Playing for Keeps

George Dryer(Gerard Butler) a once great soccer player, he was pretty much the Michael Jordan of that sport. Tries to pick up the pieces of his life after falling on hard times, he is trying to build a realiontship with his son and his ex wife(Jessica Biel), while trying to get a job has a sportscaster, but luck comes in, when he becomes the soccer coach for his sons team.

Gerard Butler does make attempt to put in a good performance, and not play the character has one noted. His scenes with the boy are pretty effective. But everything else pretty much goes nowhere, plots involving Judy Greer, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Uma Thurman are completely bland beyond itself. Dennis Quaid is memorable in spots has the odd billionaire that Butler befriends. But Jessica Biel is out of place here has Butlers ex, her acting says how out of place she is.

The fact that Playing For Keeps received such poor reviews doesn't surprise me because movie critics are some of the most closed minded individuals on the planet and this movie doesn't fit into one of their predetermined little genres. It is too raunchy to be a family movie, doesn't focus on relationships or drama enough to be a romantic-comedy, doesn't involved enough soccer to be a sports movie, and doesn't have the proper type of humor to be dude movie. What it is, however, is just an all-around decent film. There's nothing great about it but it does everything pretty good. The cast is great, though they are a bit underwhelming and underutilized in the film, and they provide solid performances, albeit a bit cliché. The plot is decent enough to keep you engaged. Is it predictable? Of course it is but so are 99% of movies made nowadays so that's nothing new. All in all, I think most open-minded viewers will enjoy this as a pretty good all-around movie, nothing more, nothing less.

I came, I sat, I watched and... well that's about it. I don't have anything bad to say about the movie, but I don't really have anything good to say about it either. Playing for keeps was a pleasant enough love story, but there really wasn't much there to hold my attention. Maybe if I was a HUGE soccer fan... but probably not.

The story was about a man, George (Gerard Butler), who screwed up his marriage and is trying to win back both his wife and son. Butler and Biel (who plays the ex-wife Stacie) both put in a good performance  but I didn't feel any chemistry between them. The only character I felt any connection with was the kid, Lewis (Noah Lomax).

Throughout the movie we kept hearing about how exciting and fun George was, but I failed to see it. Dennis Quaid does put in a fantastic performance as the reprehensible Carl.

Gerard Butler plays George, a former soccer star who now finds himself on hard times apparently from squandering his resources. He finds himself living in Virginia so he can be close to his estranged son, Lewis (Noah Lomax) and ex-wife, Stacie (Jessica Biel). When George begins coaching his son's soccer team, it isn't long before all the hot soccer moms start noticing him. I thought this was supposed to be a romantic comedy but I have to tell you, I barely chuckled twice. Playing for Keeps offers a star-studded supporting cast, including, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Judy Greer and Dennis Quaid; but, surprisingly, I found the funniest character out of the bunch to be George's nosy landlord, Pramam, played by actor Iqbal Theba. Such fantastic actors but sadly the director simply did not utilize their talent to the fullest. This movie really had so much more potential. I really enjoyed the cinematography although the lighting a bit dim for me. The location was very beautiful. The first 30-45 minutes was entirely too slow for even my liking. At some point after that, it finally started to pick up but for lack of a better description, it simply felt very flat to me. I wanted to like this movie and I wanted to like the characters even more, but it just never happened for me. Granted, Gerry and Jessica are beautiful actors but the chemistry between then was lacking. Again, just didn't feel it. More laughs, humor and spirit would have been a pleasant and satisfying consolation, but one that never came.

I was very much looking forward to seeing this movie because of the stars and supporting roles, as well. I was heartily disappointed. I like Gerard Butler, and enjoyed him in the movie, but the movie was incredibly slow even for me, someone who is not into action movies. But there was too little here. Too many talented women making fools of themselves, and Dennis Quaid was thoroughly wasted as a philandering husband jealous of his wife. Outside of the main characters, all of the roles were flat and without much personality. Butler isn't the only actor who made a mistake to accept this script. Butler and Biel were the only ones with anything to work with, and they did their best, but the script was simply a failure. This was not even good enough for TV, let alone a motion picture. Save your time and money and watch something else! This is one case in which the critics were right. No wonder this was a box office flop.