Ed-Shullivan Tennis anyone? Well the story line surrounds two brothers, older reckless brother Jimmy (Jeremy Sisto) and his sensitive kid brother Darren (David Walton) who at a young age took to competitive tennis. Jimmy won a few tournaments leaving his kid brother behind and feeling abandoned when their mother dies. So although the film focuses on Jimmy's desire to reach for the top when he is way past his prime age (35) for professional tennis, Jimmy through the process of elimination and left with few alternatives convinces his kid brother Darren, to enter into a qualifying pairs tournament that if they win could get them a starting position in a major pairs tournament.The film actually evolves around an out of shape Jimmy who would rather drink to excess and irritate everyone around him and his strained relationship with his kid brother Darren. If you can get through the first 20 minutes of what I felt was more of a documentary style of filming, you will be rewarded with a better result by the end of the film than I had expected.There is a decent supporting group of characters which includes J K Simmons as the two brothers father named Jack who operates a veterinary clinic with his attractive assistant named Heather (played by Amy Smart) who as teenagers chummed around with Darren and Jimmy. As we get to know the two brothers personalities we recognize that Jimmy is an extrovert and Darren is an introvert. Jimmy's brashness has bugged younger brother Darren since they were kids and Jimmy in no uncertain terms tells Darren if he still has a crush on their father's veterinary assistant Heather, he better step up to the plate and tell her so that he can do the bedroom tango with her which has been Darren's desire for too many years.There is also some witty side humor provided by character actors Chris Parnell, Adam Devine (you may know him as Andy on the hit TV series Modern Family) and a young boy named Barry (played by Joshua Rush) who is in dire need of a father figure since he lives with his grandmother. Young Barry tries extremely hard to latch on to his supply teacher for the summer who happens to be the depressed Darren, but Barry keeps receiving more unsolicited fatherly advice from a belligerent source that being Darren's older brother Jimmy.There are sufficient characters and multiple story lines to keep the audience engaged. I would not try and compare it to the more successful 2014 feature film "St. Vincent" starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, and a young star named Jaeden Lieberher, but I did feel that there was an attempt by both films to make us aware that boys who are fatherless will look for someone, anyone, to provide them with some level of male guidance and any attention, be it good or bad attention.Overall, I liked the film and I think it is well worth watching if you can just be patient and get through the first 20 minutes or so of dribble. It would appear that the inexperienced film director Jay Karas should stick more to TV series (as his resume is almost entirely focused on TV series) than feature films. Maybe that is what held the film back. Either way I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 rating.

SnoopyStyle Jimmy Price (Jeremy Sisto) is a tennis player on his last legs. He antagonizes everybody including his doubles partner. He needs a new partner. His veterinary father Jack (J.K. Simmons) suggests his younger brother Darren (David Walton) despite double-crossing him when they were younger. Darren is a substitute teacher who is befriended by a clingy boy named Barry. Darren is taken with Jack's assistant Heather (Amy Smart) who has boyfriend Gary. Barry opines, "Our names rhyme. It's mildly amusing". One gets the feeling that this was written as a wacky comedy but it's at best mildly amusing. Neither Sisto nor Walton are outright comedians although they sometimes do comedic acting. In this one, they don't really try that hard. The lines are sometimes there but the delivery is flat. I keep thinking this is a Will Ferrell comedy without Will Ferrell. It might be better to go darker and more serious with the story. Or just give it to Ferrell for him to go completely nuts.

www.ramascreen.com This is fantastic little movie about family and brotherhood and even if you don't know much about tennis, you'll find a thing or two that you can appreciate about BREAK POINT. Funny and heartwarming, a pleasant surprise. Great ensemble cast: Jeremy, David, Amy, Vincent, J.K. and Joshua are a delight to watch.One of the things appealing about BREAK POINT is that there is strength in its simplicity. Whereas other movies would spend a lot of time and try too hard to be all profound when it doesn't need to be, BREAK POINT accomplishes depth and profundity in just 90 minutes and it doesn't shove them down our throats. Yes, it's a comedy, but one that's so engaging with themes that are so common, this is a comedy that leaves you feeling hopeful in the end whatever the result of the tennis match may be. There's a bit of 'Rocky' in there, there's a bit of sibling friction and a bit of mentorship as well, you can't help but like BREAK POINT, it's simply irresistible and effective.Jeremy Sisto plays the reckless man-child Jimmy who's at his age when other tennis players just don't see him as having any future in the sport, his last partner drops him just as he's planning to enter a grand slam tournament, and so in desperation, he reaches out to his childhood partner, his estranged brother Darren whom he dropped years ago. Darren, a more reserved and conservative tennis player still feels the hurt after all these years but after being convinced by an 11-year old named Barry who looks up to him, Darren decided to take his brother up on his offer and so goes their journey to train together and re-learn and re-discover their game once again while finding out what it means to be brothers.This Jimmy and Darren dynamic reminds me of the Odd Couple, as if Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar were on the Tennis court. The jokes are rated R but they're on target and edgy, Jeremy Sisto in particular gets to say the best lines in this film, and young actor Joshua Rush excellently holds his own in the midst of these two adult brothers trying to prove themselves once more. And in a way, it's also a dudes type of movie and I don't mean that in a sexist or one-sided manner, what I mean is that the way the brothers resolve their conflict is like any regular dudes would, meaning whatever resentment we may have, we can easily shrug it off, sometimes, not in all cases, but we don't talk about it for hours, we'd pull a 'forget about it' card and that's why I think BREAK POINT speaks more truth than most of the movies about brothers I've seen out there.

niutta-enrico A great film. Just as the two brothers playing tennis way out of their league, maybe also Gene Hong (the writer) and Jay Karas (the director), who have done much more TV than movies, could have shared the same feeling. And the same could be said for David Walton (Darren), Vincent Ventresca (the great Gary) or Joshua Rush (the even greater Barry). But, believe me, this is a great film with a great cast and the above mentioned actors star greatly along with Jeremy Sisto, JK Simmons and Amy Smart.The story is funny and enjoyable, the characters are so nice you'll easily find yourself hoping for a sequel. Everything is perfect, cheering and entertaining. My kind of comedy.