Deal

Poker was still red hot going strong in 2008. No Black Friday yet. WSOP & WPT still doing a ton of tourneys with heavy tv coverage. Everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon, cash-in on the action - Hollywood included - leading to this relatively low budget entry 'Deal'. It has some moments card fans will enjoy, but also a healthy helping of cheese.

Alex (Bret Harrison) in his last year of university studying law likes to play poker, but it's his success online that allows him to be a part of a final table as played on national tv. Inexperience gets him eliminated, but he catches the eye of once legendary poker player Tommy Vinson (Burt Reynolds) who thinks he can make the kid a champion. Takes him under his wing in a 50/50 arrangement. Shows him the ropes, teach him lessons, but a blowup sees the two separate only for a showdown at the final table of a WPT tournament later.

Burt sports an obvious wig getting up there in age, but still fun to watch as Tommy. A man who hasn't played a hand in "over twenty years" after going busto and nearly losing his wife and now craves to get back into the game. Harrison holds his own and Shannon Elizabeth shows up to provides eye candy and a rather silly surprise.

Made in collaboration with the WPT, 'Deal' feels cheap at times given it's low budget. Purports to take place in multiple US gambling cities, but obviously all shot in one place. However if you enjoy the game of poker there's a few things here to enjoy. They don't do a bad job of capturing the game of no limit hold 'em and many pros & a few celebrities show up doing cameos. Counterbalance that with a cornball cliche story and a last second reveal that is beyond ridiculous.

Very poorly developed, the movie simply jumps into poker and fails to ever develop its characters or any interest in them.

If you're a poker fan you'll probably enjoy watching this fictional version of World Tournament of Poker et al.

But again, it's fictional, and apparently an opportunity for several big-name washed-out actors (Burt Reynolds, Jennifer Tilly) to get a job.

But since it's fictional and the characters are simply pretend, there's nothing in this movie that causes your empathy or excitement to root for them, unfortunately.

What a bum-deal.

Another dud poker film.

Why? Two main reasons; firstly, it does not look and feel like film. The script is really lazy: where was the REAL education, where was something we haven't seen a thousand times before. It is no way and at no time touches the heart and soul of the game. Plus it just looks and feels like a TV made movie: there is no attempt to use film to compliment the story, the grading, lighting, editing etc; are some of the most unoriginal I've seen for a while (And don't get me started on Reynold's hairpiece).

And secondly, and for my money this is incredibly off putting the whole film reeks of being an ad for a poker company and its site - there is just no integrity, and not enough fun, excitement, or film here.

The positives are the chemistry between the leads is good and that makes it just viewable for a really lazy beer and pizza night...

But it's really just 90 minutes of regurgitated slick willy crap.

Hugely disappointing, the best thing about this was the trailer....

This is not in any way, shape, or form, a good film. It is your typical run of the mill story only played much worse than normal. I guess it's nice that they got a few real poker players in this, but that's all that is worth mentioning. It's already been said, but Shannon Elizabeth is in it for about 5 minutes and then they just do away with her character completely. Burt Reynolds is grabbing another paycheck and the main character is not at all convincing. If he is supposed to be that good, how come everyone knew what he had at the end. This movie is just weak, i wouldn't waste your time. Go ahead and rent Rounders or even Lucky You if you want a better poker film.

I saw this film last night and I liked it. Burt Reynolds was the right choice for the part and Bret Harrison was convincing. In spite of a basic storyline they took the poker-concept serious. Shannon Elizabeth's part is what surprised me the most, I will not spoil it for anyone, it was just something else. It has been a while since her last film and I have to say she still has her man-enchanting skills.

So in a nutshell: A nice, OK movie with a sort of debuting Bret Harrison, a Burt Reynolds right in it's place and a comeback for Shannon Elizabeth which is definitely worth a watch, especially for pokerfans. I hope to see more of Bret and Shannon.