Two Can Play That Game Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)September 13th, 2001
Susan Granger's review of "TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME" (Screen Gems)
Since the success of "Waiting to Exhale," there have been several romantic comedies about African-American professionals. This female revenge fantasy, Vivica A. Fox plays Shante Smith, a stunning ad exec who seems to have reached the pinnacle of success: a mansion, a sporty car and an idyllic relationship with a hunky, hot-shot lawyer, Morris Chestnut. She's at a point in her life when she dispenses advice to her grateful girl-friends (Mo'Nique, Wendy Racquel Robinson, Tamala Jones). "When your man messes up, no matter how small it is," she smugly decrees, "yuh gots to punish him." So when she catches her hot man dancing at a bar with a smart and sexy rival, Gabrielle Union, she devises her own version of "The Rules," a 10-day "tough love" emotionally punishing plan to get him back. Unfortunately, writer/director Mark Brown ("How To Be a Player") breaks the cardinal rule of romantic comedy: you have to like the protagonist - and shrill, self-congratulatory Shante Smith is a smirking, superficial, spiteful shrew who doesn't realize that rational rules cannot always be applied to love. Having her talk directly into the camera gets stale very quickly and the "Day One," "Day Two" title-card device underscores the tedium. Comic Anthony Anderson scores as Chestnut's boisterous best-friend, and singer Bobby Brown does a cameo as a scuzzy mechanic who's given a smooth makeover by Ms. Robinson. But the out-takes over the closing credits contain more humor than the film itself. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Two Can Play That Game" is smarmy if slick 4, filled with misogynistic attitude and blatant product placements (Coca-Cola, Miller Genuine Draft) but little else. In this R-rated (for explicit sexual language), pseudo-hip battle of the sexes, the audience loses.
More on 'Two Can Play That Game'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
