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Play It To the Bone
Buena Vista Pictures
FILM:
MPAA 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.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Ron Shelton
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Ron Shelton
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 13, 2000
Video: June 13, 2000
Theatrical: December 25, 1999
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
124 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
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...
80
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.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
Either Shelton knows this world well, or he's such a great bluffer it doesn't matter.
75
USA Today
Staff [Not Credited]
Another invigorating, extremely raunchy sports movie from Ron Shelton .
70
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
Throws us directly into the ring for one of the most brutal fight scenes in American film.
63
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.
63
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
Fghting your heart out at the end of this movie can't win the prize or the crowd.
58
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
A boxing film with no conflictual punch.
58
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
The film is nothing much to look at and has trouble swallowing its own clichs and implausibilities.
50
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.
50
Film.com
Tom Keogh
This is still Ron Shelton in good -- not great, but good -- form here, and the rewards are plentiful.
50
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.
50
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.
40
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
(Shelton) knows how to write pungent dialogue that covers a multitude of sins when the film goes off the rails.
38
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
This is no "Raging Bull."
38
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Ron Shelton's boxing pic is long on road work but strictly a flyweight.
38
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.
38
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
Isn't going to be a contender
38
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.
38
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
It's bone tired.
32
Mr. Showbiz
Larry Terenzi
Shelton attempts to fashion a kind of road movie-love triangle-sports flick. He fails on all three counts.
30
Newsweek
Kevin Stuart
A half-hearted comedy whose jokes are far from a knockout.
25
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.
25
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
In this movie, he (Shelton) falls so hard he becomes, for the first time in his career, genuinely offensive.
25
Miami Herald
Sara Wildberger
If you really love "Bull Durham," don't go near Play It to the Bone. It will break your heart.
20
Time
Richard Schickel
Never achieves more than feckless amiability.
20
Variety
Robert Koehler
A woefully under-realized story of small-time boxers enjoying perhaps their last moment in the spotlight.
20
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Does not live up to its name. It's more like White Men Can't Box, Either.
20
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
As dull as the decor in a Motel 6.
20
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.
10
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
The journey is a yawn -- an outpouring of backstory, punctuated by cute episodic diversions and ill-advised running gags.
10
Dallas Observer
David Ehrenstein
A road movie trapped in a cul-de-sac.
10
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Doesn't quite have the goods.
10
TNT RoughCut
Kellam Eanes
Despite some redeemable comic dialog between Banderas and Harrelson, most of the movie is TKO.
 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.
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