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IMDbPro

Play It to the Bone

  • 19991999
  • RR
  • 2h 4m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
12K
YOUR RATING
Promo Poster
  • Comedy
  • Drama
  • Sport
Two best friends and former middleweight contenders travel to Las Vegas to fight each other for the first time.Two best friends and former middleweight contenders travel to Las Vegas to fight each other for the first time.Two best friends and former middleweight contenders travel to Las Vegas to fight each other for the first time.
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
12K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Ron Shelton
  • Writer
    • Ron Shelton
  • Stars
    • Woody Harrelson
    • Antonio Banderas
    • Lolita Davidovich
Top credits
  • Director
    • Ron Shelton
  • Writer
    • Ron Shelton
  • Stars
    • Woody Harrelson
    • Antonio Banderas
    • Lolita Davidovich
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 62User reviews
    • 58Critic reviews
    • 32Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Videos1

    Woody Harrelson Never Knew Kevin Costner Was in This Film
    Video 1:15
    Woody Harrelson Never Knew Kevin Costner Was in This Film

    Photos80

    Antonio Banderas, Lolita Davidovich, and Woody Harrelson in Play It to the Bone (1999)
    Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson in Play It to the Bone (1999)
    Cesar, Vince & Grace
    Vince, Lia & Cesar
    Vince &Cesar fight over Grace
    Vince and Cesar get instruction from the ref (Darrel Foster), flanked by their trainers, played by Eloy Casados (left) and Henry G. Sanders (right).  Famed ring announcer, Michael Buffer stands behind the ref.
    Vince and Cesar go at it
    Vince and Cesar go at it
    Vince & Cesar
    Writer/director Ron Shelton with producer Stephen Chin
    Antonio Banderas at an event for Play It to the Bone (1999)
    Kevin Costner, Annie Costner, and Lily Costner at an event for Play It to the Bone (1999)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Woody Harrelson
    Woody Harrelson
    • Vince Boudreau
    Antonio Banderas
    Antonio Banderas
    • Cesar Dominguez
    Lolita Davidovich
    Lolita Davidovich
    • Grace Pasic
    Marie Park
    Marie Park
    • Waitress in Cafe
    Tom Sizemore
    Tom Sizemore
    • Joe Domino
    Lucy Liu
    Lucy Liu
    • Lia
    Robert Wagner
    Robert Wagner
    • Hank Goody
    Richard Masur
    Richard Masur
    • Artie
    Willie Garson
    Willie Garson
    • Cappie Caplan
    Cylk Cozart
    • Rudy
    Jack Carter
    Jack Carter
    • Dante Solomon
    Aida Turturro
    Aida Turturro
    • Mad Greek Waitress
    Louie Leonardo
    Louie Leonardo
    • Freddy Green
    Slade Barnett
    • Vegas Cop
    Cameron Milzer
    • Vegas Paramedic
    Julio García
    • Chiquito Rosario
    John Ortiz
    John Ortiz
    • Gym Owner
    Jordy Oakland
    • Julie
    • Director
      • Ron Shelton
    • Writer
      • Ron Shelton
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      As well as Mike Tyson, several famous faces from the world of boxing make cameo appearances in this movie, former champion George Foreman, commentators Jim Lamply and Larry Merchant, and trainer Teddy Atlas.
    • Goofs
      When driving to Las Vegas, Grace is constantly driving the car over the double yellow line and across it as if she is being towed by the camera truck.
    • Quotes

      Vince Boudreau: If a man builds a thousand bridges and sucks one dick, they don't call him a bridge-builder... they call him a cocksucker.

    • Alternate versions
      Italian and German theatrical release are approx. 15 minutes shorter than the original US version, removing one sex scene and some dialogue.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: The Worst Films of 1999 (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      Here's to Life
      Written by Artie Butler, Phyllis Molinary

      Performed by Jacintha

    User reviews62

    Review
    Top review
    STORY'S GOT A GLASS JAW, BUT FIGHT'S A KO
    A boxing film from minor or no league sports milieu chronicler Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump) with the not exactly untested talents of Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Tom Sizemore, Robert Wagner, Richard Masur, Lolita Davidovich and Lucy Liu. What's wrong with this picture? Nothing once you get to the last third and the actual fight ensues. It's the first 90 minutes that's not quite a knock out. In our overly commercialized and celebrity athlete obsessed world culture, Shelton has made a career out of showing us the world of the also-rans (and jumped and hit and thrown, etc.). For every record breaking multi-millioned contract holder making even more telling the world to guzzle the Gatorade, there's a hundred guys like "Durham's" Crash Davis trying to eke out one more season before taking a job at the sports shop or hardware store. This is "Bone's" big stumble, not really establishing what kinda of lives these two has-beens lead now that they are reduced to working as sparring partners at a no-name local L.A. gym. Shelton would have written this a whole lot smarter if he had picked a venue he knew better back east, say New Orleans or St. Louis for Banderas' Cesar and Harrelson's Vince to hail from. It would have made the road trip a helluva lot more interesting visually, moving through prairie to mountains to desert. Instead, we get dried brush and rocks as back drop for Cesar and Vince's back and forth that is supposed to tell us who they are. And who they are isn't all that interesting, which is what's going to doom this film with audiences. This is story that starts off in the most contrived way. In a chain of events that starts with the undercard of a Mike Tyson fight in Vegas getting hopelessly stoned and haplessly dead, respectively, we are then asked to believe that the promoter would even in panic call two guys who don't even really fight any more. The film really needs the audience to believe and believe in these guys after this and Shelton fails to make Vince and Cesar unique enough. People might plunk down their eight bucks for a flick with stupendous special effects, but a great fight? Which is the one thing that "Play It To The Bone" has - a helluva fight. For filmgoers who thought the book had been written on showing a boxing match with either the high art stylization of "Raging Bull" or the pop art sequences of the Rocky franchise, prepare for the most brutally realistic display of the sweet science yet shown. In a sequence that uses a refreshing paucity of slow-mo shots, we are taken through ten rounds of sympathy-welt-raising fisticuffs. At least we know the time Shelton didn't spend on researching his characters wasn't wasted hobnobbing with Tyson and the other real-life boxing personalities who pop up in cameos during this section. It was spent watching God knows how many hours of old boxing film.

    The sequence also manages a subtle commentary on the empty spectacle of such "event" sporting events, as the oblivious main event crowd gets sucked into Vince and Cesar's career defining contest. Here's what a boxing match is supposed to be about: two hungry guys out to prove they are top dog. And right up to the conclusion Shelton is on his way to making the first uninspired 90 minutes disappear - then he pulls his last punches and ruins it. This is when the anemic character develpment and unorginality catches up with him. The audience feels sucker-punched going out the door.
    helpful•4
    1
    • Swampfox
    • Mar 2, 2000

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 21, 2000 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Play It
    • Filming locations
      • Baker, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Play It Inc.
      • Shanghai'd Films
      • Touchstone Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $24,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $8,434,146
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $3,366
      • Dec 26, 1999
    • Gross worldwide
      • $8,678,812
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 4 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.39 : 1

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