited to one of his parties, where he meets the wife, and where Carl offers him his Ferrari car to drive for a while!

Newly divorced Barb, is trying to hit on him, but she doesn’t really have game, so whenever she tries, she starts crying. She still manages to get him in bed, when she comes to his place one night.

Denise is a beautiful, rich mom, who also wants George, and is also helping him in his career, actually finding him a job interview in Connecticut. When filming the tape he leaves his son, who whenever he goes with somewhere, he finds something to do ,so he leaves him there, to go do what he needs to get a job. While leaving with Denise, he also caves into her attempts to have s3x with her, so it feels he buys his job or opportunity for one with s3x.

If this wasn’t enough, Carl’s wife, who knows he cheats on her on regular basis, is trying to get with him too, popping up on him at the most inconvenient times.

George doesn’t seem to want or like any of these women, as it seems he wants his ex wife back, who is about to be married to her fiancé, that she’s been dating for 3 years.

I hated the movie, it bored me, I played it at double speed. 45 minutes in, I still didn’t know where the movie was going ,and who was his love interest, as it seemed all the women, even the married ones, wanted to be with him, while he had s3x with all of them because they wanted to, not because he seemed to have wanted it! He only refused the married one, because he was friends with her husband, and knew he had her followed! There was no chemistry between the leads, George didn’t seem to like any of these women!

More than one hour in, and I still didn’t know what the movie wanted, where was it going, who was the love interest. I hated it when it was obvious he still wanted his ex wife whom he cheated on their whole marriage. I didn’t like the fact she gave him a second chance, leaving the man she was about to marry! I don’t like when they take them out of a perfectly good couple to pair them with the lead, just because the lead wants them! There were enough women for him to choose from!

Most of the characters were unlikable, -starting with the lead, who is always leaving his kid with someone to do other things or taking him with him to do those said things, like try to get a job interview. He seems to have poor judgement, making bad decisions, being a weakling, never refusing the women who jump him, although it doesn’t seem like he wants them!

-The women trying to get with him, like Barb, who was crying when talking to him, stalking him, and calling him at bad times.

-Carl’s wife, who wants to get with him and goes to what she thinks is his house, waiting for him in his bed!

-Carl always cheated on his wife, liking to bring his mistresses to their home parties, but had his wife followed to make sure she doesn’t do the same, going into fits of rage when he thought she cheated on him!

-The only one who seems nice seems to be the ex wife’s fiancé, but we don’t know much about him, for he’s in the background!

I don’t know who the movie was targeting ,as it has many scenes with kids playing European football to the point I wondered if it was meant for kids, but then it had all these scenes with the women hitting on George, so it couldn’t have been!

The soundtrack also sounded like the ones of movies for kids, or Christmas movies. I didn’t like it.

The acting was fine, I guess! Jessica Biel was nominated for Worst Actress at the Raspberry Awards for this role, but I thought she was fine, the acting was not the problem, but the story.

The movie is labeled a romantic comedy, but I assure you it’s neither. I didn’t find anything funny about it, it just annoyed me when I think Judy Greer’s character was supposed to be funny, crying all the time when hitting on him!

The story was first supposed to be about baseball.

The movie received ratings under 5.3 from the audiences of Metacritic with a critics score of 27, and under 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critic score of 6% ! IMDB’s score added up to 5.7.

Laura Kern, who wrote for The New York Times, listed the movie as the Worst Film of 2012!

I’m happy to report the movie grossed only 27.8 million dollars at the box office against a budget close to 35 million dollars.

Rating : The horror, the horror !