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Play The Game (2008)

tomatometer

27

Average Rating: 4.3/10
Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 22

Andy Griffith is his usually likable self, but he's stranded in a middling comedy that's surprisingly tasteless and poorly crafted.

9

Average Rating: 3.6/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 10

Andy Griffith is his usually likable self, but he's stranded in a middling comedy that's surprisingly tasteless and poorly crafted.

audience

52

liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 22,048

My Rating

Movie Info

A handsome young ladies' man attempts to teach his widowed grandfather the finer points of dating in the new millennium in this comedy featuring beloved television icons Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, and Liz Sheridan. When it comes to meeting women, David knows every trick in the book. Lately, David (Paul Campbell) has noticed that his grandfather Joe (Griffith) seems more lonely than usual. Joe lives in a retirement community, and though he longs for companionship, it's been so long since he's

PG-13, 1 hr. 46 min.

Comedy, Romance

Marc Fienberg

Jan 29, 2010

$0.5M

Slowhand Releasing

Cast

All Critics (30) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (22) | DVD (1)

While Fienberg's direction is no great shakes, the film showcases its veteran cast.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Stay home and find yourself a Golden Girls marathon.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: New York Daily News | Comment
New York Daily News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Play the Game has all kinds of good intentions, but the comedy is too broad and the pacing is clumsy. Take away the dirty parts, and this is the type of thing you can get for free on the Hallmark Channel every day.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Veering between syrupy sweet and awkwardly dirty, Play the Game is a woefully scoreless exercise.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The good news is that the seemingly perennial TV fixture is still funny and sharp and folksy. The bad news is that he lost the bet, or whatever it was that got him into Marc Fienberg's smarmy, lackluster comedy.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Surely, there is a way of expressing the joy of sex without the potty-mouthed dialogue that desecrates the persona of a television and movie icon.

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | Comment
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I never contemplated what Andy Griffith's face would look like during orgasm, and I curse this atrocious and shoddy romantic comedy for making Griffith do it and making anyone watch it.

November 13, 2009 Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | Comment
Salt Lake Tribune

Surprisingly sexual in nature, and not just because it seems so concerned with the sex practices of the elderly. There's too much of that sort of material here and not nearly enough of the stuff we really want to see.

November 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | Comment
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

There's a good comedy to be made about sex among seniors, but the low-budget indie film Play the Game is not that movie.

October 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

It isn't great movie-making, but it is a cheeky good time -- even if you've never wondered what Opie's pa would look like after a jolt of Viagra.

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Florida Times-Union | Comment
Florida Times-Union

This isn't so much sitcom fare as dinner-theatre material, directed without an ounce of style or panache and played more broadly than an old vaudeville routine.

September 10, 2009 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | Comment
One Guy's Opinion

Although occasionally slow Play the Game receives a boost from its capable cast. It's fun to see an old dog learn new tricks.

September 6, 2009 Full Review Source: ReviewExpress.com | Comment
ReviewExpress.com

The scene in which Alzheimer's is played as a dating dealbreaker is as stunningly tasteless as Fienberg's zooming-in on Joe's face when he receives his first blowjob.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Washington City Paper | Comment
Washington City Paper

one of those endearingly cute, funny movies you'll see on cable and wonder why studios don't put their marketing machine behind this kind of film instead of the typical garbage we get passed off on us as summer 'entertainment.'

August 28, 2009 Full Review | Comment

Smart screenplay, good directing. Except for Griffith, casting is wrong.

August 28, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)
FilmsInReview.com

Griffith improvises an orgasm that seems to last as long as the entire eight-year run of The Andy Griffith Show.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing

Did you ever wonder what face Andy Griffith makes when he's having an intimate moment with a lady friend? Me neither. Yet that's one of many "delights" foisted on us during writer-director Marc Fienberg's feature-length debut comedy.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: Charlotte Weekly | Comment

There have been many things in this world I never thought I would see, and watching Andy Griffith receive, umm, "oral pleasure" was one of them

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: WaffleMovies.com | Comment
WaffleMovies.com

Heartwarming, clever and very, very funny. It's a genuinely charming, uplifting and crowd-pleasing gem that must be seen by generations, young and old.

August 28, 2009 Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | Comment
NYC Movie Guru

Hearing Griffith say, 'David, grandpa's horny,' is not something anyone should have to experience.

August 27, 2009 Full Review Source: Metromix.com | Comment
Metromix.com
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Play The Game

I really liked this movie!! Who knew that Andy Griffith was gonna turn out to be an hysterical old geezer?! The rest of the cast did a wonderful job, also. The whole thing had me clapping at the end (yeah, I know..I'm a dork!). But seriously, this was a fun, witty, romantic comedy and I would recommend it to anyone.

October 12, 2010
itsjustme2004

Super Reviewer

Play the Game is about two playas. The first one is David (Paul Campbell), a sleazy car salesman who is your stereotypical man whore who knows all the moves, their counters and counters to said counters. So he will get shown up by a girl before the end of the film. The second player is Andy Griffith. Yeah, Sheriff

July 16, 2010
sononothing

Super Reviewer

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