STARRING: Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Lolita Davidovich, Tom Sizemore, Lucy Liu, Robert Wagner

WRITTEN BY: Ron Shelton

DIRECTED BY: Ron Shelton

I can’t believe this movie is 14 years old. Woody Harrelson looks exactly the same in this film as he does now. It’s startling to see that he really hasn’t aged much since then. Antonio Banderas has put on a few years, but not much, certainly not 14. In Play It To The Bone, both men are pegged as boxers who are really too old to still be doing this, yet are still looking for a second chance. While not a successful movie at the box office, making less than 10 million domestically, it is an easy to watch bromance between two guys who aren’t just underrated boxers, they’re both underrated actors as well.

Cesar (Banderas) and Vinnie (Harrelson) are two has-been boxers who get a second chance at redemption when the opening fighters for a highly publicized Mike Tyson fight are no longer able to participate. Promoter Joe Domino (Sizemore) rings them up, offers them some dough, and thinks it’s an easy sell. But both Cesar and Vinnie want redemption, so they ask for the chance for the winner to compete for the title. Domino reluctantly agrees (though it’s clear he has no intention of following through if he doesn’t want to), and the two boxers are on their way to Vegas, by car, with mutual friend Grace (Lolita Davidovich). Having dated both men, Grace is put in the unique position to be able to offer both encouragement along the way. As much as this is a sports drama, it is also a road-trip bromance, as Cesar and Vinnie bond, fight, bicker, and make up along the way. By the time they actually get to the fight, you’re not rooting for either specific boxer to win, rather just that the fight doesn’t mess up their friendship.

Slow in parts, and suffering from too much screentime from a useless character by Lucy Liu, Play It To The Bone will never reach the top tier of sports dramas. It a film destined to be discovered on Netflix, and probably only enjoyed once, maybe twice. This isn’t a film you’ll rush out to buy the DVD and watch again and again. Even though Banderas and Harrelson do excellent jobs in their roles, Liu’s part is an obnoxious distraction that seems to deviate in tone from the film, and Sizemore and Wagner are far to cheesy in their roles to give them any kind of consideration. Whatever cookie cutter their characters fell out of needs to be retired. And for what it’s worth, Lolita Davidovich does a decent job as Grace, until the writer decides to give her a silly subplot of selling her inventions to people while in Vegas. This girl has never presented herself as an aspiring inventor throughout the course of the film, nor has she given the audience any indication that she’s anything more than an aged groupie. So when she begins pitching something endorsed by a chiropractic association, you’ll find yourself rolling your eyes.

Vinnie and Cesar’s careers are a series of “what could have beens”, much like this movie. Had Ron Shelton possibly spent a bit more time on the script, he might have fleshed out supporting characters that weren’t stock, and weren’t so terribly laughable. Instead, we have a film that “coulda been” something. Harrelson and Banderas deserved better.

FINAL GRADE: C+ (due in large part to the performances from Harrelson and Banderas, not due to the director or supporting cast).