It wouldn't be February without Netflix releasing a romantic comedy to cash-in on Valentine's Day. Unlike last year's starry Your Place or Mine, the streaming giant decided to dig around their vast archives of long-completed projects to find this year's title and they emerged with Players-a very soft R-rated affair in which Gina Rodriguez plays a New York sportswriter who decides to stop running hook-up schemes with her trio of male friends (Damon Wayans Jr., Augustus Prew, Joel Courtney) when she meets a charming war reporter (Tom Ellis) and enlists the help of her friends to convince him that she's serious relationship material. Further complicating this mission is that Wayans Jr.'s character just might be harboring some romantic feelings for his longtime friend. Typical romcom hijinks ensue and the conclusion that the audience is expecting materializes with relative ease.
Like far too many of Netflix's recent romcoms, Players is a movie that does little else besides be agreeable enough to carve out a spot on the Netflix home screen for a couple weeks. It's not particularly funny or charming, the chemistry between every prospective couple here is merely passable and there's not a single standout performance among the entire ensemble. Really the best thing I can say about Players is that it's a downright spirited effort when compared to the aforementioned Your Place or Mine.
Algorithm fodder is a key part of the depressing new reality of Hollywood's streaming-obsessed landscape, but would it really kill these executives to greenlit scripts that check the required boxes with more proficiency than this? I'm not going to remember Players by St. Patrick's Day and I have a sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of the other people that have watched since it came out a week ago are in the same boat. The romcom genre is one that inspires many repeat viewings when it strikes a chord with the viewer and save for Set It Up and the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy, has Netflix ever managed to produce something that's been able to do that? Not really.
Sometime in April or May, they're going to a recent romcom winner called Anyone But You release on their platform. This sleeper theatrical hit from Sony is the exact type of breezy, charming movie they're desperate to make and it'll likely maintain a slot on their Top 10 Movie Charts for weeks, if not months. Maybe if they learn the right lessons from recent history, they'll be able to make a romcom that matches or exceeds the quality of this Sydney Sweeney/Glen Powell vehicle from genre veteran Will Gluck. But knowing how the big brains at Netflix operate, I think people can expect a whole lot more harmless vanilla whiffs like Players in the future.
Grade: C-
No comments:
Post a Comment