Two Can Play That Game (2001)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Mark Brown

Writer (WGA):

Mark Brown (written by)

Release Date:

7 September 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

An arrogant career woman plays a series of heartless mind-games with her boyfriend to "put him in line," only to discover that he has a few tricks up his own sleeve.

Plot Keywords:

Black Professional | Breaking The Fourth Wall | First Part | Black Romance | Product Placement

Awards:

5 nominations

Cast

Vivica A. Fox	...	Shanté Smith
Morris Chestnut	...	Keith Fenton
Anthony Anderson	...	Tony
Gabrielle Union	...	Conny Spalding
Wendy Raquel Robinson	...	Karen
Tamala Jones	...	Tracey Johnson
Mo'Nique	...	Diedre
Ray Wise	...	Bill Parker
Bobby Brown	...	Michael
Dondre Whitfield	...	Dwain (as Dondré T. Whitfield)
David Krumholtz	...	Jason
Colby Kane	...	Calvin
Amy Hunter	...	Nita
Lee Anthony	...	Attorney in Elevator
Ian 'Blaze' Kelly	...	Diedre's Man

Also Known As:

How to Make Your Man Behave in 10 Days... Or Less (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language including sexual dialogue.

Runtime:

90 min | Spain:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-15 | Netherlands:AL | Argentina:Atp | Germany:12 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Screen Gems

Goofs:

Continuity: The bouquet of flowers is unwrapped when Shante receives them at the beginning of the movie. When the top of the convertible opens, they are wrapped in plastic. When she arrives home, they are unwrapped again.

Quotes:

Tony: I don't need to know nothin' 'bout women when I got a momma, a cat, nine sisters and a gay uncle.

Movie Connections:

Features "Ricki Lake" (1993)

silly fun

There are just wayyy too many cliches to take this movie seriously, but if you're up for a few laughs, you could do worse than to watch this romp.

This film may perhaps be Anthony Anderson's coming-out movie, because he not just steals the show, he dominates! After playing the bumbling type in both Kingdom Come and Romeo Must Die, here in TCPTG he is the driving force. (Granted, I haven't seen every film he's done, so he might have had other parts that demonstrated his talent; but note that after this movie he did Barbershop and appears lined up to appear in no less than 4 movies in 2003).

And, a tip of the hat to Mo'Nique Imes-Jackson, she's a riot too.

I must admit, I think the significance of The Cosby Show, depicting upwardly-mobile urban black professionals, has played itself out so that we don't need to forcefeed images of rich black people (in this vein, the homey feel of Eddie Murphy's The Klumps as well as his unfortunately discontinued The PJs was ironically refreshing - I wish I could digress fully and explore this thought; if you want to follow up, email me).

Anyway, there are some golden moments in this movie. The first-person narrative was almost irritating at the beginning, but if you can endure the first 10 minutes of it, it is developed nicely into a decent tool to set up some of the coming laughs.

As a romantic comedy, I remember how much I enjoyed The Money Pit; my wife can't see what I see in that film. But, as an 80s comedy, it was both silly yet touching. And then there was the more mature Other People's Money, which had enough business tension that it was almost not a comedy, except for Danny DeVito. In other words, there are many ways in which to approach "the romantic comedy," and as such, there's plenty of room for TCPTG, if you are willing to give it the same slack you might give any other romantic comedy (Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, etc., etc.,).

You know, it sorta sounds like I'm apologizing for this film. In a way, I am, because the elements of it that the average person will notice and have difficult with are the same elements the average person is blind towards in other movies.

Bottom line, for light-hearted fun, you won't be wasting your money to rent it.