Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Play It to the Bone (1999)

Director: Ron Shelton

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Inspired by a locker room boxing legend, this concerns two low rent never-coulda-beens who land an invitation to fight each other as the warm-up bout for a championship match. Presumably because the drama hinges on the opponents' friendship, writer/director Shelton opts to follow them on the road from LA to Vegas. They take the scenic route, and this first hour and a half should have been a chance to savour the salty comic dialogue that sports mythologiser Shelton does so well. But Vince Boudreau (Harrelson) and Cesar Dominguez (Banderas) don't seem to know anything about each other - and nor does Grace (Davidovich), supposedly Vince's ex and Cesar's current girlfriend. It's by far Shelton's weakest film, badly in need of a rewrite, with such a flatfooted camera style that the road sections look like back projection. On the positive side, Cesar's admission of homosexual experimentation is an unexpected touch and, as usual, Shelton supplies his female lead with an amusing intellectual superiority. Still, it's only when you get down to the fight that the movie begins to make sense: you want both of them to win. That's an interesting and original dynamic for a boxing movie.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Ron Shelton

Producer: Stephen Chin

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Lolita Davidovich, Tom Sizemore, Robert Wagner, Lucy Liu, Richard Masur, Willie Garson, Cylk Cozart, Aida Turturro full cast

Duration: 124 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.