Les maîtres du jeu

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.

"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.

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)

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.

Shade is a great movie if you like the genre. I can imagine that if you are not acquainted with poker games(or playing cards) you'll not like this movie and think it's bad acting.

This movie is about a mechanic: Vernon.

Other movies like, The Sting, The Cincinnati Kid, Rounders, also have mechanics in it, but not playing the leading role.

The director of this movie is also a magician. So some elements of that will play a part in the movie. Think about The Magic Castle.

The story reads that a young mechanic (Vernon) starts working together(again) with 2 other con men. That goes well in the beginning but later on a little "obstacle" get's in their way.

For me, this is one of the best(maybe the best) movies about hustling. I like the characters, and I like the names.

I like Stallone also in this movie. First I though it would be a bit of a let down. But he acts great in this picture. Stallone plays the part of "Dad(dy) Stevens"(Old Stevens). A real legend, who was maybe the best hustler of all time. You could shuffle a deck, give it to Stevens, and he could shuffle you the three desired cards to the top of the deck in three riffle shuffle actions. I can guess what you're thinking: If he could shuffle three desired cards to the top of the deck, why not four ? "Are you nuts! They kill you by four" Stevens would reply.

To me , a great movie, get's better and better every time I watch it over and over again.

Also the intro is really cool. An old scene of people playing cards with the young Stevens, who get's busted by palming a card while some mugger tells him to put his hands in the air. A gun fight begins, ...and then the demonstration of bottom dealing, push-through shuffling, revelations begins. With a very nice shade sound at the back ground.

Also I read a bit of the other posts.

About the names: The names are just for fun. The characters do no represent the real named magicians. However, I don't think most people will recognize a magician named Andrews. Andrews was also a magician/gambler but he is better know as the author S.W. Erdnase of the book "Expert at the Card Table".

Funny easter eggs are in the movie. Like indeed the names, the room 808 (were the poker games is played with the Dean) 808 is the number of Bicycle playing cards. The poker scene with Dean and Vernon (form the Cincinnati kid)

About the juiced deck. A juiced deck is a marked deck. This is a real deck. But, not like in the movie. Most of the times when you play with a juiced deck, you will not mark the cards like you actually see their indices. (For example, the 8 in the movie). Also that the other 2 could read it that fast is not believable. It's takes hours of practice to accomplish this with your eyes. Juiced is by far, the best marked deck out there. The fluid (the juice ;-) is for purchase. But still, one needs to know how to mark his deck ;-)

Stallone also says at the end that he could buy Vernon out. That is also impossible, regarding the fact that one cannot raise himself.

Tom.