| THE GAME PLAN |
 2007 - USADirector: Andy Fickman
- Reviewed by Linda
But all of this changes when a cute little girl name Peyton (Madison Pettis) shows up at the front door to his fancy bachelor's loft. (Cue Oprah audience: "Awwwwww....") You see, she is the daughter he never knew he had, after a break-up fling with his ex-wife, and now mom is in Africa, you see, so Peyton is going to be hanging around for a month. Luckily for Joe (and the audience), Peyton is pretty cute, and for the most part little Madison Pettis avoids the obnoxious child-actor syndrome. Thankfully she is tolerable, and is often quite funny. Of course in no time, his prized football, trophies, and hottest clubbing jacket are bedazzled with bling, and in a hilarious moment, the final shot of a basketball game on the TV is flipped to a shot of ponies grazing in a field, much to the shock of Joe and his pals. The Game Plan is one of those movies where a little girl can hang out in a locker room of towel-clothed professional football players, and where every man who is near the kid turns into a pile of goo. It's one of those movies where allergies are first played for laughs (look at The Rock speaking in a lisp after eating cinnamon!), then played again for an educational somber moment (Peyton eats peanuts, goes to the hospital). It's one of those movies where you know a Big Secret will be revealed by Peyton at the end, where maybe her rosy little stories about Super Mom aren't so accurate. And it is one of those stories where a bachelor will turn into a perfect dad within the span of less than one month... so much so that the cry of "she needs to be with her dad!" is enough to justify him becoming a permanent parent all of a sudden. It is a Disney movie, after all. That said, The Game Plan is pretty painless entertainment when it comes to these kinds of movies. Johnson is an amiable lead, and he has a nice rapport with the kid. There is, of course, a non-threatening pseudo-romantic interest in the guise of Peyton's ballet teacher Ms Sanchez (Monique Vasquez), and there are lots of kiddie-friendly jokes about things like overflowing soap bubbles, a cute dog, and girlie-redecorating. There is virtually nothing offensive in the movie, and the most traumatic moment happens when he forgets his kid at a big nightclub party (oops!). It's a "touchdown for the entire family"... or so says the box! DVD NOTESIf you just can't get enough, the DVD has kid-friendly extras (like an interactive game where you can "bedazzle" various items in Joe's apartment with various colorful shapes), as well as the usual bloopers and deleted scenes, and the full faux-ESPN reports about Joe Kingman (with his glorious white teeth on full display). |
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has extremely white teeth. He is also a freakishly large man. It's not just me saying this: both facts are pointed out in The Game Plan, where Johnson plays Joe Kingman, a freakishly large, super-famous quarterback for the fictional professional football team the Boston Rebels. Joe is 30-something, single, a womanizer, and loves to party, despite the furrowed brow of one of his best friends, teammate (and family man!) Sanders (Morris Chestnut). Sure, Sanders' kids and wife are the light of his life, but Joe tends to pad his social interaction with his buddies from the team, and his agent Stella (Kyra Sedgwick, who is a hoot) who thinks children may as well be little aliens.
