No
Knockout
Ron Shelton Misses Badly With Boxing Flick Play It To The Bone
By David Kozo
NEW YORK (AQB)--Play it to the Bone, which opens Jan. 21, is the latest sports movie from writer-director Ron Shelton, who of course brought us the now-classic Bull Durham more than a decade ago, and has since explored basketball (White Men Can't Jump), golf (Tin Cup), and baseball again (Cobb).
Shelton's at his best when he brings us the seedy underbelly of the glamour: the near-empty minor league park, or the playground trash-talking, or the dumpy driving range. So this latest picture - a boxing movie that centers around two friends and washed-up fighters who get thrust at the last minute onto the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout in Las Vegas - would seem to be up Shelton's alley. But the result is a script and a story that are achingly dull. Shelton, I suppose, deserves credit for stretching such a thin story into a full-length feature film.
The palookas are Cesar Dominguez (Antonio Banderas) and Vince Boudreau (Woody Harrelson), and they're called to Vegas when the scheduled undercard fighters are suddenly unable to perform (one is killed, the other overdoses). Of course rather than fly from their home in L.A., they drive, on back roads no less, with their friend Grace (Lolita Davidovich) so that their checkered pasts can be unfurled slowly.
Hey, without the ridiculous car ride we're talking a short film here.
We learn that Cesar had worked and had a bad experience with the shady promoter Joe Domino (Tom Sizemore), which is why they were thought of in the first place, and we also learn of the love triangle (a staple in most Shelton movies) between the two guys and Grace. Needless to say they get to Vegas just in time, but not before picking up zany hitchhiker Lia (Lucy Liu) who adds…well, nothing, except about 20 more minutes of screen time.
As their fight starts we see the empty arena and the announcers trying to brush up on just who these tomato cans are. That's Shelton's one strong moment, as it gets back to what he does best with sports movies. But that's about it. The press notes from Touchstone Pictures boast that filming wrapped just six months after Shelton started the script - that's all too clear.
Grade:
D
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