Play It to the Bone

PLAY IT TO THE BONE is a film that advertises like a boxing movie but ends up being nothing more than a roadtrip movie without anything interesting to look at... except maybe mountain rock with a pretty name. The script is full of funny situations without being that funny, touching moments that aren't that touching, and characters that come and go in a heartbeat.

There were a lot of times in PLAY IT TO THE BONE that I felt like I missed something. Scenes seemed to skip into one another without mentioning how they got to that point. At other times I felt the plot points were rushed and therefore lacked substance. It appears to look like the filmmakers just gave us a quickie reason to move on to other things.

Even the characters seemed to be missed. Robert Wagner's character shows up briefly with no real reason for being there in the first place. Some celebrities are there, yet they go by so quickly you never really know who it was you were supposed to know. Even Lucy Liu's character, so well advertised in the trailer, was only in the film for about 10 minutes total and really served no specific purpose. She was really wasted in this film role. Her character shows up for no real reason, stays for a few fleeting moments, and then goes away. One gets the feeling that the filmmakers just threw her in because she was an up and coming star.

And then, finally, after over an hour of traveling and meeting people of no consequence, we finally get to Las Vegas and to the fight scene... but not before, of course, fifteen minutes of dressing room thoughts, regrets and flashbacks. Then, once we really do finally get to the fight scene between the two friends it is filled with slow moving action in close-ups and very bizarre dream sequences. The whole movie "build-up" of a climatic boxing match ends up looking like something out of a David Lynch flick. There was no real action. No real release of tension. No real enjoyment to the waiting around for something to happen. It just results into one huge letdown.

And, in the end, nothing gets resolved. It has no payoff... for neither the characters or the audience. The characters could (and will) still live their lives the same way even if they never did take the trip to Vegas.

Perhaps the only thing I found that really worked was the relationship between Harrelson, Banderas, and Davidovich. They seemed to perform well over a lackluster script and made the best of what they had. And their performances did reflect a sincere and caring bond between the three friends.

There isn't much to recommend PLAY IT TO THE BONE. The only reasons would be for the few (very few) funny moments and the performances of the three leads. This film is by no means ROCKY. Then again... it's no ROCKY 3 either.