A cuddly side of The Rock?

Weak plot, acting leave 'Game Plan' yards short of scoring

David Germain, Associated Press

Friday, September 28, 2007

The game plan behind The Game Plan was obvious from the movie's trailer and poster: The Rock's back, but as a lovable lug learning to embrace his paternal side and hang with the wee ones. Just like Vin Diesel.

Like Diesel's The Pacifier, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's The Game Plan aims to turn an action-movie bruiser into a benign father figure.

And like Diesel, Johnson manages enough charisma to overcome an awkward performance and provide a likable anchor for this lazily plotted, vacuously predictable tale of an egomaniacal football star with a daughter he never knew he had.

It's the second football flick in a row for Johnson, who played college ball before turning pro wrestler. Coming on the heels of the teen-oriented Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan looks like the next calculated step to broaden Johnson's appeal to include everyone on the planet.

The big guy who got his big- screen break as Mathayus the Scorpion King in 2001's The Mummy Returns and its spinoff The Scorpion King has another regal moniker, Joe "The King" Kingman, superstar quarterback of the Boston Rebels (the substitution of fake pro football teams for the real thing is cloying, despite the presence of some real NFL players and commentators such as Boomer Esiason and Marv Albert).

Joe tells fans, teammates and the media that he's No. 1 on the field and No. 1 in their hearts. He's on the last leg of his drive to win the championship that has eluded his team, he's a swinging ladies man, he's got all the stuff he thinks he ever wanted, from a hot sports car to an apartment filled with memorabilia of his musical idol, Elvis Presley (another King, get it?).

He also has an 8-year-old daughter he knew nothing about from a brief marriage in his youth. Little spitfire Peyton (Madison Pettis) shows up at Joe's door one day saying she needs to bunk with him while her mom's in Africa doing humanitarian work.

Director Andy Fickman (She's the Man) and screenwriters Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price deliver a series of klutzy, inept dad gags and scenarios, all leading to the warm fuzzies you knew were coming before you walked into the theater.

We get the chance to watch The Rock coo Are You Lonesome Tonight? and dance with little girls in tutus to Electric Light Orchestra's Mr. Blue Sky. Both Johnson and Pettis are annoying in their own ways early on, he from a fairly graceless impersonation of a man impossibly full of himself, she from a nasally shrillness that creeps into her know-it-all demeanor.

To their credit, they become richer, more personable characters as they warm up to each other, though that could be a viewer's brain synapses dozing off as the vapidity deepens.

The supporting players mainly amount to glorified extras, particularly Kyra Sedgwick, who blusters about as Joe's agent, a tough cookie with the ridiculous name Stella Peck.

Roselyn Sanchez is a nominal love interest for Joe as a ballet teacher who takes Peyton under her wing, while Morris Chestnut co-stars as a teammate with kids of his own who coaches Joe on the pleasures and perils of parenthood.

It's a good-hearted story, and the movie does offer a little plot twist that deviates from the usual formula. After that, The Game Plan quickly reverts to the established playbook for safe, sappy family fare.