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  #1  
Old 05-05-2007, 07:14 AM
DeathDonkey DeathDonkey is offline
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Default Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

Crossposted this from my blog:

Lucky You if you avoid this movie

I went to see Lucky You tonight (spoilers will follow), as I am a poker fanboy and my wife loves romantic comedies and Drew Barrymore. Impressively, we both left disappointed. Lucky You portrays itself to be a romantic comedy loosely about a professional poker player, Huck, trying to find true love (that was my impression from the trailers anyway), but really the movie is about a degenerate gambler who hates his dad and Barrymore plays "random distraction girl". To my wife's chagrine, Drew Barrymore's character, Billy (Billie?) was rarely featured. The scenes she appeared in were among the best in the movie, actually, with a funny scene occurring where our "hero" is trying to teach Billy how to play hold'em and her innocent, carefree attitude at the table costs Huck some money.

Of course our poker hero only brought her to the table because he couldn't afford the buyin and she happened to think giving him $1000 to play with would make for a fun first date. This was my biggest problem with the movie - Huck is a degenerate gambling addict, and is completely unlikable. He manages to steal, cheat, go broke, and be an all-around [censored] at the poker table (under the guise of the movie showing us the "war on the felt" that occurs in poker). The only thing Huck is good at is taking a few hundred bucks and turning it into $10,000 or so within a few hours, rapidly moving up stakes at the prominently featured Bellagio poker room. Of course, he goes broke every time in the big game, usually to his father, a respected and renowned poker champion who wasn't always in control. Dad made some bad decisions when he was young that scarred Huck for life, and now Huck hates the man but can never beat him, or manage to listen to his useful advice. Huck's father is supposed to be the villain in the movie, but he is actually the most likable character in my opinion, as he plays cards well, manages to be nice to people and not go broke every 36 hours. Also the actor who played him did a great job (I'm too lazy to look up his name), though I thought Drew Barrymore managed to not suck in the scenes she was featured in, of which there were too few.

All comes to a head at the 2003 WSOP main event, where Huck and his dad meet at the final table, along with a cast of celebrity pro poker players, and the token "internet kid" who is playing in his first live event. Lucky You actually does a good job of making legitimate poker references - clearly they had someone on the writing or editing staff who knows his poker. Other than the standard ridiculous cold decks, the poker situations were fairly reasonable and a lot of attention was paid to the details. I loved that almost all the movie appeared to be filmed on location in Vegas, often in the Bellagio or on the strip. I loved the celebrity poker player cameos, including a few great lines by Sammy Farha and Jason Lester (who I predict almost no one will realize is a celebrity poker player cameo when they watch the movie).

Drew Barrymore is all but forgotten as we wait and see if Huck and his father can work out their differences over the biggest stage in poker. Of course they will, as the guy really isn't such a monster, and maybe he can teach Huck how not to lose that six figure WSOP score in those big bad cash games within a week. Of course we are supposed to be thrilled that Huck solved his financial woes, his family woes, and got the girl, all while intentionally mucking the best hand at showdown to knock himself out in 3rd place (don't even try and ask), but all I could really think when the credits rolled was "another degenerate fish about to take his score to the big cash games and go broke again - LOL donkaments."

-DeathDonkey
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  #2  
Old 05-05-2007, 07:22 AM
mo42nyy mo42nyy is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

how were you disapointed
i have no intention of watching this garbage but what made you think it would be good
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  #3  
Old 05-05-2007, 07:40 AM
FatalError FatalError is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

i'll wait til it's on demand in a month
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  #4  
Old 05-05-2007, 07:55 AM
kemystery kemystery is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

sounds like ESPN made a movie out of Tilt
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  #5  
Old 05-05-2007, 08:01 AM
duh duh is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

[ QUOTE ]
i'll wait til it's on demand in a month

[/ QUOTE ]

No no no, that won't work. This piece of trash isn't even worth the $2.99 PPV price...

IMHO, you're better off waiting until it is on the free on demand movies in a year.

(and no, its not even worth using the bandwidth to download)
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  #6  
Old 05-05-2007, 09:04 AM
Johnny Hughes Johnny Hughes is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

That's too bad. I will probably go see it anyway. It is unfair to portray poker in such a sleazy light when there are skads of twentysomethings sitting on some heavy bankrolls. Look at poker and it's image in relation to Hollywood. There are movies in the works about Stu Ungar and Amarillo Slim. Skeletons and closets propositions going in. Hollywood is just not going to have a likable, successful gambler as the lead character. I have dealt with this poker player and image thing for half a century. It is a lot better now, but to the public, "degenerate" and "gambler" go together like peanut butter and jelly.

In the promos and ads on TV, it shows Pat Callihan, one of the nicest guys in poker. I will probably go see it just to see which real poker players are in it. Robert Duvall plays the old cliche gambler whose kid hates him. How many real poker players do you know whose kids hate them? What other name poker players make cameo appearances? Will it recruit more new poker players like Rounders did?
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  #7  
Old 05-05-2007, 10:02 AM
chicagoY chicagoY is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

thanks for the review I want nothing to do with this movie.
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  #8  
Old 05-05-2007, 12:01 PM
Photoc Photoc is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

[ QUOTE ]
I loved that almost all the movie appeared to be filmed on location in Vegas, often in the Bellagio or on the strip.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read a preliminary review/information type thing of this movie and the Bellagio scenes were supposedly filmed on a sound stage in LA after the room was dismanlted and moved out there. The new room was being built or had just opened at the time they were filming the majority of the scenes in the early part of 06 in Vegas.
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  #9  
Old 05-05-2007, 12:20 PM
NJchick NJchick is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

I read the review in the NY Post yesterday which gave the movie I think 1/2 star out 4.

The review was aptly title Texas Bore 'Em.
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  #10  
Old 05-05-2007, 12:35 PM
mmbt0ne mmbt0ne is offline
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Default Re: Lucky You movie review (spoilers)

DD,

Come on. That random old guy's name is Robert Duvall. Maybe you've heard of him? The Godfather? Apocalypse Now? Mash?
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