"The Players" is the top-ranked new movie of the week Starring Gina Rodriguez and Tom Ellis, this Netflix romantic comedy was released just in time for Valentine's Day and quickly made its way to the #1 spot in the Netflix Top 10

But if you're belatedly looking for a Valentine's Day romantic comedy, need something for your next date night, or if you're like me and like romantic comedies that focus more on comedy than romance, this one you might want to skip it The talented and charming duo of Rodriguez and Ellis feels like a perfect match, but critics think the film makes worse mistakes than Jake Moody's extra point kick

Still, critics sometimes miss the point of popcorn movies After all, not everything has to be a masterpiece of art; sometimes we just want to see a fun movie So let's take a look at what "The Players" portrays (a reference to sports is always worthwhile) before we see if critics and audiences will give the film a one-size-fits-all rating

In "The Players," Rodriguez plays Mack, a New York sports reporter Mack usually likes to go out to bars after work with his friends (Damon Wayans Jr, Liza Cossy, Augustus Prew, and Joel Courtney) to "play" pick-up

One day, however, Mac meets a newspaper correspondent named Nick (Tom Ellis) and decides to hit on him

But one day Mack meets newspaper correspondent Nick (Tom Ellis) and decides to seduce him

At one point in the trailer, her friend Adam (Wayans Jr) points out the lack of chemistry between Mac and Nick, even though she helped Mac in his mission to get Nick earlier in the film In any case, you need to see the full film to find out

The question, of course, is whether one should see the full film to find out According to critics, the answer is no Players" currently has a 43% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes If the best films are "certified fresh," then a 43% rating is close to a corrupt certification Upon closer inspection, however, there is no critical consensus, and the ratings are mixed [Alyssa Wilkinson of The New York Times calls the film "stale," which may be one of the more positive assessments Adrain Horton of The Guardian, in a three-star review, called it "a middling film However, the most positive review of the film came from Robia Gyalkey of The Hollywood Reporter, who praised the character of Rodriguez in particular" Mack's character development is believable, thanks to Rodriguez's committed performance, which moves easily between tears and laughter

So if all of the favorable reviews boil down to the idea that the film is an old-fashioned, unimaginative, but palatable romantic comedy, that seems to be why most critics dislike it "Screen Rant Brittany Witherspoon described the film as "vulgar to the extreme," and Roger Moore of Movie Nation was frankly scathing, calling it "a pre-#MeToo rom-com sitcom masquerading as a feature-length comedy"

But do critics' opinions really matter when it comes to romantic comedies? As Pramit Chatterjee says in their (favorable) review, "There is a general idea that no one watches modern rom-coms for the plot or filmmaking" In other words, perhaps the most important thing about The Players is what the audience thinks

Unfortunately, with regard to The Players, most audience reviews seem to support the negative critical reviews; Rotten Tomatoes has only five audience reviews so far, with an average of 21 out of 5 stars Gina Rodriguez, as usual, said It was great " and still gave it only 35 out of 5 stars

My favorite audience review, however, comes from Google User "thegood fish" states in their review, " Without exaggeration, it may be the worst movie I have ever seen"

Look, is this the worst movie you've ever seen? As someone who recently saw "Argyle," I don't think so But unless you love silly romantic comedies (which is not a bad thing), "The Players" is probably not for you Feel free to skip this Netflix movie