The Game Plan

Stop us if you've heard this one before. A carefree superstar quarterback (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) finds his studly bachelor existence turned on its head when he suddenly discovers he has a 7-year-old daughter (Madison Pettis), the product of a long-defunct relationship. Returning home one night, he's greeted by the pint-size surprise carrying a note explaining that her mother had to go to Africa on a humanitarian mission for a few months. Of course this situation leads to a boatload of comic complications as the egotistical star athlete, previously living in the kid-free zone, must now adapt to a lifestyle change with far-reaching consequences. This is pure Disney formula stuff (think The Pacifier or Three Men and a Baby). And despite its predictability, the movie turns out to be a comic touchdown for The Rock, who scores lots of laughs in this winning family entertainment. Watching him trying to overcome the obstacle of instant fatherhood is where the fun lies; and of course he makes all the wrong moves, drawing sports page headlines for bad parenting when the kid infiltrates his life and team. The Rock follows the path of other macho action stars like Vin Diesel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, who have all been down this same image-changing path before. What's most heartening is that he's up to the game; he's especially amusing in a sequence where he joins his daughter's ballet recital, tights and all. It's nothing you haven't seen before, but if you're looking for something bearable to take a kid to, you could do a lot worse.