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As movies about card games and/or con artists go, "Shade" is no "House Of Games" or "Nine Queens", but it's better than you might expect for a film that was barely released theatrically. The first two twists caught me completely off-guard (the final twist though....I saw it coming a few seconds before it happened). The poker scenes are highly entertaining (where can I get one of those "juiced" decks?). There are many good performances (Townsend, Foxx, Byrne), and nice turns by veterans (Hal Holbrook, Bo Hopkins). The weak links are Stallone and Melanie Griffith, who look awful in this film. Stallone's performance isn't bad, but they could easily have replaced him with an actor more appropriate for this role; Griffith IS bad, and it's hard to know what she's even doing in the picture. An actor who stands out (in a good way) is Roger G. Smith as Marlo, the mob enforcer with the extremely calm voice. (**1/2)

Sometimes I look at movies in terms of expectations and judge accordingly. Like 21 Grams, high expectations...and fell short. Shade, a straight to video/DVD with Stallone, mediocre at best expectations. This movie exceeded my expectations and in fact, I'd be more likely to recommend it as a rental then 21 grams. I was certainly entertained and thankfully Stallone, unlike some other straight to DVD releases, is NOT the star.

What was also unusual, was the fact that I didn't pick up on all the plot twists and they were plausible plot twists which made me feel like an actual story had been played out instead of left wondering, "where the hell did that come from"?

Better then average movie and way better then average straight to DVD. Certainly worth renting. Enjoy. If nothing else, the opening and closing credits show the viewer some very impressive slight of hand and how it's done by card sharks.

Last night I got in to a screening for Shade. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the acting was pretty good and the story definitely held my interest. There were plenty of twists and turns and the ending caught me by surprise. The film looks great and the card tricks were pretty cool, too.

This is a recommend from me.

If you are a fan a magic or card tricks, you should rent this movie. I enjoyed this movie quite a bit due to the interesting relationship they explore between cheating at cards and tricks employed by traditional magicians. I agree that on plot alone this is not the most exciting movie in the world. However, I especially found the special features on the DVD tremendously entertaining which gave an in-depth look at some of the astounding sleight of hand tricks done by world class magicians. Many of the card tricks are filmed upwards through a glass surface to show the audience how they are done. Anyone will be astounded at the dexterity and skill of the magicians who pull off cards switches invisibly, even after telegraphing their intentions to the audience to let them in on the trick.

I work at Blockbuster so it's fair to say I have seen my fair share of movies and to be honest in the last 3 years...nothing has really caught my eye and made me sit and enjoy watching the same movie over and over again.

One thing I notice to is we get a lot of 'sleepers' or straight to DVD titles and often those are the better of the movies. Shade was one of them, this movie had an excellent story, great acting and was just fun to watch, when I saw it I wanted to own it, although it cost me $30 Canadian it was worth it. Stallone, although not well liked or viewed as a good actor by public opinion, I beg to differ. Rock, Cop Land, Shade were all excellent movies, he was good in the remake of Get Carter as well. Stuart Townsend also is an up and coming actor. It's a shame a well made movie like this didn't go to theaters.

It is movies like Shade and Poolhall Junkies that I can sit down and enjoy watching, forget sitting and watching the Pitch Black's, the Torque's and all those other overhyped movies, give me the sleepers anyday!

Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, and Stuart Townsend star in "Shade," a 2003 film with an appearance by Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx.

Byrne plays Miller, a grifter who partners with Tiffany (Newton) in various cons. They arrange to work with a third person, a card shark, Vernon (Townsend) and draft a gambler, Jennings (Foxx) to get into a high-stakes poker game with a buy-in of $25,000. They explain that it's rigged, and he's only to make a big bet when Vernon is the dealer.

Jennings gets carried away and loses over $80,000 when he ignores what they tell him. One problem. It wasn't his money. It belonged to a mobster.

I won't tell you the rest - that basically sets up the story. According to people on this site, if you know anything about poker, you won't enjoy this as much as others.

"Shade" is an entertaining movie with good performances, particularly by Gabriel Byrne. The script is clever -- it's not unlike anything we've seen before, but it is very well done.

Others in the cast include Patrick Bachau, Bo Hopkins, Melanie Griffith, Dina Merrill, and her husband, Ted Hartley, who produced this for their studio, RKO. Stallone, as a famous poker player, is excellent. He was a little distracting to watch because to me he looks so different from the last time I saw him.

Recommended -- it's fun and has a good cast.

Shade was well acted, no tour de force performances by any means, but still very well done. The cinematography and locations were excellent, and the entire feel and look of the film was some of the best I have seen in a while. The card tricks were quite interesting and the twists in the plot kept me quite thoroughly entertained. While overall a very good movie, the very calculated pace and flow of the movie was very much like a poker game. In some cases tense, exciting and often unexpected, and in others very slow, as if the movie were building up to a winning hand. All in all, a very well made movie, but not perfect. I give it an 8/10.

"Shade" was pretty much better than I thought it would be. The beginning of the picture was kinda of shocking, but it was good to put you in motion. When yo'll see you'll understand what I am talking about. Sylvester Stallone is always good to me, and in this looks back in form. Gabriel Byrne is always watchable. I didn't know Jamie Foxx till now, it seems okay. Stuart Townsend appears to be right. Melanie Griffith should operate her upper lip back as it was, or did she have a car accident?. How nice it was to watch Bo Hopkins and Dina Merrill back!. It is not on the high Stallone good films level such as Nighthawk or Cliffhanger but it is a fair entertainment. Do not ask for something superb, but is a nice way for letting time go by.

It took me a while to rent "Shade." I looked it over in the video store several times and said to myself, "How could a movie with Stallone, Foxx, Griffith, and Byrne possibly be straight-to-video?" And then I thought - rather foolishly - "how bad can it be?"

The answer to that question is very, very bad. Of course it's remarkable that "Shade" failed to get theatrical distribution when it boasts a fairly impressive roster of stars (albeit has-been ones). But it failed because it deserved to fail...because it really is remarkably bad.

I'm trying to think of something, anything, to commend about this movie. But in tedious fact it's yet another story of small-time crooks trying to make big; I've seen a hundred movies like it, and ninety-eight of those were better. I don't care about the characters, who are thinly developed and uniformly scuzzy, and the endless plot twists and double-triple-quadruple crosses get tiresome fast. The profanity-laden dialog lacks wit and falls utterly flat, and the music and direction attempt glitz but come across as gimmicky. In short, it's a disaster.

"Shade" isn't a good little movie that was wronged by the mean old distributors; it's an awful movie that deserved a quick burial. And that's too bad, because Stallone and company could've used a hit to revitalize their careers. But at least Foxx escaped from the stink of this bomb, right?

Don't expect to see to many believable, realistic or reliable poker moves.... but all and all this was an extremely entertaining movie. If you live in the Los Angeles area it is fun to pick out some local hot spots and catch that 90% of the movie was filmed within a few blocks of Sunset and Ivar. Gabrielle Brynne is amazing as always... and Sly Stone delivers the goods for the first time in a long time. I didn't care for the fact that there weren't more realistic poker terms and logistics used throughout the flick. Definately in a game that size you would see chem-decks, a spotter checking for cheats, a cut card, table stakes opposed to this "money in my back pocket routine", and atleast one Asian or Armenian guy from the LA area looking for a big game. A great time for two hours... but not going to teach beginners anything about a real high-stakes game.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in his filmography in order, I come to a supporting role, in his best movie in years, 2003's Shade.

Plot In A Paragraph: Vernon (Stuart Townsend) Miller (Gabriel Byrne) and Tiffany (Thandie Newton) are small time con artists, who cross paths with Jennings (Jamie Foxx) and attempt to con "The Dean" (Sly Stallone) in a high stakes poker game.

In his best movie in six years (since Copland in 1997) Stallone plays it closer to his real age (albeit going from one extreme to the other with the hair dye) giving one of the most effective performances of his career. With his eyes gazing steadily from his strong face reminding us what a splendid actor he is when he is allowed to escape from his stereotyped roles. For his brief time on screen (he doesn't appear till 40 mins in) Stallone brings style to the proceedings.

There are some good individual performances, but the main cast lack any real chemistry with each other Stuart Townsend looked destined for big things (but it never quite happened) Gabriel Byrne does what Gabriel Byrne does, whilst Jamie Foxx is effective too, and poor Thandie Newton looks great, but she isn't a good actress, and is often embarrassing against the stronger actors. In his one scene, Hal Holbrook (who I always like to see) goes through the motions of performing in a part that's has no lines worth speaking and Tony Burton (Duke in the Rocky movies) has two small scenes, unfortunately none of them are with Stallone.

When a group of guys pull a con on a playa in LA, they have a gangster coming after them. Jamie Foxx is Jennings. Melanie Griffith is Eve. Stallone in a more serious role. Both Carl Mazzocone junior and senior are in here. Hal Holbrook. Patrick Bauchau (View to a Kill). One of the guys says he likes kinky sex, but it gets too wacky, even for him. The "Dean"... an expert at cards. And games. Is he as good as he says? The side plots are all pretty much filler... it's all about the card tricks and poker games. Jennings thinks HE is the pro, and will be fooling the others, but he seems to be getting played. Plot twists, a gun fight, about halfway through. Written and directed by Damian Nieman. The one film he's directed. He's a member of the Magic Castle, so clearly he knows his stuff. And some scenes were actually filmed at the Castle! It's pretty good. Showing on roku channel. Pretty good stuff.

What a cast...and what a waste of it. Seriously, when a movie has Gabriel Byrne, Jamie Foxx, Thandie Newton, Stuart Townsend, Hal Holbrook, Melanie Griffith and Sylvester Stallone in it you would expect some quality. The movie is however one big mess with a unlikely story that can't seem to stop putting twist and turns in it. Yeah, I think that they thought they were really being clever with all of it.

The story is not only messy and unlikely, it also isn't exactly terribly original. It uses elements from earlier and much better poker game based movies. But to me it were really the many pointless twist and turns in the movie that did it. It made the story such an unlikely one to watch. On top of that the script remains filled with a lot of holes silly poker game errors and things that just don't make an awful lot of sense. Why would any one above all things want to play against a card player that is known as the best cheater in the game. This is what the movie is about and builds up to but just didn't ever made a lot of sense to me.

Despite that the movie has a great cast, it still feels as if most actors were miscast in their roles. I don't know what it is about Stuart Townsend. He is a good actor but in most roles he plays he always feels out of place. Perhaps it are his looks, I don't known. This basically also was the reason why he got replaced in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring". Also Thandie Newton isn't much good and actually quite annoying in her 'strong' female role. And what was the point of having Melanie Griffith in this? Oh, I guess I could go on about the movie its casting and could complaining even some more about the way too limited screen time the Jamie Foxx character gets but I guess you get my point by now.

Damian Nieman just isn't much of an original writer/director and on top of that he also doesn't handle his own material very well. Scenes often feel disjointed, it tries to put in way too many characters and everything about the movie is shallow and in a way predictable. On top of that the movie features some bad editing at times, which also doesn't help to make this movie look like one seamless whole. The movie was also one major box office bomb and no wonder that Damian Nieman hasn't made a movie ever since.

A too big mess to make you enjoy this movie.

4/10

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Expectations were low to start(no real theatrical release)but it grabbed me from the opening credits and didn't let go 'til the last credits rolled off the screen..

Tight,full of twists with great casting,and really good energy this movie was a hellova lotta fun to experience. We watch a lot of DVDs off Netflix (5 a week) but this was the best experience on a 45inch home screen I've had from a movie with no marketing and no advance hype since Interstate 60. How sad if true that it only made $50,000 in theatrical release. (previous review)... I'd give it 9 out of 10...And Stallone's performance was the cherry on top.

With the long line of recent movies revolving around grifting and gambling and generally being super hip, this film is kind of the Independent and unheard of cousin of films like Oceans Eleven, Confidence and The Cooler (which was independent but not quite as much as this.). Now all its competitors are good, highly rated films. Now one would assume that because this is starring Sly Stallone and that it was not given a proper release, because no-one could stump up the money for it that it would essentially suck. Well it doesn't suck. This is a very good, and assured ensemble piece and very well shot and hip debut from writer/director Damien Niemen.

The film perhaps couldn't raise finance because it wasn't bankable. There is no big lead. Stallone would be the headlining name but he has a supporting role and of course with a lot of similarly themed films of equal to higher standard then it's a difficult one to find a market for. I watched this when it was released straight to video in the UK, a shame in many ways because this is a good film. Now what makes this good. Firstly the script is good. It's not original by any means but it's sharp and has good dialogue and interesting characters. Secondly the cast is excellent. When you think straight to video you think of Eric Roberts, Gary Busey, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Claude Van Damme, headlining and perhaps one or two other recognisable faces. This has a great cast, with Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, Jamie Foxx, Melanie Griffith and of course Sly Stallone. Townsend is excellent as the mechanic, basically the guy who can manipulate a deck of cards to his advantage, he is the key to the group of grifters consisting of him, Newton, and Byrne. They have a big score in mind, to take down master cards-man and king of all mechanics, the Dean played by Stallone. Now Byrne and Newton are both excellent but this is a great role for Stallone. Sly gives a great performance in this and it's a role that requires an inner depth and a subtlety and Stallone delivers.

Overall this is a very good movie. The score from Chris Young is good, nicely funky and understated and it's well shot. The film is also very well edited and stylish. It's not quite as good as Oceans Eleven because that was far more elaborate and with an even more impressive cast and similarly hip and stylish. At the end of the day Sly fans will be happy. It's not a big box office film but while he tries to re-launch himself as a money maker by doing sequels to Rocky and Rambo he should keep doing independent movies to give him testing roles. ****

Honestly better than I thought it was going to be, certainly one to watch if you like gambling, hustling movies. Decent performances, especially the carding action, Stallone is solid in the role even though it's mostly supporting and everything that happens is plausible. If you want 3D watch Now you see me. Stuart Townsend is great in the role, shame he's not done more. The movie plays well on themes of both Rounders and Oceans 11 though slower in pace than the latter. It's the sort of movie that has the predictable twists and turns but to avoid spoilers you'll have to watch it to figure out which is which.

Think of the movie Maverick with Mel Gibson cast as a modern day tale and you get this movie (although not as good as Maverick). Basically a bunch of hustlers who have card-playing as one of their schemes decide to try to make it big against a old-school pro in a high stakes game. And other than learning about card con artists and seeing some impressive playing tricks, the movie really doesn't develop much beyond that. We have a whiz-kid at stacking decks, known as a Mechanic, played by Stuart Townsend (Vernon), whose potential I believe is restrained in this movie. He represents the prodigal son gone wrong due to the bad influence of his cohorts Charlie (Gabriel Byrne) and Tiffany (Thandy Newton). The dying-flame appearance of Sylvester Stallone (Stevens) known as "The Dean" takes a worn-out Rocky and puts him at a card table instead of in a boxing ring. The constant battle he faces to defend himself as the ultimate card shark is like some famous gunfighter who always challenged.

The card scamming "team" is introduced with some comic book-like announcement schtick, where just as the villain enters the scene, their title flashes across the screen under their face (e.g.: Tiffany as "The Turn"). It was nice though to see Hal Halbrook as "The Professor" still doing films. He does a good job of lending an old world charm and decency to the film.

Jamie Foxx (Larry Jennings) is gutted so quick it almost seems like he made a cameo appearance in this film. Gabriel Byrne and Thandie Newton are as crooked as they come, although Newton makes Byrne look like an altar boy by comparison. Townsend's character is a little subdued in the beginning until the focus shifts past his card tricks and develops him as the quasi-deep character of the film or otherwise protagonist. There is a ridiculous reunion/old flame air with Stalone and Meg Ryan, although it is intended to add weight to the Dean's character to balance that of Townsend's. I guess you could really say the movie about these two. Everything else is just decoration in the movie's attempt to try and involve more conflict and character developments.

Now that I have gabbed on and on, the movie in a nutshell is the classic tale of the talented rookie wanting to beat the master, and thus take his title. The movie gives you an unexpected ending that leaves you feeling like the one of the "snowed" victims it portrays. And the build-up to the final game falls to the floor at once with the game's simple "evening social" portrayal. Aside from this, I did like seeing what can be done with a deck of cards and just how far some con artists really go.