Players – A Slight Yet Watchable Romcom (Early Review)

Players follows sportswriter Mack (Rodriguez), who has spent years devising successful hook-up “plays” with her best friend Adam (Wayans Jr.) and their crew Brannagan (Augustus Prew) and his younger brother Little (Joel Courtney). While it has led to countless one-night stands over the years, following the playbook comes with a certain set of ground rules, primary among them is that one can’t build a relationship from a play. But when Mack begins unexpectedly fall for her latest target Nick (Ellis), she beings to rethink the game entirely. As the lines between work, fun, friendship, and romance begin to blur, Mack must learn what it takes to simply scoring to playing for keeps. The film is a slight yet perfectly harmless, mildly enjoyable romcom that may not do much for non-fans of the genre but will likely satisfy those looking for a 105-minute diversion this Valentine’s Day.

Ultimately, what keeps the film as watchable as it is is its cast who all work wonderfully together in creating a compelling friend dynamic. Rodriguez is great as Mack, and although she is flawed and makes mistakes, she makes for a fun and likeable protagonist to follow as the film does a great job at capturing everything about the character within its first few scenes. She has great chemistry with Wayans Jr. as Adam as the two make for an inspired and sweet pairing. Meanwhile, Courtney is a lot of fun as Little and Prew steals the show and is responsible for the film’s biggest laughs as Brannagan. While the film doesn’t go as far as it could, it is refreshing to see a mature romcom (in a comedic sense) that isn’t afraid to get raunchy or even push the envelope. Though it could have gone further than it did, it was still a nice watch that felt like a throwback to the studio comedies of yesteryear. Also, like any half decent romcom, it has a lot of heart and plenty of sweet moments that go a long way in a film like this.

A perfectly harmless & breezy watch and one worthy of a mild recommend for romcom fans, it is nothing special overall and won’t do much for anyone else. Most romcoms are on the predictable side, but this one takes that to a whole new level. Audiences can clearly see every story beat coming from a mile away and can predict exactly how it wraps up from the opening few scenes. It’s also not very funny with most of the comedic attempts falling flat, and while the plot starts out fun, it progressively gets more ridiculous and some of the measures it takes to develops certain characters is borderline creepy. That being said, the big thing that holds it back from being something truly special is the lack of chemistry between Rodriguez and Ellis. Ellis and especially Rodriguez are solid on their own and have good chemistry with everyone else, but their chemistry together is practically non-existent and as a result, it makes it hard to care about their romance or even buy that they’re falling for each other. Their scenes together are easily the weakest, as they fail to create any sense of believability of them as a couple or that they actually like each other.

At the end of the day, maybe it was the extremely low expectations going in, but Players is still a decent enough romcom from Netflix to watch this Valentine’s Day. However, the lack of chemistry in the main romance and its painfully predictable storyline keeps it back from joining the ranks of its past romcom classics, but it should still please most fans of the genre as long as they don’t go in with the highest of expectations.

still courtesy of Netflix

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/