Poker is one of the most popular and addictive games in the world. It has helped many people find happiness and success.
Smart Money is a movie that focuses on the risks and art of gambling. It also features some of the most amazing poker scenes in cinematic history.
The movie tells the story of a man who used his bankroll to build underground casinos that created an even playing field for elites and commoners. It’s a must-watch for any poker fan.
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The Grand
The Grand is a comedy about poker that follows six players who reach the final table of the world’s second largest high stakes tournament, known as The Grand. The cast includes Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, Ray Romano, Werner Herzog, and many others. It also features a number of professional poker players, including Doyle Brunson and Phil Laak.
The Grand was directed by Zak Penn, who co-wrote the film with Matt Bierman. The cast is very talented, and Penn’s script is an improvisational one that allows the actors to play out the story as they see fit. It’s similar to other improv comedy comedies, such as Best in Show and This Is Spinal Tap, but with poker as the focus.
Woody Harrelson plays Jack Faro, a recovering drug addict who is trying to save the casino that his grandfather, Lucky Faro (Barry Corbin), passed down to him. The Rabbit’s Foot is in danger of losing its money to a ruthless casino developer, so Faro enters the annual poker tournament called “The Grand” with the hope of winning enough cash to turn the casino around.
Harrelson is joined by other notable actors, including Chris Parnell from Saturday Night Live and Cheryl Hines from Curb Your Enthusiasm. These players deliver their lines flawlessly and make for a great comedy ensemble.
While this movie is a comedy, it also has some drama in the form of sibling rivalry between Jack and his brother Larry. They have to deal with their manipulative father (Gabe Kaplan) and his desire for control over them.
The characters are also interwoven with each other, making for a good storyline that is entertaining and sometimes sad. The improvisation style used in the movie also makes it very funny.
This is a very unique film. It is an improvised comedy that deals with a poker tournament. It is an interesting concept, and I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a good comedy.
The Grand is a fun movie that is sure to entertain those who like to watch poker tournaments. It also has a few great cameos, such as Hank Azaria and Tom Hodges.
Maverick
Maverick, starring Mel Gibson, is a movie about poker set in the American Old West. The story revolves around Maverick trying to win enough money to participate in a poker tournament.
Maverick’s quest leads him through a series of cons, stagecoach chases and gun battles. He also meets a variety of other characters, including Marshal Zane Cooper (James Garner) and Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster).
Conmen, hustlers, gamblers, cheats, thieves and lawmen all have their own objectives in Maverick. The film is full of collisions as the different forces attempt to take control of the situation.
The film is a bit ham-handed at times, but it manages to wring some entertainment from the poker game. The only thing that makes it a little less than perfect is the fact that it telegraphs the mechanics of poker with such clarity, it makes the hands easy to predict even for those who don’t know much about poker.
One example is a scene in which Maverick is playing a game with John Wesley Hardin, a real-life gunfighter. Maverick plays a lightning fast quick draw and wins the hand, then shows it to Hardin. It’s a great demonstration and Hardin lets Maverick keep the pot.
Another example is when Maverick kicks a man in the groin, disabling him and causing him to be unable to fight back. This is used to show that Maverick is capable of kicking and hurting people, as he has done in the past.
A third example is when Maverick uses a trick to win a hand of poker. He pulls a certain card out of the deck, stating that he does this often. He then states that he could have pulled this card out in a gunfight.
It’s an interesting way of showing that Maverick is capable of using his skill to cheat other people, but it does come off a little ham-handed. It’s a bit like a “I can do anything, so go ahead and do it” type of approach, which doesn’t really work.
Lay The Favourite
Based on a memoir, Lay The Favorite tells the story of a naive girl who moves to Las Vegas and winds up working for a high-rolling professional gambler (Bruce Willis). Beth, played by Rebecca Hall, doesn’t have a clue how to tell a favorite from an underdog when she arrives in the city. But she soon becomes a valuable member of the operation, helping Dink Heimowitz (Willis) study sporting events and make bets from his high-tech office.
The film is directed by Stephen Frears, who is known for his varied and successful directorial work with both strong screenplays and great performers. He usually gets the mix right in movies like High Fidelity, The Queen, and Dangerous Liaisons. But he can’t seem to figure out where to draw the line in Lay The Favourite, an uneven and unsatisfying gambling comedy-drama.
It’s a shame because it’s based on a very interesting book about gambling, but the movie that resulted is just too overstuffed and uneven to really be funny or even entertaining. The characters are so disjointed and the movie moves so fast it’s hard to follow what’s going on.
There are some nice moments in the movie, and it’s not all that bad if you’re not expecting anything too serious or complicated, but it’s just hard to sit through when there’s so much that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The language is quite a bit more explicit than most gambling movies, and it’s not uncommon to see two topless women dancing around onscreen.
Frears does have a solid cast, but he also has a problem with direction. He tries to weave the film into a combination of romance, comedy, gambling and adventure, but it doesn’t come together well enough to be a satisfying whole. This is a shame because there are some good actors here, including Bruce Willis and Rebecca Hall.
Casino Royale
Casino Royale is the first film based on Ian Fleming’s famous James Bond novels. It stars Daniel Craig as the suave British agent, and is full of action and violence. It features spectacular explosions, intense physical fights, shooting and knifing, and car crashes. It is also very dark, with one main character meeting a tragic end and several others dying in bloody, vacant-eyed ways.
The movie begins with a flashback to the beginning of Bond’s career as 007. In this version, M (Judi Dench) elevates him to her highest-ranking agent and lets him take on a new mission: to defeat a private banker funding terrorists in a high-stakes poker game.
To do this, Bond heads to Montenegro where he meets Smersh agent Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen). The two players have agreed that the ten-person tournament, with entry fees of $10 million each and a $5 million buy-back should any players lose their money, will help recoup Le Chiffre’s recent financial losses and appease his angry clients, who are rumoured to be global terrorists.
But it’s not just a case of money-grubbing, and Bond soon discovers that the tournament is about much more than money. In a series of three hands, Bond loses to Le Chiffre twice, and wins once by making a bluff that only he can detect.
Sambrook notes that the film’s poker scenes are more stylised than most, relying on good pacing and a frisson of unpredictability rather than an intricate plot. However, it’s worth noting that there are a few poker motifs in the script, such as comments on tells and misdirection.
In this respect, Casino Royale is an interesting choice to relaunch the franchise; in the past, it seemed that the films tended to be a little too safe and predictable. Campbell, however, made sure that he didn’t let the poker scenes fall into this trap.
The film’s action sequences are also reminiscent of those in The Bourne Identity, especially the bomb-planting scene at the airport. It’s an excellent example of how the director was able to make these scenes more kinetic, using fast cuts and multiple perspectives. Combined with 007’s impulsive style, these shots work well to convey the action.