Play It to the Bone

I don't know what this movie is trying to be. Roughly the first two thirds of the film are basically a road movie. There is a very clear plot here, but it's very uneventful, mostly being a lot of dialog from people and about things that I really couldn't care less about. Our three main characters are all annoying and unlikable in their own way and although I will give it to them that they have great chemistry (Especially Harrelson and Banderas) but at no point did I find their banter to be funny or heart-warming; they just kind of babble on for an hour and change. Easily the highlight of the film is the actual boxing, which is relegated to about half an hour at the end of the film. While I wish the match was told in a more straight forward way, it was choreographed and presented spectacularly and the make-up afterwards is great. Had this been just a boxing movie, I'd have been satisfied, but it's mostly a road movie that fails at being a road movie. We set up tons of character threads that appear as if they are character arcs, but we just kind of let them fade away and never bring them up again. There are so many things that in the moment feel like foreshadowing, but never amount to anything. Although it wasn't a big deal to me, I feel like I kind of have to mention how poorly pieces of this 90's movie have aged, specifically, there is a lot of what the internet now apparently calls "The F Slur". It makes sense for the character and the time period, but in 2021 it wouldn't fly. Play it to the Bone is painfully bland. Harrelson and Banderas's relationship is interesting at times, but we never go very deep and we really don't move far from where we started. This really either needed to be a much better road movie or spend more time on the boxing side.

I don't know what this movie is trying to be. Roughly the first two thirds of the film are basically a road movie. There is a very clear plot here, but it's very uneventful, mostly being a lot of dialog from people and about things that I really couldn't care less about. Our three main characters are all annoying and unlikable in their own way and although I will give it to them that they have great chemistry (Especially Harrelson and Banderas) but at no point did I find their banter to be funny or heart-warming; they just kind of babble on for an hour and change. Easily the highlight of the film is the actual boxing, which is relegated to about half an hour at the end of the film. While I wish the match was told in a more straight forward way, it was choreographed and presented spectacularly and the make-up afterwards is great. Had this been just a boxing movie, I'd have been satisfied, but it's mostly a road movie that fails at being a road movie. We set up tons of character threads that appear as if they are character arcs, but we just kind of let them fade away and never bring them up again. There are so many things that in the moment feel like foreshadowing, but never amount to anything. Although it wasn't a big deal to me, I feel like I kind of have to mention how poorly pieces of this 90's movie have aged, specifically, there is a lot of what the internet now apparently calls "The F Slur". It makes sense for the character and the time period, but in 2021 it wouldn't fly. Play it to the Bone is painfully bland. Harrelson and Banderas's relationship is interesting at times, but we never go very deep and we really don't move far from where we started. This really either needed to be a much better road movie or spend more time on the boxing side.