How to Be a Player (1997)

Director:

Lionel C. Martin

Writers (WGA):

Mark Brown (story)
Mark Brown (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

6 August 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A playboy gets the tables turned on him when a party is arranged with all of the women he has been two-timing are in attendance.

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Farce | Anthropology | Adultery | Hip Hop

Cast

Bill Bellamy	...	Drayton Jackson
Natalie Desselle	...	Jenny Jackson
Lark Voorhies	...	Lisa
Mari Morrow	...	Katrina
Pierre Edwards	...	David (as Pierre)
Jermaine 'Huggy' Hopkins	...	Kilo (as Jermaine 'Big Hug' Hopkins)
Anthony Johnson	...	Spootie (as A.J. Johnson)
Max Julien	...	Uncle Fred
Beverly Johnson	...	Robin
Gilbert Gottfried	...	Tony the Doorman
Bernie Mac	...	Buster
Stacii Jae Johnson	...	Sherri
Elise Neal	...	Nadine
J. Anthony Brown	...	Uncle Snook
Amber Smith	...	Amber

Also Known As:

Def Jam's How to Be a Player (USA) (complete title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content and language.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:R (certificate #35351) | Argentina:13

Company:

Def Pictures

Trivia:

Cameo: [Solveig]Near the end of the movie when Bill Bellamy is running through the house, the porn star Solveig has a cameo sex scene.

Quotes:

Drayton Jackson: I'm what you might call....a player.

Movie Connections:

References Jungle Fever (1991)

Soundtrack:

Lay Me Down

Well... at least the music is OK

I've watched and enjoyed two other 'black' comedies(not to be confused with "black comedies"), The Wash and Booty Call. However, in the very first scene of this film, I found myself having a bad feeling about it(yes, that was a Star Wars reference)... I started to think this was going to be a dreadfully bad film. Sadly, my instinct turned out to be right. The plot is fair, but it's not very well-developed. The situations are instantly forgettable. The credits have just barely finished as I'm typing this, and I'm straining to remember any of it. The acting is not terribly short of perfectly atrocious. The characters are pretty thin, very nearly stereotypes(I know I say that a lot, but believe me, this time, I *really* mean that). The only way you can really distinguish between them(a task I found nearly impossible to accomplish throughout watching) is to note their extreme personas(which seem to be about all of them) and attach said attributes to their respective character names. Sorry, that was somewhat confusing, wasn't it? Not quite as confusing as trying to tell these caricatures, pardon, characters apart(rather alarming, really, considering how few there are). The film has a moral, or at least thinks it does. I did find some poetic justice in the film, but the majority of it just seemed forced, underdeveloped. Now, the main reason I borrowed this from a friend was that I read the plot... and personally, I cannot stand the thought of 'players' or 'playing'. I can think of few things that bother me more than disrespecting women. The idea of seeing such a 'player' be put in a situation where his 'game' stands to be exposed, in front of the poor girls that have fallen victim to him, no less... why, I found that to be potentially every bit as entertaining as watching Charlie Sheen(or his character on the show, it's quite difficult to tell them apart) get a taste of his own medicine in *that* episode of Two and a Half Men. Yes, schadenfreude. It's not nice, but neither is 'playing'. Whether or not the film contained just that, I shan't say. I wouldn't want to ruin whatever there is left of it for anyone who has yet to see it(and still intends to). Why is it, by the way, that a man being promiscuous is 'playing', whilst a woman doing the same is a slut? Personally, I find that to be a double-standard. Yes, women make an emotional connection to whomever they sleep with... but men have emotions too, despite many of us attempting to deny that fact. A few final thoughts... I very much enjoyed and appreciated the fate of one particular character, whom I found myself feeling sorry for throughout most of the film. Why *did* Bernie Mac attach his fairly big(star-status-wise, not 'number of letters'-wise) name to this film? And finally, the music in this was better than the film. I recommend this to fans of 'black' comedy, and it helps if you're big on gratuitous nudity and stereotypes(and for anyone wondering; yours truly is most definitely not. I belong solely in the first-mentioned category of that sentence). Could have been worse, but there's far most definitely room for improvement. 3/10