Deal

Deal

Rated PG-13

Running time: 1 hr 26 mins

Cast:

Bret Harrison

Burt Reynolds

Shannon Elizabeth

Critical consensus:

* out of *****
(0% Fresh Rating!)

Matt's Take:

Has Not Viewed

Mikey @ The Movies Official Rating:

** out of *****

The premise:

As an ex-gambler teaches a hot-shot college kid some things about playing cards, he finds himself pulled into the world series of poker, where his protégé is his toughest competition.

MY REVIEW

Deal was the lesser known, but slightly better half of the poker movies of 2008. The other being the incredibly boring and uninteresting 21 with Kevin Spacy. Deal isn't that much better or interesting of a film in my opinion, but I give it higher marks for making its poker scenes more "exciting" to watch. In 21, the black jack scenes lacked any fun or entertainment. It was just young kids cheating the system to win. In deal, we have a young guy who is just really good at the art of poker. Everyone knows you don't need skill to win poker, at least no in the game itself. It's pure luck of the draw as to what cards you pull. The skill in poker is how you display yourself and how you play your competitors.

In Deal, they show that aspect of poker very well. We have scenes demonstrating common "tells" when people have bad hands. We kind of learn a few things about the game. The final act of the film is the best part. It's a final 6 player World Series of Poker tournament that was actually kind of fun to watch. I give the film props for working the camera the way they did to show us the cards and poker chips being pushed on the table. Although I have a question. Now, I don't know much about poker, but do proffesional poker players really go "all-in" that much?? They seemed to spit out those words, and push out all their chips a LOT of times in this movie. I just wasn't sure how common that was, but it was kind of annoying after a while.

The rest of the film, about the kid not being able to talk to girls; the kid being mentored by an ex-pro all lacked anything that I found good or entertaining. Maybe it was the bad performances, the ridicuously cliched screenplay, I don't know. All I know is the only good parts of the movie were the almost gritty scenes of poker being played. People bluffing, throwing around insults along with their chips, etc. Basically the parts of the movie that weren't about storytelling, but just about poker. Otherwise, you have a really bland film.

To view this films theatrical trailer, click this link: Deal

*This is the 102nd new film I've seen and reviewed this year.

*This film is now on DVD.