Title: First One In
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Gina O’Brien
Starring: Kat Foster, Georgia King, Alana O’Brien, Josh Segarra
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

What It Is: After accidentally killing an endangered animal on a reality TV show, Madi Cooke (Kat Foster) returns home to a not-so-warm welcome from pretty much everyone. Now unemployed and out of luck, Madi returns to her roots as a tennis player and teams up with an unlikely tennis clinic to compete for a championship title, against the oddball and vicious real estate shark Bobbi Mason.

What We Think: They don’t really make comedies like this one anymore. This type of film is right up my alley and for my sense of humor, it works very well. The comedy aspect of the film is delightfully weird in it’s presentation, and it’s the kind of sarcastic and “whoopsie daisy” humor that had my sides splitting. The performances are great all around, especially Georgia King (whom I had no idea was British) playing the role of a snarky and peculiar real estate agent, her scenes are some of the best in the film. The rest of the cast also play their roles well, with each member falling into a different tennis player stereotype, even the coach of their underdog team is someone you may have met in real life (if you ever went to tennis lessons, which believe me, I have, and it’s spot-on).

The story itself can be a little absurd when you think about it, and some may find it difficult to understand the logic of it all. That may be a problem for some people, but I didn’t really mind. The presentation of the film is surprisingly stellar, it’s low budget definitely wasn’t an obstacle and it’s nice to look at. In terms of any issues… sure, there were a couple of jokes that didn’t do it for me (it’s bound to happen with any film really), but the diverting and odd humor is something I’m very fond of, so it’s easy to look past them. The core of the film is really about the absurdity of it all, and how much of the film’s story you can actually take seriously without getting yourself completely muddled in what the film wants to convey.

Our Grade: B-, This film feels like one of those 90’s sports comedies (think Happy Gilmore meets tennis), it may not be for everyone, but it’s dumb fun that is very much enjoyable. Check this one out, and if you have any tennis friends or play casual tennis, I’d recommend this one.