Play It to the Bone

Cesar Dominguez and Vince Boudreau are middleweight boxers and close friends whose best years are behind them. Out of the blue, a Las Vegas promoter calls: one of his undercard fights has fallen through, and he needs the two men to face each other on the same night as a Mike Tyson bout, with a shot at a title as the reward. They accept, and Grace, who is Cesar's current girlfriend and was once involved with Vince, drives them from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Along the way they pick up Lia, whose presence unsettles Vince, and by the time they reach the ring the two friends have become rivals with everything at stake.

Ron Shelton wrote and directed the film, the fourth in the run of features he made beginning with Bull Durham in 1988 and continuing through White Men Can't Jump, Tin Cup, Dark Blue, Hollywood Homicide and Just Getting Started in 2017. Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson lead as Cesar and Vince, with Lolita Davidovich as Grace, Tom Sizemore as the promoter Joe Domino, Lucy Liu as Lia and Robert Wagner as Hank Goody, among 28 credited cast members. Shelton had explored sport and male friendship before, and this comedy drama applies that interest to boxing.

The film opened in December 1999, made on a budget of about 24 million dollars, and took roughly 9 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.5 out of 10 from around 13,000 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 5.5 out of 10, from about 178 votes.