"Play it to the Bone" was almost a good sport themed film with some good performances by Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson and Lolita Davidovich. As I said almost a good film because it tries too hard to be a funny experience, finishes in a very obvious way and in the end it has nothing much to say.
The premise is good and the story has its moments. Woody and Antonio play two boxers who have many things in common: both of them were called to a big fight in Las Vegas, they're gonna have to fight each other; both of them are coming from shameful defeats and they're traumatize with that; and both of them dated the same women (Davidovich) and they're gonna take her along with them driving all the way by car. This part of the film is a road movie with good moments, when some of the laughing parts appears when Woody's character shares his about Jesus or his sexual relationship with a crazy nymphomaniac (Lucy Liu); Banderas goes well in funny scenes where he's dumped by Lolita's character, and his story of how he become gay for one year after losing a fight for a gay boxer.
When these characters get to Vegas the movie slowed down, it becomes a sleepy and not interesting experience, although some parts of the road movie doesn't work very well, it was difficult to pay attention to some of the things which is quite odd if you consider that this is just a simple entertainment.
The third act is the so awaited fight and it drags down for too long, starts without any kind of appeal from the part of the extras (you can't hear no one cheering in the audience) and the cameos from actors like James Woods, Kevin Costner, Tony Curtis and others who are there to try to make this event more interesting but they don't speak at all and that is disappointing. Some of Woody's delusional moments during the fight were distracting, slowed down the fight's rhythm, intended to be a funny thing, well it wasn't. The rest of the fight and its ending are great, but predictable all the way.
Master and commander of this film Ron Shelton is a good creator when the deal is to make good sport themed films. He gave us "Bull Durham" (baseball), "White Man Can't Jump" (basketball), and "Cobb" (baseball again) all equally great, but from 1996 with his weak "Tin Cup" (golf) his career started to slowed it down and "Play it to the Bone" almost got there along with his best films but it lacked enthusiasm, more interesting moments and the sport itself only appears in the ending and in some flashbacks, something that doesn't occur in his previous works. Again, the principal cast is good, it also has some good performances from Richard Masur, Tom Sizemore, Robert Wagner (even though his last scenes were so dull) and there's some enjoyable moments, but it never recovered his potential. 5/10
The premise is good and the story has its moments. Woody and Antonio play two boxers who have many things in common: both of them were called to a big fight in Las Vegas, they're gonna have to fight each other; both of them are coming from shameful defeats and they're traumatize with that; and both of them dated the same women (Davidovich) and they're gonna take her along with them driving all the way by car. This part of the film is a road movie with good moments, when some of the laughing parts appears when Woody's character shares his about Jesus or his sexual relationship with a crazy nymphomaniac (Lucy Liu); Banderas goes well in funny scenes where he's dumped by Lolita's character, and his story of how he become gay for one year after losing a fight for a gay boxer.
When these characters get to Vegas the movie slowed down, it becomes a sleepy and not interesting experience, although some parts of the road movie doesn't work very well, it was difficult to pay attention to some of the things which is quite odd if you consider that this is just a simple entertainment.
The third act is the so awaited fight and it drags down for too long, starts without any kind of appeal from the part of the extras (you can't hear no one cheering in the audience) and the cameos from actors like James Woods, Kevin Costner, Tony Curtis and others who are there to try to make this event more interesting but they don't speak at all and that is disappointing. Some of Woody's delusional moments during the fight were distracting, slowed down the fight's rhythm, intended to be a funny thing, well it wasn't. The rest of the fight and its ending are great, but predictable all the way.
Master and commander of this film Ron Shelton is a good creator when the deal is to make good sport themed films. He gave us "Bull Durham" (baseball), "White Man Can't Jump" (basketball), and "Cobb" (baseball again) all equally great, but from 1996 with his weak "Tin Cup" (golf) his career started to slowed it down and "Play it to the Bone" almost got there along with his best films but it lacked enthusiasm, more interesting moments and the sport itself only appears in the ending and in some flashbacks, something that doesn't occur in his previous works. Again, the principal cast is good, it also has some good performances from Richard Masur, Tom Sizemore, Robert Wagner (even though his last scenes were so dull) and there's some enjoyable moments, but it never recovered his potential. 5/10