MGM/Amazon presents this big daft action comedy in which two binary opposite dads (think Daddy's Home) - put-upon Brian (Kevin James) and powerhouse Jeff (Alan Ritchson) - are thrown together through their son's fast friendship and find themselves on the run from just about everyone including a shady organisation from Jeff's past. The collision of the action-thriller genre with suburbia proves fruitful, and the occasional subversion of genre tropes is fun. It feels episodic with some good set-ups, including a nicely-delivered sequence in which the boys get pumped up on energy drinks and terrorise passers-by. Kevin James downplays his usual schtick to good comedic and sympathetic effect, but the main saving grace of this whole enterprise is Reacher's Alan Ritchson, who demonstrates a laid-back comedic ease and excellent comedic timing that is consistently very funny, especially in his dour delivery of unexpected comeback lines. Whilst loosely pondering the themes of fatherhood and family, the film wears a little thin by the halfway mark, but if you are in the mood for weapons-grade silliness, Playdate will prove to be chucklesome fun, otherwise it will come across as disposable nonsense.
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