‘How to Be a Player’--or How to Cheat and Not Get Caught

“Def Jam’s How to Be a Player” is a rambling, shambling, good-natured comedy that tries to have fun with unbridled male sexual prowess while making sure its hero gets an obligatory comeuppance at the very last moment. However, by then we have every reason to be confident that Bill Bellamy’s fast-talking sexual superman Dray Jackson will manage to handle his trusting steady girlfriend, Lisa (Lark Voorhies), when she at last catches him with another woman.

While adults won’t bother taking this picture seriously--in the unlikely event they happen to see it--you have to wonder about its impact on young males. What writers Mark Brown and Demetria Johnson are essentially saying is that it’s in the nature of men to score with as many women as possible, and the trick is merely for them not to get caught doing it by their girlfriends.

They’re further saying that, even if the man is a liar, if he’s handsome enough and slick enough, most women will ultimately forgive him. They don’t have much to say about women’s sexual prowess but, again at the last possible moment, they do suggest a gorgeous woman can temporarily bring down an overconfident playboy. You have to be grateful that “Def Jam’s How to Be a Player” at least makes it clear that Dray uses condoms.

The entire film--which is saturated in raunchy language, some of it truly tasteless--takes place during a holiday, with Dray having one rendezvous after another with his many beautiful lovers while his nerdy pals wait in his vintage Thunderbird convertible. There’s a stopover at his mother’s house for a barbecue, where there’s a cameo with Max Julien, cast as Dray’s brother and role model. (Julien was a definitive player in the blaxploitation pictures of the ‘70s.) The film culminates at a Malibu party.

Meanwhile, Dray’s disapproving sister (Natalie Desselle) and her classmate in anthropology (Mari Morrow) are focusing on Dray’s lifestyle as a possible class project. A number of actors display personality and presence, but Lionel C. Martin’s direction is uneven to the point of seeming nonexistent.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong sexual content and language. Times guidelines: The film’s language is especially raunchy, and the film is entirely unsuitable for children.

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‘Def Jam’s How to Be a Player’

Bill Bellamy: Dray Jackson

Natalie Desselle: Jenny Jackson

Bernie Mac: Buster

A Gramercy Pictures release of a PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presentation of an Island Pictures productions in association with Outlaw Productions. Director Lionel C. Martin. Producers Mark Burg, Todd Baker, Russell Simmons, Preston Holmes. Executive producers Robert Newmyer, Jeffrey Silver, Stan Lathan. Screenplay by Mark Brown, Demetria Johnson; from a story by Brown. Cinematographer uncredited. Editor William Young. Costumes Mimi Melgaard. Music Darren Floyd. Production designer Bruce Curtis. Set decorator Claire Kaufman. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.