ancora un paio di recensioni,una negativa,l'altra positiva(miracolo!) entrambe scritte da donne.
Quella negativa critica la scelta dello sceneggiatore e poi dà Gerry non al massimo,pur ammettendo le sue buone doti di attore.Promosso in ogni caso Muccino
Movie Review: Playing for Keeps fails to satisfy romantic comedy fanaticsRating: 0.5/5
I have no qualms admitting I love a good romantic comedy just as much as the next girl or sensitive guy.
But there are few things less entertaining than a poorly done “rom-com.”
“Playing For Keeps” tells the story of has-been soccer star George (Gerard Butler) who tries to redeem himself in the eyes of his ex, Stacie (Jessica Biel), by coaching his young son Lewis’ (Noah Lomax) soccer team.
Predictably, the plan goes off-course as George gets distracted by myriad lusty soccer moms (Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Judy Greer) and Stacie gets engaged to the nice guy Matt (James Tupper).
Gerard Butler, starring in films such as The Ugly Truth and The Bounty Hunter, seems to have a knack for truly awful rom-coms and he certainly does not disappoint here.
His stock character is a vaguely gross, immature man-child with an awful attitude that for some inexplicable reason, women just cannot resist.
Admittedly, “Playing for Keeps” is only slightly more misogynistic than the average Hollywood movie, but that does not make it any easier to sit through the stereotypical scheming of sex-crazed middle-aged women.
The depictions of men are hardly stellar either, considering they are either womanizers pursuing anything with a pulse, or lunatic husbands with violent reactions toward anyone who so much as look at his wife.
These painfully common gender stereotypes are not even well-acted. Everyone is clearly just there to recite some lines and pick up a paycheck.
Gerard Butler, who has proven in the recent Coriolanus that he can actually be a serious dramatic actor, is wooden and unoriginal.
Biel is in the same position of merely playing her latest in a long line of rom-com love interest roles, and she cannot even do that convincingly. Every performance she gives seems even blander than the last.
Butler’s three soccer-moms — and keep in mind that Thurman and Zeta-Jones have both been nominated for Academy Awards and Greer was hilarious in the Emmy-winning “Arrested Development” — are essentially stand-ins, useful only as plot devices.
There is little to say on the script and even less on direction.
The screenwriter, Robbie Fox, is best known for the great cinematic achievement “So I Married an Axe-Murderer.”
I could perhaps scrape up a compliment by saying that Fox seemed able to keep the script on an even pace, but let us be honest: Any mediocre first-year film student could have produced this script.
Even more bizarre than getting a script from the guy who penned “So I Married an Axe-Murderer” is the choice of director, Gabriele Muccino.
Muccino has worked almost exclusively in Italian-language cinema, with the exception of two Will Smith films, the acclaimed “The Pursuit of Happyness” and the panned “Seven Pounds.”
In “Playing for Keeps,” Muccino appears to have done little more than point the camera in the right direction. So, good job on getting that part right.
At the end of the day, “Playing for Keeps” is just another cliched and uninspired romantic comedy that is designed to appeal to the lowest-common-denominator in mainstream audiences.
Given its opening weekend debut at sixth place in the box-office with only a $6 million gross (on a budget of $35 million), it seems that even the most undiscerning of movie-goers are finally weary of these insipid and unoriginal rom-coms.
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/211...comedy-fanatics‘Playing For Keeps’ is easy to fall in love withA movie featuring Gerard Butler, Dennis Quaid and Jessica Biel? Sold.
“Playing for Keeps,” is about a burnt out professional soccer star, George (Butler), who tries to win back his ex-wife, Stacie (Biel) and son by becoming the soccer coach for his son’s soccer team.
George moves back to his hometown in Virginia with hopes to put his life back together and spend more quality time with his son Lewis (Noah Lomax). But he’s not sure how to go about getting back into his son’s life.
He attends his son’s soccer games, and decides to help the team learn how to kick the soccer ball correctly.
After showing off his talent to the young kids, the parents went crazy and he received a call saying that parents wanted him to be the new coach for the team.
When he begins coaching the soccer team, all the soccer moms want to date him, and all the guys want to be him.
But the only person he cares about winning over and impressing is his soon to be re-married ex-wife, Stacie.
Director of the movie, Gabriele Muccino, can make any movie have importance and he can make you feel the emotion in all of his movies, as seen in “The Pursuit of Happyness.”
When you see the name Muccino on a movie, you know it is going to be a good one.
Throughout the movie you can see that George is truly “playing for keeps” for his family.
George knows that he messed things up with his family and is serious about fixing things and becoming a family again.
He gets involved in his son’s life in hopes of winning over his ex-wife and getting his family back together. Even though Stacie is bound to be re-married, this doesn’t stop George from trying.
You can easily see that George still has feelings for Stacie.
He is always trying to impress her, like when he shows up outside her house late at night in a red Ferrari, and when Lewis invites George to go to the arcade with him and Stacie.
The chemistry between Biel and Butler is so believable and real that you instantly fall in love with the idea of them being together and you start rooting for them to be together in the end.
All romantic comedies tend to be the same thing every time; cheesy acting and the same typical ending. But “Playing for Keeps” is the exact opposite.
When watching this film, the audience will feel connected with the characters and feel like they know them personally. Almost every scene in this movie makes you feel like you are one with the characters.
Muccino has a way in almost all his movies of making the audience relate to what is going on and making them feel the exact emotion that is being portrayed in each scene.
Every emotion that George feels, he makes you feel the same way because you want things to work out and for him and Stacie to get back together.
Spoiler alert: everything works out in the end of the movie, just like they always do in every romantic comedy but you’ll have to go and watch this film to see exactly how that happens in his lovable tale.
This movie is definitely worth going to see. The acting throughout this movie is so good that it is believable. It will have audience members feeling the same emotion the actors are in the movie.
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