Summary

Romantic comedies like
Players
may surprise you with deeper messages about love and relationships.

Players
pays tribute to iconic rom-coms like
Hitch
,
Crazy, Stupid, Love
, and
The Ugly Truth
.
The key takeaway from
Players
is to be true to yourself and pursue love for the right reasons.

When you think about romantic comedies, two things often come to mind: the lead characters falling in love and the overall storyline being relatively predictable. Now, even though most fans can usually anticipate the ending just minutes into these movies, there is still a sense of excitement that comes with the process of watching two people awkwardly fumble through interactions before eventually accepting and admitting their love for one another.

Netflix sure knows the charming genre is a big hitter, and on Valentine’s Day, the streaming service released a cheeky new rom-com entitled Players, with the Jane the Virgin star, Gina Rodriguez, and New Girl’s very own Damon Wayans Jr. as the lead actors. It originally premiered in February 2024.

The story follows Mack (Rodriguez) and Adam (Wayans) along with their friends as they navigate the dating world by running “plays” with one another. Some of these elaborate plans call for a fake break-up in public in front of an attractive individual, a heroic moment where all eyes are on the person saving the fabricated scenario, and even a fake kidnapping. When Mack wants to run a play that gets her into a relationship rather than a simple one-night stand, the crew comes together to construct a complex scheme that eventually gets Mack her desired guy. However, after months of seeing Mack’s personality change, Adam makes Mack realize that she was chasing her target for all the wrong reasons.

This use of elaborate plans and group work to help people get together is not a new concept within romantic comedies. In fact, there are a few nods to three specific films throughout Netflix’s fun, fresh, and millennial-driven rom-com. Check out which three movies helped pave the way for Netflix’s Players.

1 Hitch Turns Match Making and Dating Into a Mission

Will Smith and Eva Mendes really kick up the chemistry in the iconic 2005 romantic comedy, Hitch. Smith plays a professional “date doctor” named Hitch who is hired by men to help them build up their confidence to ask out women and successfully date them, with the intent of being in a long-term relationship. Hitch himself sees love more as a formulaic business, but when he meets Sara (Mendes), all of his tricks fall short. Hitch learns that a lot of emotion, communication, and trust go into a successful relationship, and just about all the men he has helped over the years never needed more than a confidence boost from him to get with their ladies.

How Hitch Is Like Players
Both romantic comedies focus on individuals who see dating and love as something to conquer. While Hitch believes in only helping guys who are serious about pursuing a committed relationship with a woman, the crazy crew of Players still see the one-night stand as the ultimate goal each and every night. All of that changes when Mack (Rodriguez) wants something more than a single night with a prestigious Pulitzer Prize finalist. The gang then practically take a page from Hitch’s playbook and decide to really hone in on Mack’s target, get to know him on a more intimate (and slightly stalker-ish) level, and make it to where their relationship seemed to happen naturally. Stream Hitch on Hulu

Hitch Release Date February 11, 2005

Related: The All-Time Best Romantic Comedies of the Early-2000s

2 Crazy, Stupid, Love Utilizes the “No Play” Play

Crazy, Stupid, Love is filled with several intertwining relationships, and it seems like no matter a person’s age or relationship experience, love will always make people do really crazy and stupid things. The story starts off with Cal and Emily Weaver (Steve Carell and Julianne Moore) separating due to Emily not being satisfied with their relationship and having an affair. Cal seeks out comfort at a local bar where Jacob (Ryan Gosling) takes pity on him and decides to make Cal his own personal project. While Cal learns how to be suave and seductive, Jacob actually finds himself falling in love with a young woman named Hannah (Emma Stone) who originally turned him down. The big surprise is that Hannah turns out to be Cal and Emily’s eldest daughter.

How Crazy, Stupid, Love Is Like Players
In Players, when Mack (Rodriguez) finally realizes her love for her best friend Adam (Wayans), she creates what is hopefully the last play she will ever use, the “no play” play. Instead of some elaborate scheme, she is honest and genuine about her feelings and simply asks him out. Now, both Jacob and Cal realize how important the “no play” play is when they are trying to be with the women they love. Jacob, who has been a womanizer practically his whole life, has an incredible night with Hannah where they talked, laughed, and got emotionally vulnerable with one another. Cal also realizes that just being himself with a little confidence boost is what really helped reconnect him with his wife. Buy/Rent Crazy, Stupid, Love on Prime Video

Related: 10 Quirky Romantic Comedies From the Last Five Years

3 The Ugly Truth Explores the Importance of Being True to Yourself

The enemies-to-lovers storyline is not new within the realm of romantic comedies, so when Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler were cast to show just how hatred can turn into a burning passion for one another in The Ugly Truth, audiences were excited. The story primarily follows a hopeless romantic named Abby (Heigl) and her new crass co-host Mike (Butler) as they are forced to work together to save Abby’s TV show. While the pair do not initially get along due to how they view love and relationships, they make a deal with one another to try to get Abby’s dream guy to fall in love with her. In the end, Mike falls for the real Abby, while Colin (Eric Winter) only falls in love with the woman she’s been pretending to be.

How The Ugly Truth Is Like Players
By the end of both Players and The Ugly Truth, the lead women realize that they have been pursuing the wrong guys for all the wrong reasons. Mack (Rodriguez) had never been in a committed relationship with a smart and attractive guy, so her need to prove to herself that she could get with Nick (Tom Ellis) overshadowed the fact that she did not even like him as a partner. Then, in The Ugly Truth, Abby’s determination to get with her neighbor diminished her very own personality, something Mike actually fell in love with. Happily, the right men stuck around through all the chaos and ploys, and when the women realized they did not need to be anyone else or act like they liked certain things, everything just perfectly fell into place. Stream The Ugly Truth on DIRECTV and Fubo

Players can be streamed exclusively on Netflix. If you’re in the mood to see even more fantastic romance movies, be sure to check out our picks for romance movies with perfect endings below: