As Good As It Gets

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Remember Gerard Butler, the hunky heartthrob of the early 2000s? Well, at the tail end of his career, he made a film about a has-been who gets a second chance to figure out what really matters. The lessons he learns are a bit corny, and most of the side characters are pretty one-dimensional, but Gerard's hair is cute and curly and he does have his signature shirtless scene, so it's not all bad.He's a former soccer star who tries to reconnect with his son, Noah Lomax, and his ex-wife, Jessica Biel. I'm not sure if the audience is supposed to think he's a bad dad or if that part of the film is supposed to be heartwarming in an "Aw, he doesn't know what he's doing and neither do I" kind of way, but my thoughts belonged in the former category. Meanwhile, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, and Judy Greer all develop crushes on the new dad in town. Dennis Quaid adds extra star power to the cast, playing Uma's clueless husband who just thinks of Gerard as a pal. Like his character, nobody else is written to be particularly likable or compelling. Jessica Biel's character is the only one with a backbone, but as soon as Gerard starts working his charms, she turns into jelly just like everyone else. I guess the lesson of the film is if you have beautiful hair, a charming accent, and a signature shirtless scene, you can get away with anything. But, fans who remember him in all his former glory will probably end up sitting through this "feel good flick". I did.

Since just before the turn of the 21st century, Hollywood began turning out a number of movies about broken marriages and families being restored. Often times, they have a syrupy appeal that doesn't seem quite real. Aside from the comic book and animated sci-fi or action films, the "reform or conversion" stories seem to be one of the most common put on film so far – well into the next century. They seem to be a genre all their own. Well, "Playing for Keeps" was a 2012 rendition of such a film. But this one assembled an impressive cast of name characters. Some of the acting is overboard, but much of it is OK to good. The problem is with the story and screenplay. The comedy (a real stretch of the word in this film) is provided mostly by the lusting women who make up Hollywood's gratuitous scenarios for sex. Although very little explicit is shown, what there is burdens the film. One wonders why "soccer moms" or single moms don't rail against such stereotyping of women as this in the movies. Anyway, that's enough of a distraction to dampen the rest of the movie and the main plot. Dynamite acting might have saved it, but minus that the film comes across mostly as a lame attempt at a feel-good film. I give it five stars mostly for the good performance by child actor Noah Lomax as Lewis. Dennis Quaid's character, Carl, is something different for him, and not bad. Most of the rest are just so-so.

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'm so glad this was a flop and I hope the people who actually paid their hard earned cash to see in the cinemas actually demanded their money back. Not in this day and age should a film like this be sent to the big screen. It's Lifetime fodder at best. That and I am tired of seeing Gerard Butler in these kind of insipid roles (i.e. The Ugly Truth, The Bounty Hunter) after his awesome performance in 'Machine Gun Preacher' which had a really good story besides his performance, this is a step back in the wrong direction.The main storyline between Stacy and George (played by Jessica Biel and Gerard Butler) was too preachy and not to mention clichéd. How many times have we seen this done before and better might I add. The film itself was not that bad in the beginning but as soon as random characters started showing in form of really famous real life people, the crap hit the fan. Thurman, Quaid, Zeta Jones among others were just wasted in their roles, these characters did not need to be played by famous people. Ugh...why am I even wasting my words on this? The movie sucked that's all you need to know.