First One In

Usually, outrageous sports-based comedies (Kingpin, Happy Gilmore, Talledega Nights, Dodgeball, etc.) are boys-club affairs, with female talent seldom in the fore—with the notable exception of the ultra-raunchy The Bronze, and now this screwy tennis-centric farce from writer-director Gina O'Brien. New Jersey Realtor Madi Cooke (Kat Foster) accidentally killed a cute, endangered jungle species while a contestant on a Survivor type TV show, instantly making her the most hated woman on Earth. Fired from her agency, she dyes her hair blonde to throw off the protesters and seeks work under a new name, at a high-profile real-estate company whose status-obsessed, narcissistic boss Bobbi (Georgia King) luxuriates in her sideline as an amateur tennis winner. All office personnel is required to play women's tennis, and Madi fortunately still has some racket skills from her school days. Joining a struggling tennis clinic to sharpen her game, she further scores by a hot tip that a sprawling mansion owned by a local tennis legend and tournament founder is about to go on the market. Can Madi's ragtag team win the matches? And for how long can Madi keep her true, infamous identity secret from the vile Bobbi? It's lightweight fluff, perhaps, but First One In is still hit firmly over the net with a powerful comedic serve and a cast of talented, funny but largely unfamiliar faces (watch for a supporting bit by Karen Lynn Gorney, of Saturday Night Fever fame). Despite locker-room-humor tendencies of many movies like this, most of the bright humor would not score very much above a PG-rating (with the exception of a character who can't stop herself from constant swearing); let's hear it for the ladies.