The_Film_Cricket 'Playing God' would be nothing without three of the best actors around to bring a tired genre piece to new heights and make it intriguing.David Duchovny stars as Eugene Sands, a former surgeon who was disgraced when his attempt to balance pill popping caused him to lose a patient. Instead of trying to save his shattered career, he chose to take the easy road to addiction. As the movie opens, he is trying to buy heroine in a bar when a man is shot in argument. Quick thinking Dr. Sands becomes McGyver and fashions a breathing apparatus out of a coke bottle.His quick thinking saves the man's life and captures the attention of Claire (Angelina Jolie). She is so impressed that the next thing he knows he is being invited to the home of millionaire Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton). Blossom offers the good doctor a job in which he will be paid to take care of some of his friends who run into, let's just say, some unfortunate gunshot wounds of which hospitals would ask too many questions.The story is, of course, completely stupid and so is Duchovny's quicksilver surgical methods. But it didn't bother me because the realm of this kind of hard-boiled story allows it some freedom. It's helped by Duchovny who is a good looking guy but doesn't seem to be standing around posing all the time. He isn't afraid to look foolish, a quality the most actor's shy away from.Hutton is never a slouch, he goes into even the most tedious screenplay and acts his heart out. Playing the villain is easy when all you have to do is look mean, kill people and issue threats. But Hutton, as Blossom allows us to see what seduced him to his life of crime in the first place. He is an amazing presence in this film because watching him I'm drawn into his character so that I more easily identify with him.Angelina Jolie is a rare case of a gorgeous young woman who doesn't just stand around behind the actors. There is an intelligent person beneath her looks and her screen presence is as welcome as her looks. She could step into the window dressing in this film and simply be the object of lust but we sense a smart woman who is a sucker for a stray dog like Sands.We know that what we are watching is preposterous but with these three wonderful actors they are able to break away from the confines of the screenplay and absorb us.

whpratt1 Looked forward to viewing this film and seeing these great actors perform. However, I was sadly disappointed in the script and the entire plot of the story. David Duchovny,(Dr. Eugene Sands),"Connie & Carla",'04, was the doctor in the story who uses drugs and losses his license to practice medicine. Dr. Sands was visiting a night club and was able to use his medical experience to help a wounded customer and was assisted by Angelina Jolie,(Claire),"Taking Lives",'04, who immediately becomes attracted to Dr. David Sands. Timothy Hutton,(Raymond Blossom),"Kinsey",'04, plays the Big Shot Gangster and a man with all kinds of money and connections. Timothy Hutton seems to over act in most of the scenes and goes completely out of his mind trying to keep his gang members from being killed. Gary Dourdan,(Yates),"CSI-Vegas TV Series", plays a great supporting role and portrays a real COOL DUDE who is a so-called body guard for Raymond Blossom. Angelina Jolie looks beautiful and sexy with her ruby red lips which draws a great deal of attention from all the men. This film is not the greatest, but it does entertain.

bob the moo Eugene Sands is a drug addict doctor - although he has long since been barred from practicing medicine having been found operating high, leading to a girl's death. When he is at a club buying he witnesses a shooting and steps in to do enough to save a man's life. The owner of the club and criminal to boot, Raymond Blossom, takes an interest in Eugene and begins using him and his doctor. However the FBI are after Raymond and make moves to use Eugene to trap him.Coming off as a slightly upmarket video thriller, this film could have been much better but ultimately fails to engage or rise to it's potential. The plot is OK but the script doesn't manage to lift the story up into something that is really strong and engaging. The delivery is a big part of the problem - it isn't that well directed, nothing very wrong but certainly the feel of a video film as opposed to a big screen thriller. The decision to have a voice over narrator is always a gamble; sometimes it works but sometimes it really doesn't.Here the narration doesn't work for two reasons. First of all, the narrator has to explain or develop so much because the film fails to do it as part of the story being told. To make matters worse Duchovny delivery is so flat that it really sucks any energy out of the film. His actual performance is not as bad as his voiceover but he doesn't exactly manage to lead the film. This leaves the way open for Hutton's villain, but he struggles with a lack of character and eventually gives into overacting. Jolie is good but again suffers from having no character. Regardless of performances, not having any buy in with the main people meant that I wasn't into the story as I needed to be. Support from Massee, Stormare and Dourdan doesn't so much add quality as add familiarity.Overall this was very much a workmanlike thriller. It is passable but really it is difficult to overlook the fact that the film has major weaknesses in most areas. The plot is good but the script can't do anything with it, the narration is rubbish and the acting is only reasonable on the whole. Worth watching once but it's hard not to feel let down by it.

FeverDog PLAYING GOD, a failed attempt from David Duchovny to kick start a movie career, is a big-screen vehicle in desperate need of repair. He plays a disgraced M.D. who saves the life a shooting victim - a henchman of local crime boss played by Timothy Hutton. Impressed with his currently unused talents, Hutton hires Duchovny as his gang's full-time doctor. This premise could have made an interesting thriller, but the plot just drunkenly stumbles along, stocking up on clichés (soft-boiled monotonous voice-overs; technoesque soundtrack; pointlessly artsy cinematography) like they're going out of style, until the storyline creates a level of ennui in the viewer that's too much for anyone to bear. And Hutton is about as menacing as a squirt gun.