HotToastyRag Remember Gerard Butler, the hunky heartthrob of the early 2000s? Well, at the tail end of his career, he made a film about a has-been who gets a second chance to figure out what really matters. The lessons he learns are a bit corny, and most of the side characters are pretty one-dimensional, but Gerard's hair is cute and curly and he does have his signature shirtless scene, so it's not all bad.He's a former soccer star who tries to reconnect with his son, Noah Lomax, and his ex-wife, Jessica Biel. I'm not sure if the audience is supposed to think he's a bad dad or if that part of the film is supposed to be heartwarming in an "Aw, he doesn't know what he's doing and neither do I" kind of way, but my thoughts belonged in the former category. Meanwhile, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman, and Judy Greer all develop crushes on the new dad in town. Dennis Quaid adds extra star power to the cast, playing Uma's clueless husband who just thinks of Gerard as a pal. Like his character, nobody else is written to be particularly likable or compelling. Jessica Biel's character is the only one with a backbone, but as soon as Gerard starts working his charms, she turns into jelly just like everyone else. I guess the lesson of the film is if you have beautiful hair, a charming accent, and a signature shirtless scene, you can get away with anything. But, fans who remember him in all his former glory will probably end up sitting through this "feel good flick". I did.

oragex An honest movie. Just know what it is about.Basically a divorce story with some weird turns but sensitive and realistic.It has the ingredients that, for those that have been there, make sense.Leaves - and this is what I like in the movies that I like - a good taste at the end. Not sad, not too happy, just pleasant.It is not unrealistic, and plays with feelings we know.Loved the Butler play, call it somehow a funny play. Jessica knows a thing or two about the issue so brings the right ingredients into its play.Not a romantic comedy, just a good movie to perhaps clean off some bitter taster some of us kept from own experiences.

cj4567 A heartwarming family feel-good film, as it would be described on the trailers. This movie is boasting with an all-star cast, what with the obvious heartthrob Gerard Butler, and the queue of beautiful actresses; Catherine Zeta-Jones, Uma Thurman and Jessica Biel, with this all star cast I was expecting a somewhat comedic romance movie which would leave me weak at the knees and all teary-eyed and what not (given that the director, is responsible for the likes of The Pursuit of happiness). Clearly as I'm saying this, it was not the case, I was quite disappointed, given Gerard's usual talent in this type of genre and the amount of star talent in this movie. I felt at times this movie was trying to hard to fit into that uniform "rom-com" category, I mean don't get me wrong there were some funny points, but at most times I found that they were trying to hard to add some comedy into the movie. Butler plays a retired soccer player George Fryer, who is trying to kick start his life again, in the form of his career, love life and his son. It follows his return to the town where his son resides and him taking over the position of coach for his son's team. This takeover is made difficult by the parents, more specifically the females, of the children who he is coaching who take a particular like to him and his good looks. The film plot itself is very typical romance and hence very predictable; ex getting remarried, broken relationship with son and a non existent career. I for obvious reasons cannot say why I predicted because then it would give away the ending, but as soon as he moves back to Virginia for his son, it is very clear. Now the movie wasn't all bad, the story with his son is somewhat touching, but I feel I don't have a lot to say as like I said was disappointed at this movie.Some of you out there are likely to enjoy this more than I did, especially if your a female who wishes to be Gerard Butler's next wife. I would not recommend paying cinema prices to see this movie, but to wait until it hits rental or sky movies.

VMasina EVERY story needs tension, the more tension the better the conflict, the funner to watch. Don't get me wrong, I don't like artificially created drama. It needs to flow naturally and derive from the situation and characters involved. Now to this "masterpiece" here: it's so lame, I don't even know what to say. I don't have anything to latch onto. A big slippery NOTHING. The protagonist is depicted as the unlucky schmuck, yet everything falls into his lap right from the start. In the first few minutes he's "poor" and out of work, can't really afford the rent for the place where he's moved to be close to his son, and his ex, whom he still loves, is engaged to marry. Then right away he's offered to coach the son's soccer team, which opens up opportunities for sex (with the soccer moms who all throw themselves at him) opportunities for money (one of the soccer dad's - Quaid - who has great potential to be a total scumbag but it doesn't get exploited at all, proposes a bet and Butler wins easy money AND Butler gets to borrow Quaid's Ferrari, not because of the bet, but just on a whim of Quaid's, isn't that nice?) and career opportunities (oh coincidence, coincidence - one of the soccer moms is a former sports reporter). There were moments when tension could have been developed into some great conflict, but those moments came and dissipated. Every problem was solved instantly and quite amicably. It reminds me of Seth MacFarlane's "English drive-by": Oh Reginald, I disagree! Some of the conflicts were simply shrugged off. No conclusion, nothing. Poor Quaid, he did the best he could with his weird role. I can't believe how this got a star cast, or funding in the first place. I don't wanna knock the writer, sometimes the story gets changed and cut while filming, but my guess is that there were too many setups for potential conflicts that in the end NONE of them could be realized and all went inconsequentially blah. PS: Butler's accent made him sound like Schwarzenegger. Enjoy.