Playdate Review
Director: Luke Greenfield
Date Created: 2025-11-12 20:05
1.5
Playdate Review: In this Prime Video movie, two dads go on a playdate that turns into an all-out action chase involving mercenaries, clones, and enough chaos to make your head spin. Directed by Luke Greenfield and written by Neil Goldman, the movie stars Alan Ritchson, Kevin James, Sarah Chalke, Alan Tudyk, and Isla Fisher in a 93-minute action-comedy that tries to be heartwarming, thrilling, and funny, all at once and fails at all three.
Playdate Review
The Prime Video movie Playdate follows Brian, a stay-at-home dad who attends a seemingly innocent playdate with another dad, Jeff. However, their day quickly becomes a deadly one as they find themselves being pursued by enigmatic men who seek to kill Jeff and his ”son”. The twist? The boy is not actually Jeff’s son — he’s a clone. Sounds crazy enough to be enjoyable, true? Sadly, the film manages to dull even that.
The movie opens with a promise of an easy watch, that is, two mismatched dads bonding over chaos. But what happens is a formulaic, overcooked tale that plays out like a patchwork of discarded scenes from a dozen other action comedies. All of it is instantly recognisable, from the car chases to the terrible jokes.
Alan Ritchson, who clearly gives his all, tries to inject some energy into the mess. At least his performance holds the film together, which is the one thing that may actually not cause it to completely crash. Kevin James, normally funny in his bumbling way, is at a loss here. As if he knows the jokes are bad yet continues to deliver them because, you know, what else is he supposed to do?
The dynamic should have been a winner, one overly prepared dad and one clumsy one trying to stay afloat in a ridiculous scenario, but neither really gets a chance to shine, however. In its place, we get the punctuated half-hearted attempts at humour that are then surrounded by larger-than-life yet unfortunately unimpressive action sequences that remain aggrandised with time.
There’s plenty of running, fighting, and shouting, but none of it feels exciting. Its action sequences are filmed in a way that looks frenzied than exhilarating. You can see that the movie is trying to apply humour and tension together, but it just turns into noise.
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Its comedy is no better. They all have this sense of being recycled jokes — the kinds you might have laughed at on some sitcom in the 2010s, but definitely not now. The movie is a little too reliant on Kevin James doing slapstick and Alan Ritchson being stoic. By the time the initial 30 minutes are up, you can typically tell what sort of gag or goof is on its way.
Once the cloning twist comes in, you expect the movie to pick up. Maybe there will be a clever commentary on science, parenthood, or identity. But no. The storyline turns into a clichés of chase scenes, and relatively boring speeches between characters about “being a good dad.” And the rest of it is all comedy — there are laughs from the cast but also from the dialogue, which sounds like it was penned by an AI trained on a buffet of half-remembered Hollywood clichés.
But the villain subplot, where this billionaire is hiding a top-secret military cloning project? That sounds like a plot point directly out of some big-budget sci-fi thriller. But even at the final explosive scene, it seems to be played out with such low energy that nothing seems necessary. When even a major climactic moment feels like a relief because it’s over, you know you’re in trouble movie-wise.
On the technical level, the movie Playdate is not a looker either. The CGI is poor, and the editing seems desperate to ensure everything continues at a fast pace. That makes for a dizzying experience, one that never allows you to stay in a moment. So one moment it seems like a family film, but the next, all this violence and dark wit come in to make it not for kids.
It exists in limbo somewhere between a family action movie and an adult comedy, but refuses to commit to either end of the spectrum. As such, this is not something for parents to enjoy with their children. And if you are a grown-up searching for smart fun, you will probably pull out your cellphone halfway through.
I will say that Alan Ritchson does help in parts to make the Playdate movie watchable. Every time things threaten to go awry — which is most of the time — his physicality and charm grab hold of the screen. Meanwhile, there are tiny moments between Jeff and CJ that attempt to impart emotion, but they fail, for the film speeds through every emotion as if it has no time to properly allocate space for any of them.
It’s like the film is afraid of silence or sincerity. Whenever it gets close to something substantial, it skips away to yet another ridiculous action or another joke. So where it should have built emotion, it builds frustration.
Prime Video Playdate Review: Summing Up
Prime Video’s Playdate is the kind of movie you probably forget you just watched five minutes later. It’s booming, chaotic, and predictably painful. The cast, particularly Ritchson, does their best, but the writing and direction give them little to work with.
