Playdate

Review: I do love a good low stakes movie and this 2025 Prime release that came out today is definitely that. I’ll fully admit that I sometimes find myself becoming a little pretentious with my personal movie takes with how immersed I am in movies. Then I watch a movie like this and have to remind myself that it’s okay to enjoy a fun, silly little movie like this. The film stars Kevin James as Brian, the stepfather of a nerdy young boy, Lucas, played by Benjamin Pajak. The two meet Jeff, and his son CJ, played by Alan Ritchson and Banks Pierce, both of whom are super intense and lack basic human etiquette. The film also features Isla Fisher, Paul Walter Hauser, Alan Tudyk, Stephen Root, & Sarah Chalke. The story has some nice twists & turns, some quality action, and some pretty funny jokes. That resulted in a decent watch that I had a fun time with. I feel like I hadn’t seen Kevin James in a movie in years and Alan Ritchson has really broken through into the upper tier of stardom. I imagine we will continue to see him around.

High: I really enjoyed Alan Ritchson’s performance & you could tell he was having a lot of fun in the role. I thought he was particularly funny in the extended car chase scene, as was the rest of the crew riding in his minivan. The whole car dance sequence was funny, the bit with the DVD player, and I lost in when Benjamin Pajak said ‘It’s the PO-lice!’ Also Ritchson continually talking about the Amber alert placed on both he and Kevin James’s characters was pretty funny.

Low: The movie definitely got a little out there by the time the credits rolled and the closing shot did not look good visually, so that could potentially leave a little bit of a bad taste in your mouth.

Rating: 6.5/10 (this feels like a good time to issue out my reminder that my score is based on my enjoyment of a movie, not the quality. Quality would be like a 4/10)