PLAY IT TO THE BONE

Name: PLAY IT TO THE BONE
Item: PLAY IT TO THE BONE
Author: Review

“Aiming Below the Belt”

Family Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

In PLAY IT TO THE BONE, Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas play Vince and Cesar, two has-been professional boxers who get a chance at a title bout. The two best friends must fight each other first, however, in Las Vegas. Cesar’s girlfriend, who used to be Vince’s, drives them to Vegas. The trip comically frays their nerves until their brutal match in Sin City. As the movie ads state, “No one hits as hard as your best friend.” On the way to Vegas, the three companions pick up a promiscuous Asian woman, with whom Vince crudely fornicates, even though he claims to be a Christian who has visions of Jesus Christ.

As in writer-director Ron Shelton’s previous sports movies, BULL DURHAM and WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, images of pagan sexuality spoil the insights viewers gain from his portrayal of the world of professional boxing. This time, Shelton also presents a main character, Vince, who claims to be Christian but who fails to live up to that name. The visions of Christ that Vince has are intentionally goofy. That blasphemy, sex, violence, nudity, and foul language, give this somewhat clever movie a decidedly anti-Christian spin.

Content:

(AbAb, PaPaPa, C, LLL, VVV, SSS, NN, AA, DD, Ho, MM) Anti-Christian worldview of three mostly pagan characters, with some Christian elements; 104 obscenities, 15 profanities, some obscene gestures, & crude talk about sex; unrealistic, brutal boxing violence & other incidental violence such as image of dead body after terrific car crash, pushing, woman socks other woman in jaw, & rich man slaps woman, knocking her to the ground; depicted fornication by professed Christian man, sexual situations played for humor, implied oral sex, depicted sodomy, & prostitution all played mostly for laughs & entertainment; upper & rear male & female nudity; alcohol use & drunkenness; smoking & man shown in drug coma; boxer confesses to homosexual experimentation in the past & has visions of male nudity during crucial moment; and, bickering, lying, gambling, legal fraud, & professed Christian states erroneous religious views.

More Detail:

In PLAY IT TO THE BONE, Woody Harrelson and Antonio Banderas play Vince and Cesar, two has-been professional boxers who get a chance at the middleweight title. The two best friends must fight each other first, however, in Las Vegas. Cesar’s girlfriend, who used to be Vince’s, drives them to Las Vegas. The trip comically frays the nerves of the two friends until their brutal match in Sin City. As the ads for the movie state, “No one hits as hard as your best friend.” On the way to Vegas, the three companions pick up a promiscuous Asian woman, with whom Vince crudely fornicates, even though he claims to be a Christian who has occasional visions of Jesus Christ.
As in writer-director Ron Shelton’s previous sports movies BULL DURHAM and WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP, images of pagan sexuality spoil the insights viewers gain from his portrayal of the world of professional boxing. This time, Shelton also presents a main character, Vince, who claims to be Christian but who fails to live up to that name. The visions of Christ that Vince has are intentionally goofy. That blasphemy, and the sex, violence, nudity, and foul language, give this somewhat clever movie a decidedly anti-Christian worldview.