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Playing the "Kevin Bacon Game" with African-American actors isn't much fun. Since so many black-themed movies use the same people over and over, it's not hard to connect one to the other. How do you get from Taye Diggs to Morris Chestnut? The Best Man will do. From Gabrielle Union to D.L. Hughley? The Brothers. From Anthony Anderson to Vivica A. Fox? Kingdom Come, which also starred Tamala Jones. Now to make those connections even easier, we have Two Can Play That Game, starring Chestnut, Union, Anderson, Fox, and Jones. But it's not only the actors that feel familiar. The storyline, jokes, and even the put-downs have the freshness of last week's meatloaf.

Vivica A. Fox stars as Shante, a successful ad executive with a great job and even better man. Unfortunately, her female friends aren't as successful in love, so she sets out to teach them the Ten-Day Program to Keeping Your Man. As it turns out, her own boyfriend Keith (Morris Chestnut) seems to have a wandering eye, which gives her a perfect case study.

Shante, being a professional woman, knows what to do, and she strides through the movie like Sherman through Georgia. Her "rules" consist of aphorisms such as: "break up with him before he breaks up with you," "whoever calls first loses ground," and "if you want him back, punish him and punish him hard." In other words, this is a comedy that focuses on the battle rather than the romance between the sexes.

Fortunately for Keith, he's not alone in this ten-day assault. Co-worker Tony (Anthony Anderson) is experienced at this sort of warfare, and he matches up with Shante, thrust for thrust. He shows Keith how to "transfer the frustration" and play the waiting game. The scenes with Anderson and Chestnut are often hilarious. They have great screen chemistry, and their buddy routine is always enjoyable.

Backing up Shante are Diedre (Mo'nique), Tracye (Tamala Jones) and Karen (Wendy Raquel Robinson). Unfortunately for the movie, they aren't as funny. Part of the problem is that there are three of them, which means we don't get to know any of them very well. But also Shante's self-assurance means that she doesn't need her friends, and consequently the movie doesn't seem to need them either.

Writer and director Mark Brown is best known for writing the hit How to Be a Player, and Two Can Play That Game feels like a sequel to that film, just from the woman's perspective. Like many sequels, though, the jokes aren't as fresh this time around, and the situations are a little more contrived. Fox continually talks to the camera, which gets old after the first minute. And the unrelenting hostility between Shante and Keith makes for a feel-bad movie after a while.

Nonetheless, Two Can Play That Game will provide familiar entertainment for those who've struggled in love. 

J. Robert Parks 9/13/2001