The Game Plan (***)

A narcissistic football star learns to love someone else when a bright-eyed eight-year-old shows up at his door and says she’s his daughter. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson follows the path of other action heroes by trying to broaden his audience with a family comedy. He’s Joe “The King” Kingman, who fancies himself the Elvis of football and keeps a self-portrait on the wall. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, or Vin Deisel in (ugh) The Pacifier, the King is a reluctant caretaker. Obviously, that will change, but meanwhile, at least, the fart jokes are kept to a minimum and the characters are recognizably human. Joe actually knows hows how to cook and appears to have seen children before, although he’d just as soon not. Meanwhile, the daughter (Disney Channel star Madison Pettis) is as precocious as every other movie child, but quite often seems like a real one. (Johnson is also a better actor than his mesomorphic brethren.)

The ending gets treacly, for sure, but the kids won’t mind. This may not be a movie adults will seek out on their own, but it’s at least one they can take the kids to without feeling embarrassed, bored, or ripped off.

IMDB link

reviewed 9/30/07