Poker Face

I really don't get the people who did not enjoy the film. Nobody claims that it is a masterpiece. Not even that it is remarkable in any way. Nevertheless,the cast and the plot make it entertaining at least. I think,though I am far from sure the the idea belongs to him, Matthew Arnold once said that any art to be enjoyed begs for suspension of disbelief. Suspend,therefore, any disbelief and go and enjoy a non-demanding,well acted,adequately directed film without compulsively seeking compulsively more where there is not any. Or,alternatively,don't even bother attending the movie. Easily a 6-7 grading. I have seen quite a lot far worse!!!!

Sorry, Mr. Crowe.. writing & directing do not seem like your forte. Poker Face has so little to do with poker.. or friendship, or betrayals, or anything meaninful for that matter. It's just a blandly written, blandly performed, blandly directed film with no takeaways. For a film branded as an action-crime-thriller, it does no favors to any of the genres. Why was Liam Hemsworth (32) cast as Crowe's (58) childhood friend? Every character is painted in broad strokes, not giving us any particular reasons to care - I simply couldn't buy into Crowe's "virtuous, wealthy guy" character at all (a tad too indulgent?). The action itself is surprisingly ordinary, even when a subplot regarding a heist slowly develops.

The bad: this movie has got an artsy fartsy style to it, that was annoying me from the very start. Why? Because I hate it when a director starts using slowmotion photography flashbacks and supposedly spiritual monologues, that dont make sense whatsoever.

BEWARE: this is definitely NOT a straigthforward pokergame movie. Forget about it. Little to none action. Only a tiny bit of supsense.

SKIP the entire first hour. The (little bit) of suspense that there still is, can only be experienced after an entire first hour, wherein nothing much happens AT ALL, besides Russell Crowe looking deep and mysterious into the distance for ages on end and mumbling to himself about deep thoughts and feelings.

What the heck is this movie about?

Ruined by a director, who just doesnt know how to tell a solid story.

It only lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes. I guess they had to cut out a lot of scenes that dragged this movie down even more.

Bad editing. Cheap photography. Even cheaper and ridiculous dialogues. And the story? Pfff, really, this movie is disjointed from the very start.

Not entirely terrible, but definitely missing supsense, missing spark and punch and most of all missing a coherent storyline with credible characters.

Artsy fartsy flop. Sorry...I tried to like it, because I really dig Russell Crowe as an actor, but this time around he couldnt save this movie from failing...

I think this movie is being absolutely torn to shreds where it probably doesn't deserve that much backlash.

Is it amazing? No. But I didn't finish watching it with a sour taste in my mouth. It was alright.

The Australian shots are spectacular in some scenes, I particularly enjoyed the architecture and homes/apartments that were showcased. Russell Crowe's acting was good, I thought he fit the character well enough and the last 30-60 minutes where the action occurred was actually pretty good.

All of the other characters did have problems being understood and became irrelevant. I was excited to see Liam Hemsworth but became really confused why he was cast as a guy in his late 50s? It just didn't make sense at all. Also the first half of the movie is pretty slow and doesn't really go anywhere.

Overall it's okay to watch.

Russell Crowe plays a billionaire who has to confront his own mortality, so he does it in a very billionaire-ish manner. Only problem is his plans are interrupted by art thieves...

It's well filmed and almost worth watching for the scenery and camera work alone. The real issue with Poker Face is that it wants to be too many things and doesn't succeed in any special way at any of them. It's not much of a drama about life and mortality, though it is a little bit; it's not much of a thriller though there's some crime and betrayal; Action? Forget it (though it does try to tease at it with fast cars and a few guns).

It's basically a boyhood to adult buddy film with lots of cash thrown at it. It's okay, you probably won't feel bad for watching it, but you won't be telling many people about it either.