Play It to the Bone (1999)

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. You are out! Exactly. This movie stunk. It should of been counted out at the opening credits. Boring, stupid, and boring interactions between the three main characters. Gay bashing that never ended. No sparks between any of the stars. They were all flat, dull, boring, and lifeless. With the exception of a hot red dress, there is nothing of any interest to recall here. If you want to see boxing classics, rent The Set-Up, Body and Soul, or Fat City. If you're looking for comedy boxing, The Kid From Brookyln with Danny Kay is a great bet. As for Play It To The Bon, count to ten and forget about it!

If you like Woody, Tom, Antonio or Lucy, and like comedies, this movie is worth the watch. It was not in Oscar contention, by any stretch, but then again, neither are many good movies. This is one of those movies that is perfect on a Sunday afternoon, when you just want to be entertained by someone else's life. The pancake scene is just plain funny. The characters are believable, and you find yourself sometimes relating their actions to people you may have known personally. Having been around boxers a lot growing up, this movie has enough realism from that world to be believable.All in all, it's a generally funny movie, and a feel good buddy road flick.

PLAY IT TO THE BONE (2000) * 1/2 Woody Harrelson, Antonio Banderas, Lolita Davidovich, Tom Sizemore, Lucy Liu, Robert Wagner, Richard Masur, Jack Carter, Willie Garson, (cameos: Mike Tyson, Kevin Costner, Rod Stewart, James Woods).Ron Shelton should be ashamed of himself for this particular low-rent buddy/road flick comedy with Harrelson and Banderas as down on their luck second rate middleweight boxers Vince Bondreau and Cesar Dominguez (respectively) who are both requested as last minute replacements for a second bill bout for a heavyweight pay cable event with Mike Tyson defending his championship, that leads to an incredibly unfunny comedy/drama for over two hours of bickering, gay bashing and ultimately some unsettlingly realistic boxing sequences.Faced with the dilemma of getting to Las Vegas with hours to spare the two friends (natch) look up their old flame Grace Pasic (the gravity defying Davidovich, Mrs. Shelton) – yes they both had a relationship with her – who agrees to drive them in her muscle car to the event only to culminate in a non-stop triangular argument that reveals no wit, nuance or character development. Vince wants a chance for redemption for his humiliating loss in a draw for a possibly fixed fight years back and his best friend Cesar is also looking for self-fulfillment when he didn't make a nine count and was accused of taking a dive by the unscrupulous promoter Joe Diamond (Sizemore chewing the scenery to no avail) who happens to be putting on the match.Since their crushing defeats Vince has become a Jesus fanatic and Cesar dabbled in sexual experimentation for a year with the same sex which sends Vince on a vective of the word 'fag' over and over.To add some distraction Liu is cast as a call girl en route to Vegas whose car troubles results in her hooking up with the trio only to add more unneeded tension with her smart talk, sexual overdrive and plain obnoxiousness that really adds nothing to the film except a much needed punch in the nose by Davidovich (who delivers with gusto).What's more disheartening is to watch three fine actors trying in vein to keep their cardboard characters afloat in a dismal bickering fest for the entire run of the film and then to drop them into another movie the last 45 minutes or so of showing the two pugilists beat the living hell out of one another (it's very unlikely that a second rate pre-show fight would've went the full distance of ten rounds with so much pummelling inflicted). It just seems to jar the lighter premise overall and deflates the what-little-jocular appeal it attempted out of the picture altogether.Shelton is totally to blame for this rather boring and belligerent buddy flick that surprisingly he actually breathed some fresh life into the genre with his previous sports themed stories including 'White Men Can't Jump' and 'Tin Cup' and the war of the sexes seems largely misogynistic rather than tete a tete gamesmanship when he resorts to having Davidovich getting slapped by Wagner's Hank Goody character, an ersatz oily Donald Trump manque, that really is a slap to the audience for watching this mess.

There is something about Play It To the Bone that makes you overlook the glaring mistakes and actually makes you like the film. There isn't a memorable story ,the script is nothing special and the acting would never win an acadamy award but the fact that Woody Harleson and Antonio Banderas work well together and have a certain chemistry on screen , makes the film OK. Now for the negative side.... There are many mistakes made such as,The announcer read out the fighter history and he said one fighter had drawn p bouts and the other 6! That would never be the case. The most a fighter would ever draw would be 2. We also see Rod Stewart with Lucy Lui on his arm at the fight,when has Rod ever been out with a woman who is not a blond?! The fight scenes are good but they are too long and as for Vince seeing the girls topless walking around the ring, that's just not funny. We also see lots of celebrities looking out of place in the film, i can only think that these scenes were shot at a real match in Vegas but they dont add to movie they obviously look like they have been asked at the last minute to be shot for this film and it does not work.I know it sounds like i hate the film but i dont. Give it a chance. 6 out of 10.