'Game Plan' relies on the usual family playbook
The game plan behind "The Game Plan" was obvious from the movie's trailer and poster: Look, The Rock's back, but now he's a lovable lug, a softie 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 the same as Diesel, Johnson manages enough charisma to overcome an often awkward performance and at least provide a likable anchor for this lazily plotted, vacuously predictable tale of an egomaniacal football star dealing 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 drama "Gridiron Gang," "The Game Plan" looks like the next calculated step to broaden Johnson's appeal to include every person 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" now has another regal moniker, Joe "The King" Kingman, superstar quarterback of the Boston Rebels (for some reason, the substitution of fake pro football teams for the real thing is particularly cloying here, despite the presence of some real NFL players and commentators such as Boomer Esiason and Marv Albert).
The vainglorious Joe is fond of telling 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's also got 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 for a month 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 prolonged series of klutzy, inept dad gags and scenarios, all leading to the inevitable warm fuzzies you knew were coming before you walked in the theater.
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.
It's certainly a goodhearted story, and the movie does offer a little plot twist that deviates from the usual formula. After that, though, "The Game Plan" quickly reverts to the established playbook for safe, sappy family fare.
"The Game Plan"
Two stars out of four
Opens today
Starring As
Dwayne Johnson Joe Kingman
Madison Pettis Peyton Kelly
Kyra Sedgwick Stella Peck
Written by Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price. Produced by Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray. Directed by Andy Fickman. A Disney release. Rated PG. Running time: 110 minutes.