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Play It To the Bone
EMAILPRINTBuena Vista Pictures

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 33 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 0 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Ron Shelton
Directed by: Ron Shelton
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 1999
DVD: June 13, 2000
Running Time: 124 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for brutal ring violence, strong sexuality including dialogue, nudity, pervasive language and some
Starring Woody Harrelson, Antonio Banderas, Lolita Davidovich, Tom Sizemore, and Lucy Alexis Liu
Two best friends and former boxers (Banderas, Harrelson) travel to Las Vegas to fight in a big match for the first time. The only problem is that they will have to fight each other.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bull Durham Dark Blue Hollywood Homicide Tin Cup
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A wonderfully entertaining, raunchy, hilarious and savage foray into the lives of a couple of beat-up middle-weight boxers who get a second chance.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Either Shelton knows this world well, or he's such a great bluffer it doesn't matter.
Read Full Review >USA Today Staff [Not Credited]
Another invigorating, extremely raunchy sports movie from Ron Shelton .
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
Throws us directly into the ring for one of the most brutal fight scenes in American film.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Edvins Beitiks
A wicked, light-headed first half dissolves into a bloody, head-bashing second half . The previews make it seem like a comedy. It isn't.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Fghting your heart out at the end of this movie can't win the prize or the crowd.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
The film is nothing much to look at and has trouble swallowing its own clichs and implausibilities.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Benefits from an amiable chemistry between Harrelson and Banderas, and Davidovich always makes a good tough-as-nails dame with more smarts than any man will give her credit for.
Read Full Review >Film.com Tom Keogh
This is still Ron Shelton in good -- not great, but good -- form here, and the rewards are plentiful.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Steve Simels
Vince and Cesar have been written to evoke equal audience sympathy, so there's no suspense whatsover in the outcome of their climactic match-up, the brutal realism of Shelton's staging notwithstanding.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Even when his work is at its most contrived, which it certainly is here, writer-director Ron Shelton is the best purveyor of jock humor around.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
(Shelton) knows how to write pungent dialogue that covers a multitude of sins when the film goes off the rails.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Ron Shelton's boxing pic is long on road work but strictly a flyweight.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The movie doesn't know how odd it seems to cut from the bloodshed in the ring to the dialogue of the supporting players, who still think they're in a comedy.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A punch-drunk lightweight. Inside the ring, it lands some forceful punches. Outside the ring, it stumbles around, swinging wildly at nothing, until it collapses.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi
Shelton attempts to fashion a kind of road movie-love triangle-sports flick. He fails on all three counts.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
As dopey as its heroes, and the cast's admirable energy isn't enough to keep the story punching through the final round.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
In this movie, he (Shelton) falls so hard he becomes, for the first time in his career, genuinely offensive.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Sara Wildberger
If you really love "Bull Durham," don't go near Play It to the Bone. It will break your heart.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
A woefully under-realized story of small-time boxers enjoying perhaps their last moment in the spotlight.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Does not live up to its name. It's more like White Men Can't Box, Either.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Are they fools or heroes? Because the movie can't decide, neither can we. And without an emotional payoff, Play It to the Bone ends up stranded in serio-comic limbo.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
The journey is a yawn -- an outpouring of backstory, punctuated by cute episodic diversions and ill-advised running gags.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Kellam Eanes
Despite some redeemable comic dialog between Banderas and Harrelson, most of the movie is TKO.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
