- March 10, 2025
‘Playing for Keeps’ is forgettable. Check out this list of sports-related movies, instead.
BY MIKE CAVALIERE | ASSOCIATE EDITOR
It was slow week for new releases, so I sifted through the slim pickins and found that Associated Press critic Christy Lemire called “Playing for Keeps” one of the year’s worst movies.
So I thought it might be fun to see what a year’s worst looked like. And, well, it looked lifeless and ordinary. I’m just not sure I was as offended by its mediocrity as Lemire seemed to be.
Really quick, here’s a synopsis:
Gerard Butler plays a retired soccer champ who’s now penniless and riddled with problems — such as, he just can’t seem to stop strangers from lending him Ferraris, or beautiful women from throwing themselves at him. So, he starts coaching his son’s soccer team. He gives the kids one tip and — spoiler alert! — they win the championship.
The story teaches us the valuable moral lesson that all you need to do to wash away years of betrayal and abandonment to win your family back is play soccer in the rain with your son one time. Never mind the nice guy Butler’s ex-wife is currently engaged to — he’s not as good-looking as our lead, so who cares about him?
Anyway. Instead of wasting more time on a bad movie, let’s talk about some good ones.
When it comes to sports movies, the best to me are the ones that use sports as staging, not story. Here are some films like that, with bigger aspirations.
“Match Point” — Marking Woody Allen’s return to relevance, “Match Point” isn’t about sports as much as it’s about how big a part luck can play in determining the outcomes of sports matches, the same as, say, murders, or anything else. It gets you thinking about justice, God, morality and tennis.
“Chop Shop” — One of my favorite modern directors, Ramin Bahrani sets this story in the scrap yards just outside New York Mets’ Shea Stadium. It follows a young brother and sister, as they try to make a life for themselves in the gutter, without any parents or wonder to speak of. They grow up fast, right in earshot of the roar from a stadium they know they’ll never enter. You’ll find in this movie some of the best characterizations around.
“Hoop Dreams” — Maybe you’ve heard of “Hoop Dreams.” Almost three hours long, it follows two Chicago kids who set out to use basketball as their tickets out of the ghetto. It’s a documentary that spans years. It’s about hope, and struggle, and the sometimes stark discrepancy between dreams and waking life.
“The King of Kong” — Focusing in on the cult of hardcore video-gamers, this documentary watches a gaming newcomer attempt to take the world’s arcade Donkey Kong high score away from its longtime keeper. Maybe it sounds ridiculous, but to these guys, it’s anything but. These are their lives we’re talking about. Legacies are on the line.
“The Wrestler” — Following a has-been pro brawler, this is a story about desperate people and how they go on living after so much of them has died. Marisa Tomei and Mickey Rourke are awesome. Directed by Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream”).
Critical mass
“Playing for Keeps” (PG-13, 105 minutes)
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Released: Dec. 7
* ½ (of five)
Critics were right to pan “Playing for Keeps.” If you didn’t make it out to opening weekend, save your money for Friday’s “The Hobbit,” or for Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.”
Rotten Tomatoes 2% fresh (of 58 critics)
IMDB 5.2/10 (of 696 fans)
Roger Ebert ** (of four)
Christy Lemire 0 (of four)
