GAME PLAN, THE - DVD review

When I first heard about this movie, I had to ask myself, Haven't I seen this before? I mean, Disney's 2007 "The Game Plan" stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a tough guy saddled with a new kid, and hadn't Vin Diesel already played a tough guy saddled with a family of youngsters in 2005's "The Pacifier," which, maybe not coincidentally, was also a Disney film? Well, yeah, there are definite similarities, although this new one exchanges the exaggerated action thrills of "The Pacifier" for exaggerated sentimentality. Still, "The Game Plan," while nothing like a great movie, has a sweetness about it that can be mildly affecting. It's just unfortunate (for adults, at least) that "The Game Plan" plays everything too safe and cozy in a typically Disney sort of way to be entirely engaging, but, hey, that's what the studio is about, it's what they've always been about, it's what people expect of them. As a "family friendly" movie, "The Game Plan" works perfectly well.

Johnson plays a big-time, pro football quarterback, Joe Kingman, who leads a fictional pro franchise called the Boston Rebels. Joe is about to take his team into the championship rounds, and he has adoring fans everywhere cheering him on. It's something that cheers him on, too, because he's a selfish, egotistical, self-centered, bigheaded bachelor who lives to love himself. Well, you can already see where all of this is going, and the climactic turnaround scene doesn't disappoint.

When the movie begins, the filmmakers introduce us to Joe at a party he's throwing at his penthouse apartment. He lives the life of the swinging bachelor, with the ultimate bachelor pad: a fully automated place with every luxury, widescreen TVs in every room, a bathtub the size of a swimming pool, a Mercedes supercar in the garage, and always a bevy of gorgeous girls to liven up the spirits. But when the party's over, we see Joe alone and quite obviously wondering if this is the best life for him after all. He's clearly a lonely guy, and he knows something is missing from his life; he just doesn't know what. One of his teammates, Travis Sanders (Morris Chestnut), is a married guy who frowns on Joe's wild parties and hedonistic lifestyle and tells him so, but Joe just shrugs it off.

Now, enter Peyton Kelly (Madison Pettis), a perky little eight-year-old who shows up at Joe's front door announcing herself as the daughter he didn't know he had. Imagine Joe's surprise. At first he refuses to believe it. He had gotten divorced about eight years before. Eight years? Hmmmm, he thinks. When the girl produces a birth certificate and a note from Joe's ex-wife asking him to take care of the girl for a month, the look on Joe's face is the highlight of the picture.

From this point on, everything happens in the story that we expect would happen. Remember, this is Disney, and it's meant to be a family comedy. Much of the action becomes repetitive and redundant: We see the problems of a macho single guy with a little girl in tow, and we get plenty of shots of Johnson's celebrated bod as he flexes his muscles about every other shot.

In its defense, Johnson is actually quite charming in the role. If the story had given him somewhere to go with his characterization instead of stranding him in the middle of a standard-issue Disney plot line, he might have gotten more of my attention. As it is, he appears easy and relaxed in a rather one-dimensional part.

On the other hand, young Miss Pettis, who is unquestionably adorable, is like so many child actors in that she's a bit too precious for credibility and comes across as a bit too gooey. Among the supporting cast Kyra Sedgwick stands out as Joe's flinty agent, Stella Peck. Sedgwick seems to understand that comedy needs laughs, and she plays her part more broadly than the others. Roselyn Sanchez plays the girl's ballet teacher, Monique Vasquez, a very pretty lady with whom both Peyton and Joe get involved. However, the movie barely touches on this potential romantic angle. Hayes MacArthur plays Klye Cooper, one of Joe's more dim-witted teammates; Brian White plays Jamal Webber, a slightly brighter teammate; and Jamal Duff plays Clarence Monroe, a teammate who mainly grunts and growls. But my favorite character was Spike (Tubbs), Joe's ever-faithful bulldog. He shows more animation and personality than almost anyone else in the picture.

Andy Fickman directed the movie, and a look at his past accomplishments might give you an idea of what to expect here: "She's the Man," "Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical," and "Who's Your Daddy?" In his favor, he moves things along at a healthy clip. Unfortunately, there's not much that's funny in the story, so there's not a lot he can do to punch it up. Well, at least the movie is not offensive or insulting, just tedious and empty. I wish I could say the music perked things up, but even that is fairly bland. It's only the fact that the little girl likes classical music and practices ballet that saves the soundtrack.

There are a sufficient number of "ahhhhh" moments in the film to qualify it as the family-friendly offering I mentioned before, even if some of those moments seem forced. At almost two hours, though, "The Game Plan" is much too long for its subject matter. About eighty minutes seems about right for this kind of kids' film. Toward the end the movie gets remarkably maudlin and corny, and there's one turn of events that had me baffled. Maybe children could figure it out better than I could.

Trivia: Johnson says this is the last film in which he is going to use his nickname "The Rock." We'll see. In any case, "The Game Plan" sends him off in a genial direction.

Video:
The picture quality is generally excellent. A high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer maintains the film original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, while delivering bright strong colors and very deep black levels. I noticed some very minor halos and edge flares, unnoticeable from normal viewing distances. Otherwise, definition is quite good for a standard-def release, and the screen is markedly free of grain.

Audio:
There are some good and some average things about the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. On the plus side, the movie contains a lot of music, aural effects, and crowd noises, so expect a rather loud and rambunctious soundtrack. There is also a fine clarity throughout the entire sonic spectrum, and there is a pleasant musical bloom in the surrounds. More ordinary are the dynamic and frequency extremes, which do little to distinguish themselves. Still, the soundtrack shows decent impact, so there's really little to complain about.

Extras:
The disc contains the usual bonus items we've come to know and love. They start with over sixteen minutes of deleted scenes, nine of them, with optional director introductions. Next are about three minutes of bloopers, narrated by Marv Albert. Then, there's the mandatory making-of featurette, "The Game Plan," twenty minutes behind-the-scenes. Following that by a pair of ESPN featurettes. In the first one, "The Rock Learns to Play QB," the three-minute sports segment tells us that Johnson was a real-life football player from 1991-94 as a defensive end with the University of Miami and was part of the 1991 National Championship team. In the second one, "The King in Search of a Ring," we get a five-minute fictional segment on the fictional Kingman. The last major extra is a special remote control that allows one to interact with various activities like rearranging the main men and redecorating Joe's apartment.

Things wrap up with twenty scene selections and a chapter insert; Sneak Peeks at ten other Disney products; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages; French and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired; and a handsome, embossed slipcover.

Parting Shots:
I liked Dwayne Johnson in the main role, but it would have been even more fun for me if the filmmakers had asked an actual pro quarterback like Peyton Manning to play Joe. Manning has looked like a natural acting talent in a number of humorous TV commercials, so why not? It might have at least made the film a little more attractive for adult males. As it is, "The Game Plan" is Disney all the way--lightly amusing but mostly trite and totally vapid fluff.