Even Money

I worked in Hollywood when this script made the rounds. (I've now come to my senses and make my living in another field.)

I can tell you that it was a fantastic script. Highly ambitious.

The reason it is not as good a movie as the screenplay is due to the producer and the director.

It's a shame because it should have been a fantastic movie.

Trust me when I say that all the stars got attached because of the script. None of them got paid near what they usually make. (The producer is notoriously cheap.)

There are some wonderful moments which remain, but when I watched it, I just wanted to get back in the business and remake it as it should have been made the first time!

Pity.

A lot of things need to come together to make a great film.

Despite its decidedly un-ambitious nature, "Even Money" is a modern film noir melodrama with more story lines and characters than Robert Altman's "Nashville." Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Ray Liotta, Kelsey Grammar, Forest Whitaker, Grant Sullivan, Jay Mohr, and Carla Gugino all play individuals whose only real connection is that they are in some way or another touched by the evils of gambling.

Robert Tannen's overstuffed screenplay wanders all over the map, forcing the actors to spend most of their time just trying to keep up with all the narrative permutations. The most ludicrous subplot features DeVito as a washed-up magician who contemplates a professional comeback by teaming up with the best-selling author and compulsive gambler played by Basinger. Individually, any of the various plot strands might have made for an interesting movie, but taken together, they just keep getting in each others' way.

Veteran filmmaker Mark Rydell has not only helmed the piece but appears in a crucial cameo role late in the film. Sad to say, he doesn't make much of an impact in either capacity.

The cast is crazy good, but the fall short. I think it's a good movie, bordering on really good if you know what I mean. Danny DeVito doesn't acknowledge this movie in this film archives on this and Wikipedia I'm not sure why it's worth a watch. I know gambling I had to quit and I thought it was pretty authentic except you don't pay a bookie after a bit he always pay on Thursday. I'm not sure why Carolyn had to burn her hand, and it sort of falls apart after that. This movie is worth a watch, but it's a hard watch. Force Whitaker is the key in this movie. Embrace it all together. Academy award winning cast.

I 've made up my mind to try to be succinct in my reviews, brief, to the point. This will be more helpful to me and to the readers here. Art should speak for itself, reviews are not diatribes.

It's a testament to the continued ignorance and emotionally shallowness of the majority (even at IMDb that is an IQ/eq click over the median) that decent films get sub par ratings, and atrocious ones get good ones. That said it's always heartening to see that an informed minority (who's voted 30/45 on another reviewer's positive review) has got the sense and the sensibility (to paraphrase one of the loveliest wordplays ever) to appreciate good films within their differing opinions of taste, background, world view, frame of mind.

This is one of those films that is actually quite good, yet you 'd never know that from the rating or some reviews here. First of all we have an excellent cast of seasoned actors giving fine, tempered performances, not overdone, not understated, just fine tuned performances all around. So the drama or the twists aren't spectacular, so what? There's plenty of humanity here and emotion to keep one's interest. A special vote to Kim Basinger who isn't getting the recognition she deserves, she's adorable here and she's grown to be a splendid actress, despite the ensemble cast the real star here is her. All in all a very sweet film.

An all-star ensemble cast, including Kim Bassinger, Danny DeVito, Kelsey Grammar, and especially a deliciously evil Tim Roth make this a worthwhile view into the addictions of gambling.

Although part of the film's plot is taken directly from the James Caan film, The Gambler, it is still effective in most other areas. However, most of the film's outcomes are predictable, with one exception that I thought was a very nice twist. I will not reveal the twist, but it is truly unexpected.

The addictions are authentic, but some of the characterizations were a bit over the top. Davito's character did not seem realistic to me, but the writer/housewife character was well done. The film is completely stolen by TIm Roth, who creates such a gloriously hateful character. The movie is worth viewing just for his performance.