The Game Plan

By Ian McCreath

Arnie in 'Kindergarten Cop'? Wooden

Van Diesel in 'The Pacifier'? Excruciating

Murphy in 'Daddy Day Care'? Just plain embarrassing.

Now we have 'The Rock' in 'The Game Plan'.

Forgive me if I seem slightly less than underwhelmed at the prospect of another Hollywood leading man finding his sensitive side babysitting a 'cute' kid.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays egotistical American football star Joe Kingman who is left to look after his 8 year old daughter when the Mum skips town for a month. Does he discover there is more to life than fame and fortune? Bet your house on it.

However it would be unfair to dismiss this predictable film out of hand.

Although 'The Game Plan' never makes it up to the dizzying heights of quite good, it does comfortably hover above the 'not as bad as you might expect' mark.

On the down side you have the predictable plotting and that sense of 'seen it all before and didn't laugh the first time' running through the whole thing.

On the plus side, and it is a real plus, you have the winning performance of big Dwayne-  a star clearly capable of laughing at himself and his muscle man persona.

If nothing else this films shows 'The Rock' has great charisma, suggesting he could carry bigger and better films than this on those considerable shoulders of his.

View the trailer here.