Playdate Review: Recently unemployed stay-at-home dad Brian accepts a playdate with charismatic stay-at-home dad Jeff, only for their ordinary afternoon to turn into a bid to stay alive as they outrun mercenaries hell-bent on trying to murder them!
Playdate Prime Video Cast
Alan Ritchson, Kevin James, Sarah Chalke, Alan Tudyk, Benjamin Pajak, Banks Pierce, Hiro Kanagawa, Stephen Root, Isla Fisher
Playdate Movie Director
Luke Greenfield
Playdate 2025 Writer
Neil Goldman
The action-comedy film has a runtime of 93 minutes.
Playdate Review
Prime Video’s Playdate is a comedy film about a surprisingly prepared dad and another who is a bumbling fool trying to navigate staying alive while out on a regular playdate. The film’s obvious premise probably gives away everything about what’s to come and leaves us simply watching something that we already know. The surprising thing, though, comes from the fact that the film is exactly what you’d expect and does absolutely nothing to possibly surprise us in any way.
The trend these days, it seems, is to simply regurgitate the same-old stories with an unusual pairing and hope that it makes enough money to recoup whatever was spent behind making it. This Prime Video film is nothing different, but at this point, it makes you want to scream into the void as the same gags, same action sequences and the same heartfelt sequences are shown to us.
This is an action-comedy film, so both the action and the comedy aspects should come together to produce something balanced and entertaining. However, the film relies on old and overdone gags that are far too common for the genre, hoping that Alan Ritchson or Kevin James saying them would make it different. They are painfully repetitive and obvious, and leave you annoyed more than anything.
With chase sequences galore, the action part, too, is overdone and delivers very little in terms of entertainment. The chase sequences are overdone and overhyped, and it’s just not fresh or fun anymore. It’s fine to bring something old, but there needs to be at least something that differentiates the film from others. How are viewers supposed to feel entertained if we see the same gags and the same action every few weeks? It’s actually crazy.
Moreover, the film is also not technically well done. The CGI is terrible, and the editing feels like it’s trying too hard to make things chaotic and fun, but it has the opposite effect. Overall, the polish is missing majorly from the film that might give it scale or make things feel realistic in any way. As I mentioned previously, this feels like slop that was thrown at us, hoping it will stick… but it just doesn’t.
However, Alan Ritchson is probably the only entertaining aspect of this film and will leave you somewhat engaged. Although it doesn’t change the lack of a proper script but it makes it somewhat enjoyable to some degree. This movie is, personally, great for background entertainment and will keep you entertained if you have something more important to do.
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Oddly, Playdate feels like the perfect watch with kids, but there are certain dialogues and situations that don’t sit well for kids’ entertainment, but it’s not complex or serious enough for an adult-only watch. It’s somewhere oddly in the middle and will leave you annoyed whichever way you go.
Final Thoughts
Playdate is… something. It’s not good, it’s not new, and it’s not entertaining. Personally, this is a skip as it doesn’t offer anything remotely engaging or is even funny in the slightest.
What are your thoughts on Playdate on Prime Video? Let us know in the comments below!
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