While Fienberg's direction is no great shakes, the film showcases its veteran cast.
Play the Game (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:1
Rotten:9
Average Rating:3.6/10
Consensus: Andy Griffith is his usually likable self, but he's stranded in a middling comedy that's surprisingly tasteless and poorly crafted.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for sexual content and language
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Aug 28, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $456,536
Synopsis:
Writer/Director Marc Fienberg’s PLAY THE GAME is an original comedy with surprising and clever twists about a young ladies' man, David, who teaches his dating tricks to his lonely, widowed...
Writer/Director Marc Fienberg’s PLAY THE GAME is an original comedy with surprising and clever twists about a young ladies' man, David, who teaches his dating tricks to his lonely, widowed grandfather Joe, while playing his best mind games to meet Julie, the woman of his dreams. But as David's supposedly foolproof techniques fail him, Grandpa Joe quickly transforms into the Don Juan of the retirement community. Slowly, the teacher becomes the student, and it's up to Grandpa to teach David that the best way to win the game of love is not to play games at all. But both David and Grandpa Joe may have met their match in more ways than one, leading to a surprise twist ending that makes the audience look back at the entire film in a new light.
As a bonus, PLAY THE GAME presents three beloved television stars – Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, and Liz Sheridan – in "romantic" situations as you've never seen them before, and continues Andy’s meteoric career renaissance that began with last year’s indie darling, Waitress. --© Official Site
Starring: Andy Griffith, Paul Campbell, Liz Sheridan, Doris Roberts
Starring: Andy Griffith, Paul Campbell, Liz Sheridan, Doris Roberts, Marla Sokoloff, Clint Howard, Rance Howard, Geoffrey Owens, Juliette Jeffers
Director: Marc Fienberg
Director: Marc Fienberg
Screenwriter: Marc Fienberg
Producer: Marc Fienberg
Composer: Jim Latham
Studio: Slowhand Cinema
Reviews for Play the Game
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.
Veering between syrupy sweet and awkwardly dirty, Play the Game is a woefully scoreless exercise.
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.
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.
A film in which comedic maturity is measured in jokes about hemorrhoids, constipation, and erectile dysfunction.
It’s The Andy Griffith Show meets Seinfeld in the sack in Play the Game, which shows Andy is not too old to star in a sex comedy, I guess.
This Lifetime-ready comedy is hardly provocative -- let alone perceptive, funny, or fresh.
The comedy's broad perfs, predictable story beats and pro but characterless packaging have a smallscreen feel.
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