Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 26 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 24 Ratings

  • Starring: Dennis Quaid, Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel
  • Summary: A former professional athlete with a weak past tries to redeem himself by coaching his son's soccer team, only to find himself unable to resist when in scoring position with his players' restless and gorgeous moms.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 26
  2. Negative: 15 out of 26
  1. 50
    Though the script takes pains to paint George as a passive boy-man, there's just not enough lovable here and too much of the thoughtless lout. Butler beware: In acting as in soccer, if you keep taking dives, sooner or later you pay the penalty.
  2. Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    Dec 6, 2012
    38
    This saga of a former soccer star coaching his son's team in order to worm his way back into the heart of his ex-wife aims to be warm and funny. Alas, it is mechanical and exhausting, like a windup toy of a monkey crashing together cymbals for 106 minutes while incrementally winding down.
  3. Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    Dec 7, 2012
    38
    Only Biel and Greer lift it above the level of bleh.
  4. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    Dec 6, 2012
    38
    The shenanigans of randy soccer moms and their obnoxious blowhard husbands are intended as comic relief. But the sappy plot of this formulaic romantic comedy is just as silly as its inane attempts at farce.

See all 26 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 6 out of 7
  1. This is a heartwarming film showing the main character who from a life of stardom as a popular soccer player bedomews a has been. He still has name recognition, but he is down and out. He reconnects with his 11 year old son after 7 yearsof absence and unwittingly becomes a coach for his son's team.

    I am sorry that the critics gave it a poor review. It is worth seeing.
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  2. Es una pesima comedia romantica, cuando vi el trailer pense que era una pelicula diferente, pero termino siendo un film mediocre, una de las peores peliculas del año. Expand
  3. Football films and cinema have never really meshed, they just don't translate well. To combat this Playing for Keeps keeps to the sidelines, looking at the supporters and the kids inspired by the game. However judging by the film I just watched, it's surprising that any part of the sport is inspiring, especially for the kids.
    George (Gerard Butler plays a screw up ex footballer who is perpetually feeling sorry for himself. When he is forced to coach his sons team by his ex wife Stacie (jessica Biel) he is given an opportunity to prove himself the man he thinks he is, not the child everyone else does.
    Now I know the word reprehensible is a little extreme but this film really is. I mean it doesn't compare to the horror of Die Hard 5 but Playing for Keeps is dreadful none the less. The script is awful, the characters interact in the most unnatural ways, the women behave like neanderthals for comedy's sake and rarely eliciting more than a chuckle. Bulter is a likable idiot but he only really entertains when playing the game and not talking. Dennis Quaid pops in and out of the film to annoy the viewer with his over the top business man father, a slimebag who is more alien than human. Biel is actually surprisingly good for once in her career but she can't stop the ship from sinking. In fact there are few acting problems, except for Quaid and Uma Thurman, whose shrillness makes her scenes unbearable. The problem is that the film has no direction,a message it never convincingly delivers and because of this, Playing for Keeps is nowhere near the inspirational story of a mans comeback into something so unbearably crass. Overall the film gives you characters you don't like, sets a tone that makes you think Farelly brothers instead of touching family drama and fails to convey why the game is so important to George and the kids that he coaches and fails to inspire.
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  4. I want to punch Dennis Quaid in his **** face. Don't go and see this stupid piece of trash. Stay home and finger your anus or something, it would be far more entertaining than this. Expand

See all 7 User Reviews

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