PG-13 | 1h 33m | Comedy | 2025
Brian Jennings (Kevin James) deserves respect for embracing marriage and fatherhood (as a stepparent) at a point in his life roughly corresponding to middle age. Likewise, Jeff Eamon (Alan Ritchson) earns credit for accepting the responsibilities of fatherhood, even though he is a complete idiot.
Fortunately, Eamon has other merits that will come in handy when a strange cabal starts hunting the stay-at-home dads—dads who really should have stayed at home—in Luke Greenfield’s action-comedy “Playdate.”
Jennings is a forensic accountant, who is about to be fired because he won’t cook his company’s books. He struggles to relate to his relatively new stepson Lucas (Benjamin Pajak) because of their vastly different interests.
Yet young Lucas voluntarily calls him “Dad” because he is happy to have a new father figure, especially one who treats his corporate lawyer mother, Emily (Sarah Chalke), with the love and respect she deserves.
Brian Jennings (Kevin James, L) and Lucas (Benjamin Pajak), in “Playdate.” (Amazon MGM Studios/MovieStillsDB)
Sadly, Eamon’s wife passed away—or so he says. Suspiciously, he doesn’t even know what his son CJ’s (Banks Pierce) initials stand for, but at least he is a fun dad. CJ and Lucas take an instant liking to each other at the park, and so Jennings reluctantly agrees to a playdate.
Inconveniently, the bad guys try to ambush Eamon at a cartoon animal-themed pizzeria-arcade. Much to Jennings’s confusion, he and Lucas find themselves running from both the villains and the law, alongside the Eamons, through a combination of comedic miscommunication and contrived misunderstandings.
The Villains
The conspiracy afoot involves some rather outlandish genre elements. The fact that Eamon once served under a Col. Kurtz (Hiro Kanagawa) ought to tell you something, at least if you read Joseph Conrad or watched “Apocalypse Now.”
(L–R) Brian Jennings (Kevin James), Lucas (Benjamin Pajak), CJ (Banks Pierce), and Jeff Eamon (Alan Ritchson) are on the run, in “Playdate.” (Amazon MGM Studios/MovieStillsDB)
Despite the third-act goofiness, action fans will be happy to see that Greenfield largely executes the fight scenes that feature Ritchson with the kind of unrestrained physicality his “Reacher” fans will appreciate. A lot of stunt performers and fight choreographers did some good work on this film.
The details of the evil plot hardly matter, and the late timing of their revelation would make them spoilers to give away. They are intentionally outrageous for the sake of comedic effect.
The big twists are of only secondary importance. The odd-couple buddy chemistry really drives “Playdate.” Essentially, it follows in the tradition of films like “The In-Laws,” the 1979 original starring Alan Arkin and Peter Falk.
In this case, the combination of James’s nebbish, out-of-shape sad sack and Ritchson’s dimwitted lunkhead seems highly unlikely to overcome the machinations plotted by a nefarious tech genius like the shadowy Simon Maddox (Alan Tudyk).
Family Chemistry
Nevertheless, there is a lot of nice domestic chemistry involving James, Chalke, and Pajak as the Jennings household. In fact, it is rather easy to believe they are a family unit. Wisely, Greenfield invests sufficient time early on to establish their familial rapport before letting the two stars loose on their capery romp.
There is also some amusing support from Paul Walter Hauser as Eamon’s mysterious former coworker and Isla Fisher as the tart-tongued queen bee leading a gang of suburban soccer moms harassing Jennings. Arguably, the funniest gag is a recurring motif featuring the same gray minivan every mom drives. Fisher’s caustic attitude also lends the film some of the sarcastic edge it needed more of.
(L–R) Lauren Akemi Bradley, Sarah Surh, Isla Fisher, and Sabrina Dhowre Elba on the set of “Playdate.” (Amazon MGM Studios/MovieStillsDB)
Still, Ritchson smashes a lot of stuff, which is satisfying. It is also rewarding to see a healthy relationship between stepfather and stepson in a prominent new streaming release. Fatherhood gets a lot of love in “Playdate,” which counts as a major plus. It just comes with a good deal of shtick.
Previously, Greenfield helmed movies like “The Animal” with Rob Schneider and “Let’s Be Cops,” which favored a very physical style of comedy. However, he really levels up his action game in “Playdate.”
A good deal of the gags written by screenwriter Neil Goldman represent either broad slapstick or over-the-top wackiness. Frankly, it could have used more dad-worthy wordplay. Yet Ritchson’s fight scenes and positive portrayal of family bonds make it watchable. Kind of dumb but good-hearted.
“Playdate” is streaming on Prime Video.
‘Playdate’
Director: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Kevin James. Alan Ritchson, Paul Walter Hauser, Benjamin Pajak, Banks Pierce
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Release Date: Nov. 12, 2025
Rated: 3 stars out of 5
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