Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		0.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Play It to the Bone Blu-ray Movie Review

Trading Punches with Life

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 8, 2011

Ron Shelton is best known for his sports movies, but the films wouldn't be interesting if they were just about sports. At his best, Shelton achieves the very thing that every coach labors to deliver whenever he gives a pep talk, except that Shelton does it with the ease of a natural athlete -- he makes sports a metaphor for life. In Bull Durham, which remains his best-loved film, he turned baseball's minor leagues into a school for molding a boy into a man, as "Nuke" LaLoosh was tutored in love by Annie Savoy and in loyalty by Crash Davis. In White Men Can't Jump, basketball became the theater for exploring multiple dimensions of friendship. Tin Cup used golf to examine second chances and the price of success. And then there was Play It to the Bone, a boxing movie that no one knew what to make of, because it seemed to be about everything and nothing. Viewers couldn't get a handle on the film's core subject .

In fact, Play It to the Bone is something of a reprise of Shelton's previous sports films, but not in the sense of a summing up. Like a musician improvising, Shelton weaves among familiar themes, working variations as if to say, "'Twas ever thus." He gives us an older, more cynical version of Annie Savoy (played by his wife and muse, Lolita Davidovich), who still loves athletes but has decided she's through depending on them; another pair of sports rivals who really love each other (replacing the racial diversity of White Men Can't Jump with ethnic diversity by pairing the former's star Woody Harrelson with Antonio Banderas); and a full array of cynical Las Vegas promoters whose complete lack of interest in real competition makes Tin Cup's Simms (played with memorable smarm by Don Johnson) look like a true sportsman. The result may not deliver a tidy ending with a clear moral, but it makes for an entertaining two hours.

Two thirty-something boxers, Vince Boudreau (Harrelson) and Cesar Dominguez (Banderas), have landed in Los Angeles after failing to hit the big time. Once, they were both promising middleweights, and Cesar made it all the way to a title bout at Madison Square Garden. But for various reasons -- timing, bad management, character, maybe just dumb luck -- both of them missed their shot. Now they train daily at the same gym, take whatever fights they can get and eke out a meager existence. Vince has rediscovered his own brand of fundamentalist faith and bears a tatoo that reads "Jesus Is a Rebel". Cesar remains "an atheist, thank God!"

Both men are in love with the same woman, Grace Pasic (Davidovich), a small-time inventor and would-be entrepreneur, who has several patents for offbeat items like specialized socks and a periscope for watching TV while lying flat in bed. Grace apparently makes enough off her licensing royalties to support herself. She used to be with Vince, and currently she's with Cesar, but, like Annie in Bull Durham, she's always the one in charge.

The movie is set on the day of a fictional Las Vegas title match between Mike Tyson and Alexei Rustikov. That very morning, both fighters on the "undercard", or opening act, are found incapacitated from various hazards of high living. On ridiculously short notice, the fight's promoter, Joe Domino (Tom Sizemore), has to find replacements, because the ring at the fabulous Mandalay Bay Hotel complex owned by Hank Goody (Robert Wagner) is fully booked and the pay-per-view rights have already been sold for mega-bucks. Domino and his go-to guy, Artie (Richard Masur, with a truly frightening wheeze), scrape down past the bottom of the barrel until they reach Cesar and Vince. Domino hates them both, but if they can make it to Vegas by five that afternoon, they'll each earn $50,000.

Vince, who fancies himself a hustler, insists on negotiating and almost blows the deal, but in the end he manages to obtain an extra clause that says the winner will get a title shot. Domino's lawyers assure the boss they can draft language he can wiggle out of. Besides, who will be representing Cesar and Vince? The only lawyer they can afford will be someone working for Domino.

The promoters expect Cesar and Vince to fly, but they elect to drive from L.A. instead, chauffeured by Grace in her vintage "sassy brass" green Oldsmobile. Her motive for accompanying them is to network, looking for an investor to put venture capital into her inventions. The first half of the film is essentially a road trip in which the three companions swap stories, confessions, banter and insults. It's enlivened by the Southwestern countryside (Grace prefers the scenic route), by a stop to load up on carbs at a diner with a no-nonsense waitress played by The Sopranos' Aida Turturro, and by an unexpected fourth passenger, Lia (Lucy Liu), who takes the notion of "girls just wanna have fun" to its mercenary extreme. After falling out with Grace, Lia ultimately appears at ringside on the arm of . . . well, it's better if you see for yourself.

The second half of the film is the fight, which could fairly be described as an anti-Rocky. First of all, there isn't a "top dog" and an underdog, because both fighters are underdogs, an irony that's underlined by the absurdity of Grace rooting for both of them. ("Who are you rooting for?" asks Rudy (Cylk Cozart), part of Domino's entourage. "Both of them", Grace replies. "I love these guys.") Second, no one's paying attention, at least at the outset. Even the announcement of the fight is cut short by the news of Mike Tyson's arrival. But as round follows round, and Cesar and Vince pour a decade's worth of pent-up frustrations, hopes and dreams into punching, counterpunching, dragging themselves up off the mat when they can barely see straight and lurching back into the ring each time the bell sounds, the crowd begins to take notice. They're seeing something they've haven't seen in a long time: real, honest-to-goodness fighters putting their hearts and souls into a match. (In a true irony, the Tyson bout, which was supposed to be the main event, is over in seconds.)

I'm not enough of a boxing expert to assess the quality of the simulation that Shelton and his actors achieved in the lengthy fight sequences, but I know enough about film to admire the clever editing rhythms that keep shifting the perspective from ringside to ref's view to each fighter's POV -- and even to the bleary interior states where Cesar and Vince see and hear things that aren't there. Both are haunted by crucial moments early in their careers, Cesar by a knockdown from which he arose a second too late, and Vince by a judges' decision that cost him a title by a single point. Vince is also certain that Jesus appears to him, and the Savior does indeed seem to enter the ring several times.

The outcome isn't Rocky-like, either. Sure, the crowd goes wild, but careers aren't altered. This bout was never supposed to happen, and the suits have ensured that business will proceed unchanged. In their heart of hearts, Cesar and Vince know that the house always wins, despite Vince's recurring efforts to devise systems for beating the odds at gambling. In the end, what really matters is friendship, the love of a good woman (if you can keep her, which neither of these two seems able to), and knowing that you gave your all for the thing you care most about -- everything, right down to the bone. If you read between the lines, it's the same lesson Crash Davis was trying to impart to Nuke.

Play It to the Bone Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Disney has provided Mill Creek with clean source material for Play It to the Bone, and the result is a wonderfully sharp, colorful and detailed 1080p, AVC-encoded image that showcases the film's anamorphic widescreen photography. The cinematographer was Mark Vargo, who directed second unit on Tin Cup and had spent several decades shooting effects for major studio films. The attention to detail shows in the delicate shadings of the Southwest's landscapes, the panache of Vegas, the hyper-intensity of the boxing ring and the dusty realism of the Greek diner where the travelers first encounter Lia. Blacks are deep, colors "pop" where they should (e.g., the special shade of green on Grace's beloved convertible), flesh tones look natural and film grain is lightly visible if you look for it. I saw no DNR, compression or other digital artifacts. This is by far the best image I've seen from Mill Creek to date.

Play It to the Bone Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Now the bad news. This is a 1999 film released theatrically, according to the end credits, in Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS. The 2000 DVD was released by Buena Vista in DD 5.1. So why is the Blu-ray limited to a 2.0 track in DTS lossless?

I've said in the past that I prefer to evaluate what's on the disc instead of a theoretical alternative, but that only applies when we're talking about the same track in different formats. When the film's original audio mix is 5.1, but Blu-ray purchasers are fobbed off with a stereo surround mix, then, lossless or no, it's a different story.

Granted, the lossless 2.0 mix sounds quite good. It's immersive, has good fidelity and clear dialogue, and does justice to Alex Wurman's score and song selections from artists as diverse as John Lee Hooker, Moby and Los Lobos. But especially when we step into the boxing ring with Cesar and Vince, where the point of view keeps changing and the sound cues were obviously designed to change with them, the loss of the sound engineers' original work is unfortunate -- and unnecessary.

Play It to the Bone Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As always with Mill Creek, none.

Play It to the Bone Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Play It to the Bone doesn't rank among Shelton's best sports films, but it shares many of their qualities. Shelton fans who have never seen it should at least consider a rental to experience the film in its best visual presentation to date on home video. And maybe someday Disney, or another licensee, will give us a version with a decent soundtrack. I can recommend the film, but buy the Blu-ray only with the knowledge that you're getting, at best, three quarters of a product.