Play It to the Bone
Metascore
32 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 33
  3. Negative: 20 out of 33
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  1. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    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.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    Either Shelton knows this world well, or he's such a great bluffer it doesn't matter.
  3. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Staff [Not Credited]
    75
    Another invigorating, extremely raunchy sports movie from Ron Shelton .
  4. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    70
    Throws us directly into the ring for one of the most brutal fight scenes in American film.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    63
    Fghting your heart out at the end of this movie can't win the prize or the crowd.
  6. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Edvins Beitiks
    63
    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.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    A boxing film with no conflictual punch.
  8. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    58
    The film is nothing much to look at and has trouble swallowing its own clichs and implausibilities.
  9. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    50
    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.
  10. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Steve Simels
    50
    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.
  11. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Tom Keogh
    50
    This is still Ron Shelton in good -- not great, but good -- form here, and the rewards are plentiful.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    50
    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.
  13. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    40
    (Shelton) knows how to write pungent dialogue that covers a multitude of sins when the film goes off the rails.
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  14. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    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.
  15. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    Ron Shelton's boxing pic is long on road work but strictly a flyweight.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    It's bone tired.
  17. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    38
    This is no "Raging Bull."
  18. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    38
    Isn't going to be a contender
  19. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    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.
  20. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Larry Terenzi
    32
    Shelton attempts to fashion a kind of road movie-love triangle-sports flick. He fails on all three counts.
  21. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Kevin Stuart
    30
    A half-hearted comedy whose jokes are far from a knockout.
  22. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    25
    As dopey as its heroes, and the cast's admirable energy isn't enough to keep the story punching through the final round.
  23. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Sara Wildberger
    25
    If you really love "Bull Durham," don't go near Play It to the Bone. It will break your heart.
  24. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    25
    In this movie, he (Shelton) falls so hard he becomes, for the first time in his career, genuinely offensive.
  25. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    20
    Does not live up to its name. It's more like White Men Can't Box, Either.
  26. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    20
    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.
  27. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    20
    Never achieves more than feckless amiability.
  28. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    20
    A woefully under-realized story of small-time boxers enjoying perhaps their last moment in the spotlight.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    20
    As dull as the decor in a Motel 6.
  30. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    10
    Doesn't quite have the goods.
  31. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    10
    The journey is a yawn -- an outpouring of backstory, punctuated by cute episodic diversions and ill-advised running gags.
  32. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: David Ehrenstein
    10
    A road movie trapped in a cul-de-sac.
  33. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Kellam Eanes
    10
    Despite some redeemable comic dialog between Banderas and Harrelson, most of the movie is TKO.

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