Playing for Keeps reviewed by Mark Kermode

playing for keep story is Gerard Butler is a former sports star now estranged from his wife and the mother of his child relocates to an American small town in order to be nearer to his ex-wife and small child former wife now living with a new partner who seems really nice really supportive looks after the kid loves her is really nice he made up by the film to look like a total stooge you know he's really really nice but guess what he's not Gerald Butler meanwhile his biggest crime is that he might be a bit boring Gerard Butler however is the Talk of the Town all the women want to be with him and the women are Katherine Zeta Jones Judy GRE um Thurman glamorous women but the minute they cast They set their eyes on Gerard Butler oh that's it they just want they're falling over themselves to be with him the local men all want to be him spectacularly Dennis Quaid who's this kind of businessman who's desperate to get Gerard to be his friend meanwhile all the kids want him to teach them how to play football is a clip all right now I want you to be Killers When you go out use the field I want you to talk to each other I want you to pass the ball to each other and remember you can't SC score if you don't shoot ready for that come around come in okay hands out one 2 3 go Cyclones see the idea is that we all do it together okay so 1 three let's try it again one two [Applause] three now the fact of the matter is that Gerald Butler's back catalog is so what's the word patchy that it would be very easy to go into a Gerald Butler film you know being being prejudice against it and I should say that in the case of this film I had an exciting experience attempting to see it I was trying to catch it before Christmas so that we could review it on the show now because obviously it's out now and um no names no pack drills the people who were in charge of showing the movie didn't seem overly Keen to get for me to go for some reason why would that be I've got no idea it looked very likely that the only screening that I could get to was full full full full not no space absolutely full so after some prodding and uh more prodding I found myself into the screening from which I was full to find me and five other people there Not only was the screening not full it was I have to say and even in the emptiness you would think there would be some laughing there would be some joining in none at all and the reason why is this even by Gerald Butler's patchy back catalog standards this is the most self a grandis thing I have seen in living memory I mean Butler takes a production credit as well and of course you would to so here's the role Geral basically you're incredibly hunky all these fantastically glamorous women want to be with you this bloke Den wants to be you and all these kids absolutely love you and the Arc of the movie is that at the beginning of it you're a bit boyish and a bit rebellious and a bit you know a bit of a tear away during the course of the movie you're going to learn to be a little bit more responsible a little bit more grown up but you know what at the beginning when you're not meant to be a very good father your kids still going to love you anyway and all the other kids are going to love you anyway and so the Arc of the movie is you go from being absolutely irresistible to everybody except your ex-wife to absolutely irresistible to everybody and do you think there's any possibility that you might overcome that's so I'm sitting there watching it and I go and the film is literally making you it's saying to you look now at the moment you know Jessica or she's now with this other bloke and he's he's a bit boring and he's very said he picks people up from the from the from the school at the right time and he does things at right he doesn't go out and you know party and all that stuff don't like him nor he's very bad very bad man over I'm doing 8 years very bad man over there over here over here mullet head loud shouty person running around on the football pitch being a little bit rep like him like him support go for him he's a person there's a scene in the film in which Gerard Butler's character comes back home and finds Uma Thurman in his bed in her scanties desperate for Gerard to come and make the night something special and I all I could think of was do you remember that Derek and Clive sketch I was I was at home and uh Bridget Bardo was there in a shorty nighty I said Bridget get out it's the film is at that level it's like did did you never sit down and go hang on a minute so the story and I mean the word misogyny doesn't begin to cover the nness of the portrayal of all female characters I mean it has this kind of idea that all middle-aged women Housewives cougars all of the would just literally do anything cougars cougars that's the word that's now being used apparently is for what who's a cougar predatory housewife I mean I do see the film see the film see the film and see Katherine Zer Jones as the character who just would sheia cougar I believe that would be the vernacular Simon it's not a term that I would like to use soing desperate housewife I haven't seen desperate housewife I hear but desperate housewife who who's after a Toy Boy kind of is that the is that who's after Gerard Butler he's not a toy boy he is as far as we can tell an ad he's everything to he's all things to all people as they say in the Goon show it must be hell in there he literally it's there's nobody in the film who doesn't fall in love with him so you go okay Gerard we got a film for you um and what do I play in it oh you play every you play all things to all men and women do you want to do it yeah be fine what do I have to do you have to kick a ball around the field you have to attempt to Stave off the attentions of a string of unbelievably glamorous women all of whom are in love with you you have to be fabulous with kids and but you have to be a little bit Reckless H but just a little and you I I mean honestly you just sit there going you know there's that thing that American actors won't do roles in which they are seen as B bad I mean this is this long story about why is it that you get British actors to play villains or historical characters like for example this was on the radio recently why get this very good program presented by Mark Lawson why is it that you end up having s Anthony Hopkins doing Nixon the answer is because American actors don't want to do that because they think that people would go oh he looks a bit Shifty I don't like him anymore Geral Butler it's like he said I I want to play characters in which I'm bril even can I just mention at this point in cartoon form the baddy in Rise of the Guardians nice Grumble from your stomach again there this is unbelievable I think that was more Picadilly line by the way uh they can't even have an American to play Jack Frost it had to it had to be Jude being extremely English that's what this that's what we do right Gerald Butler you know Scottish proud don't fall into the anyway awful awful all the time I kept thinking stay away from him and stay with the nice guy he's really nice he's really nice kids up on time he picked your kid up on time and he's nice and he hasn't got a stupid haircut and he wasn't in that stupid movie with Jennifer Aniston either so a stupid haircut is automatically a disqualification I'll tell you I was lucky to have got a seat in that screening you sure it wasn't just because you were feeling so grumpy that you thought the very last thing in the interest of editorial whatever it is I'm confessing up that by the you know I wasn't in the best possible mood when I went in but believe me I by the time I came out I would have sat and watched Keith Lemon the movie and slammed my face with the car door

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 73,999

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode, BBC, 5Live, review, reviews, Playing for Keeps, Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rant

Id: 5ByUGVQJYrY

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 04 2013