Playdate Review: Alan Ritchson and Kevin James Deliver Odd-Couple Firepower

Prime Video has a new odd-couple action comedy called 'Playdate' that sticks to the buddy formula pretty hard: one comedian, one action guy, lots of scrapping, lots of quips. It is fast, light, and not exactly original, but it does one thing very well — it lets Alan Ritchson be funny.

The setup

Brian Jennings (Kevin James) gets fired and pivots to stay-at-home dad life. He is a forensic accountant by trade, and when we meet him he is coaching his stepson Lucas (Benjamin Pajak) in lacrosse, mostly because Lucas needs the confidence boost — the kid loves dance, not sports, and gets pushed around. Brian knows that feeling and tries to be the guy who has Lucas' back. His wife Emily (Sarah Chalke) is rooting for the bond to stick.

A park hangout leads to a meet-cute with another dad, Jeff Eamon (Alan Ritchson), a towering, friendly Army vet, and Jeff's kid CJ (Banks Pierce). They set a playdate. Then mercenaries show up. One brutal backyard brawl and a car chase later, Brian and Jeff are on the run with both kids, dodging armed goons and trying to figure out why anyone is shooting at them. Jeff eventually fesses up: CJ is not his son — he rescued the boy — and now the foursome has to clear their names and stop the people chasing them. There are a couple of turns you would not expect in a glossy dad comedy, which gives the movie a tiny bit of personality under all the formula.

Does the odd-couple thing work?

At 93 minutes, the movie barely catches its breath once it starts running. The James-Ritchson dynamic begins awkward and settles into something that plays a lot like Kevin Hart with Dwayne Johnson in 'Central Intelligence' or Will Ferrell with Mark Wahlberg in 'The Other Guys' — familiar, but it works. James gets a few chances to mug but mostly plays straight man. Ritchson, meanwhile, goes full comedic and it is a good look on him. He is still the wrecking ball from 'Reacher' and 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' (with that dialogue-free 'Motor City' turn still on the way), but here he is also sweet, guileless, and notably not that bright. Importantly, he is not pretending to be dim as a con — Jeff really is kind of a lovable doofus who quotes movies in between flattening bad guys. It is the most fun part of the film, and James mostly hangs back to let it happen.

The rest of the players

This is very much the Ritchson show, with James as co-pilot. Everyone else feels like they were dropped in for a day or two. The kids, Pajak and Pierce, are the only supporting act that gets real time with the leads and they are solid. On the adult side, Stephen Root and Paul Walter Hauser pop in for a couple of scenes with Sarah Chalke that mainly serve a fairly blatant product placement. Isla Fisher shows up as a mean mom who does not affect the plot. Alan Tudyk appears as a Steve Jobs-ish tech boss but barely gets to do his usual brand of comedy. Hiro Kanagawa is billed as Colonel Kurtz — the name is carrying more weight than the role. The whole bench is fine, but no one steals a moment from the two father-son pairs driving the story.

Behind the camera

Screenwriter Neil Goldman pulls from a deep TV-comedy resume ('Community', 'Scrubs', 'Superior Donuts', 'Family Guy'), and you can feel it in the constant pop culture riffs. They are fun at first, then start to wear out their welcome, very much in that 'Family Guy' way. Director Luke Greenfield ('The Animal', 'The Girl Next Door', 'Let's Be Cops') keeps the energy high, sometimes too high. The editing gets so choppy in places it flirts with a headache, with cuts coming every couple of seconds during a few sequences. Most of the action is practical enough — hand-to-hand fights and car chases — but when the movie leans on CGI, it looks cheap. Greenfield is clearly aiming for bigger-than-its-budget scale; for a film with this cast, it might be one of Prime Video's chintzier-looking originals.

Quick facts

• Stars: Kevin James (Brian Jennings), Alan Ritchson (Jeff Eamon), Sarah Chalke (Emily), Benjamin Pajak (Lucas), Banks Pierce (CJ), Stephen Root, Paul Walter Hauser, Isla Fisher, Alan Tudyk (tech mogul), Hiro Kanagawa (Colonel Kurtz)
• Writer: Neil Goldman ('Community', 'Scrubs', 'Family Guy')
• Director: Luke Greenfield ('The Animal', 'The Girl Next Door', 'Let's Be Cops')
• Vibe: Lightweight action comedy with lots of pop culture gags and a couple of unexpected plot turns
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Where to watch: Prime Video
• Release date: November 12
• My take: Below average overall, but still a 5/10 kind of fun thanks to Ritchson

The bottom line

'Playdate' is not a good movie, but it is more enjoyable than it has any right to be. The script rehashes buddy-comedy beats you have seen a hundred times, and the production looks bargain-bin when it leans on CG. Still, Alan Ritchson is genuinely funny here and carries the thing, with Kevin James happily playing setup man. If you want a breezy watch and do not mind déjà vu, this one goes down easy — and it doubles as a promising audition reel for Ritchson to lead a better comedy next time.