After a couple of unforeseen circumstances, casino owner Hank Goody (Robert Wagner), fight promoters Joe Domino (Tom Sizemore) and Artie (Richard Masur) need a couple of fighters quick to fill the undercard that night. They call up over-the-hill Cesar Dominguez (Antonio Banderas) and Vince Boudreau (Woody Harrelson). The two best friends get Grace Pasic (Lolita Davidovich), who has been involved with both, to drive from L.A. to Vegas. Along the way, they pick up hitchhiker Lia (Lucy Liu).This wants to be a comedic romp but sometimes it's off-putting. It starts with plenty of darkness and then Tom Sizemore gets terribly annoying. Harrelson and Banderas have good buddy chemistry. Davidovich is a pretty brassy broad and she steals the movie from the guys. I wanted Lucy Liu to stay in this movie. I really wanted to like this but I'm not really laughing.

"Play it to the Bone" was almost a good sport themed film with some good performances by Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson and Lolita Davidovich. As I said almost a good film because it tries too hard to be a funny experience, finishes in a very obvious way and in the end it has nothing much to say.The premise is good and the story has its moments. Woody and Antonio play two boxers who have many things in common: both of them were called to a big fight in Las Vegas, they're gonna have to fight each other; both of them are coming from shameful defeats and they're traumatize with that; and both of them dated the same women (Davidovich) and they're gonna take her along with them driving all the way by car. This part of the film is a road movie with good moments, when some of the laughing parts appears when Woody's character shares his about Jesus or his sexual relationship with a crazy nymphomaniac (Lucy Liu); Banderas goes well in funny scenes where he's dumped by Lolita's character, and his story of how he become gay for one year after losing a fight for a gay boxer.When these characters get to Vegas the movie slowed down, it becomes a sleepy and not interesting experience, although some parts of the road movie doesn't work very well, it was difficult to pay attention to some of the things which is quite odd if you consider that this is just a simple entertainment.The third act is the so awaited fight and it drags down for too long, starts without any kind of appeal from the part of the extras (you can't hear no one cheering in the audience) and the cameos from actors like James Woods, Kevin Costner, Tony Curtis and others who are there to try to make this event more interesting but they don't speak at all and that is disappointing. Some of Woody's delusional moments during the fight were distracting, slowed down the fight's rhythm, intended to be a funny thing, well it wasn't. The rest of the fight and its ending are great, but predictable all the way.Master and commander of this film Ron Shelton is a good creator when the deal is to make good sport themed films. He gave us "Bull Durham" (baseball), "White Man Can't Jump" (basketball), and "Cobb" (baseball again) all equally great, but from 1996 with his weak "Tin Cup" (golf) his career started to slowed it down and "Play it to the Bone" almost got there along with his best films but it lacked enthusiasm, more interesting moments and the sport itself only appears in the ending and in some flashbacks, something that doesn't occur in his previous works. Again, the principal cast is good, it also has some good performances from Richard Masur, Tom Sizemore, Robert Wagner (even though his last scenes were so dull) and there's some enjoyable moments, but it never recovered his potential. 5/10

I see on my screen a cast that lends me to think, "Hey I bet this movie will be good. I enjoy all these actors." Alas, I was deceived. The dialog was dull and sounded oh to familiar. Very reminiscent of every late 90's flick. The acted was ridiculous... especially considering who was cast. Then, we come to the big fight at the end... it started out very cool; the actors were well trained for sure. The actors abilities, however, were ruined by the cameraman and/or the director. Cheesiest production ever of a fight scene. The angles and scene cuts looked like something from our local TV. Sad. Way to ruin an amazing and redeeming quality of the movie. Not to mention the fight went on FOREVER. Several times one of them would go down and people in the crowd are yelling "stay down" and you want them too as well, because seriously it is just too long. There are literally 2 main sets for this movie, the car on the road and the fighting ring.

If you like Woody, Tom, Antonio or Lucy, and like comedies, this movie is worth the watch. It was not in Oscar contention, by any stretch, but then again, neither are many good movies. This is one of those movies that is perfect on a Sunday afternoon, when you just want to be entertained by someone else's life. The pancake scene is just plain funny. The characters are believable, and you find yourself sometimes relating their actions to people you may have known personally. Having been around boxers a lot growing up, this movie has enough realism from that world to be believable.All in all, it's a generally funny movie, and a feel good buddy road flick.