n Movies » The Game Plan » DJFNET Review of the 'The Game Plan' DVD

8 Introduction

Thanks to Disney/Buena Vista Home Entertainment being the leaders in marketing and promoting their products, Dwayne Johnson Fever was given an fun opportunity to take an advanced look at the The Game Plan DVD and give a review of it. Be sure to make this DVD a top seller by picking up a copy now!! Notes: Review contains **minor spoilers** Ratings are as follows: 5 - Excellent 4 - Very Good 3 - Good 2 - Fair 1 - Poor

8 The Movie

Rating: 4 I think it was fun to watch Dwayne try out something where we could see him play out his silly and adorable side and to see him interact with a child. I have to say that was probably the driving force behind my interest in this movie when it was first announced. As a fan, there's always going to be that automatic element of going to see one of his movies simply because of him, but that does not always translate into actually liking the movie or feeling like you got your money's worth from the whole thing. No matter how much you care about a certain actor, I have found out over the years that you cannot force yourself to enjoy him in a stinkfest. The muscle man-meets-child plot has pretty much been ran into the ground over the years and in some cases, unsucessfully, but although 'The Game Plan' was very predictable and cliche, there was something very fun and endearing about it...Seeing Dwayne go through the gambit of emotions from the self-indulged, egotistical, childish (and in this case stereotypical) athlete to loving father who'll do anything to keep his daughter was just something to behold from him. He has proven time and time again that he is not too macho to put himself out there for the sake of entertainment. I must admit the Joe Kingman character was annoying in the beginning. If they were trying to make you feel that aspect of him, it definitely worked because everything prior to Madison Pettis' entrance was blah. I actually found myself impatiently waiting for the scene that had been shown so many times in the trailer when Peyton announces herself as Joe's daughter. From that moment on, the movie took off and never looked back! Madison Pettis was way cute and fit so well in this movie. She knew just the right emotional buttons to push at just the right moments. I even like how she took on pieces of Joe's personality. Most of his vocabulary was football lingo and the way she picked up on it made it even more fun watching the character get closer to him and then eventually change him for the better. The chemistry between Dwayne and Madison was spot on! As for other characters in the movie, I did not like Kyra Sedgwick's role as the agent, Stella Peck, at all. I thought all of her `what did I say wrong` facial expressions and unfunny quips made her come off as completely stupid and corny and anytime she wasn't onscreen, she was not missed. Nothing against the actress herself, but the less of this character the better. An opportunity I have now that I didn't have at the movie theater is that I can fast-forward her away now! I think Joe's teammates/best buddies made for some good laughs as well. Hales MacArthur as "Cooper" was probably the funniest and I'd never heard of this guy prior to this movie. He was definitely a scene stealer. Usually when a character is supposed to be somewhat of an idiot and goofy like this one was, it feels like the movie is trying to force you laugh at that character because he was meant to be comic relief on that level, but this guy truly was funny. I also think Brian White and Jamal Duff contribute their share of laughs as well without trying too hard. Roselyn Sanchez was great as the ballet teacher, Monique Vasquez. I thought she balanced everything out as almost the `mother figure` and `ego checker` of the movie. She added some maturity to it without coming off too dry. I like the fact that she was not phased at all by Joe's celebrity status or bravado and I wish they would have played up more of a romance between the two, but it seems that whenever it appeared that he had some feelings for her, it was just never explored any further. As a huge football fan, I was definitely expecting the football scenes to be weak because of it being a family movie, but I think they were just compelling enough to be somewhat realistic without getting too violent. I love the hits the guys took, and I love how sequences of the football scenes were in some kind of slow-motion capture which was very cool to watch. All and all, I left the theater with a smile on my face and felt thoroughly entertained. Loved the end of the movie with everyone singing the Elvis tune. Between all the ballet, the bubbles, and the bedazzlers, I thought this was going to be too cutesy for my usual taste in movies but I really enjoyed it and plan for it to be a fixture in my DVD player for many months and years to come!

8Bonus Feature: Bloopers (with Marv Albert)

Rating: 3 One of the most anticipated features on a DVD for me, especially for a comedy, is the outtakes/bloopers. On this version, sportscaster Marv Albert does voice over for them the same way he used to do back in the day when he'd host those sports blunder segments on NBC. Nothing on The Game Plan blooper reel was hilarious, but some of them were good for a chuckle or two, and a good majority of them were just cute. The only let down is that this feature was entirely too short! You blink, turn your head or something, you miss it! Either alot was left out for unknown reasons or maybe no one messed up that much!

8 Bonus Feature: Deleted Scenes

Rating: 4 Another anticipated feature are the Deleted Scenes. For this DVD, you have the option of playing all 9 with Director Andy Fickman doing intros for each one, playing them all without intros, or playing them individually. When I saw the production stills, trailers, and tv spots before the movie came out in theaters, I saw alot of scenes and clips in those that I noticed were missing when I saw the movie so I knew that we should have been getting quite a bit of deleted scenes for this DVD. Believe it or not, there are still alot of them that were not added here. From what I remember, this movie had a food fight in it and I thought for sure that it would be included on this disc since it was alluded to a few times, but to my surprise, it's not on here. On the bloopers feature, you see a couple of clips where Dwayne & Madison were messy after the fight, but where's the fight??? Now I can tell you that there are 3 extra deleted scenes that are only available the blu-ray version of the disc so but they still do not cover everything, which is cool. Of the ones that are included from either versions of the disc, they are all pretty solid. Sometimes with some movies I wonder why they cut certain things out that I feel should have stayed but a good majority of the deleted scenes here were understandably cut. They were all pretty good and we are even treated to an extended version of that sweet ballet performance that Joe, Peyton, and Monique were in. I really enjoyed that in the movie so it is nice to see it from another perspective.

8 Bonus Feature: Drafting The Game Plan

Rating: 4 Not much to say about this. It is just your standard featurette where they take you behind the scenes of the making of the movie, talk to the actors, the director, the producers. Runs about 20 minutes!

8 Bonus Feature: ESPN Sportscenter: The Rock learns to play QB

Rating: 2 This is a feature where ESPN's Sean Salisbury talks to Dwayne about how he was able to make himself look like a real quarterback in the movie considering that he was defensive player in college. Apparently this aired on ESPN sometime either before or during the promotion of the movie but I never saw it so that's about the only reason it is worthwhile for the disc. Otherwise, I consider it filler and not much is interesting about it.

8 Bonus Feature: ESPN Sportscenter: The King in Search of a Ring

Rating: 2 This is the uninterrupted version of the Joe Kingman piece hosted by Stuart Scott from ESPN that Joe and Spike were on the couch watching in the movie. All I can say for this is "Eh".....not interesting!

8 Interactive features and Menus

Rating: 4 Finally, the overall look of the DVD is pretty good. The menus of each page all take place in Joe Kingman's hi-definition apartment and some parts of that are interactive . On one part, you can click a remote just like in the movie and bring up a panel where you change the lighting in the apartment. That's something people would probably play around with when they first get the DVD and then never mess with it ever again! There is also an interactive feature where you 'help Peyton' redecorate certain things in the apartment. It's just a silly little feature that maybe a little kid would play around with for a minute, adults won't care about it at all!

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