Win It All

(Flash Review)

Step into the life of a gambling addict, Eddie. Eddie makes a pittance now and then and immediately flushes it away. Out of the blue some sketchy guy he knows, presumably from the gambling world, offers him $10K to watch his duffle bag for 6-9 months without opening it, as he is checking into prison for a brief stretch. With zero willpower, he opens the bag and finds rolls of cash and dangerously gambles with it, losing much. Yikes! With positive life options brewing such as steady job and girlfriend will he overcome his addiction and the hole he dug himself? This was a stressful, tightly scoped and lightly tense watch. Good acting with an average story; room for improvement. An enjoyable enough drama.

An entertaining watch, but there's no recognizable climax to the story. There seemed to be potential, but the plot line was just a steady routine from start to finish. This was about as exciting of a story as forgetting to set your alarm clock and waking up on time anyway.

A lot of people clearly don't, but I love subtle, simple, stripped-down, basically realist stuff like this, and this is an especially good example. The ending in particular, though it could easily appear to be almost nothing if you're not paying attention, is a gem of a thing, and means I'll rewatch. I'd like to gush a bit here about what makes it so special, but I can't do it without spoiling it. It's (almost) all in the word 'dying'.

This movie review can be quite short. The acting is decent and the directing is also pretty good but the part this movie is lacking is a good plot. The movie is not that long but still felt boring at sometimes. I would say this movie fits more into the drama genre but has the ingredients of a thriller while pretending to be a comedy. The plot is way to straight forward and the characters in the movie lack depth. But not everything is negative because if i find a movie bad i'll just turn it off and allthough i thought about it i watched the whole thing. (Good thing the playing time isn't that long.)

I was expecting more of a poker/gambling movie but instead you just watch a pretty normal guy with a mild gambling addiction work himself in to trouble. Then he does what every normal human being would do and he tries to get back in to the sadle of life by living a fairly normal life. It's all pretty straightforward stuff and this movie could use a bit more spice in the plot. The movie is average at best. Lacks the depth for a drama, lacks the plot for a thriller and lacks jokes for a comedy.

The whole movie feels like a flat line which is not what most people are looking for in a movie. If you're just looking for an easy straightforward movie this one suits just fine. If you're however looking for more entertainment and excitement this is not the one. You're probably better of watching a favorite classic over again.

"Win It All" is a film about a guy who is floating through life, never accepting responsibility. He is also a gambling addict, which is partly to blame for his lack of maturity. He knows he needs to reform, but he cannot muster the willpower. Like most gamblers, he is always waiting for the big payoff to pull him out of his hole, and fate sends him an opportunity to regain fiscal fitness--if he can just control his impulses.

This is a solid kernel of an idea for a film, and Jake Johnson feels committed to the part of the main character, Eddie, but the film never reaches its potential.

Much of the story feels clichéd and the characters are underdeveloped. This is most noticeable with Eddie's romantic relationship--with Eva (Aislinn Derbez, who feels like she has more to contribute). The development of their feelings for each other is cheated by many brief scenes that sometimes feel like a montage.

This may be due, in part, to editing, but the writing is the main culprit. In scenes that should carry some weight, there is inadequate exposition. It's like watching a Cliff's Notes version of a film.

The ending is abrupt and underwhelming. It's unclear if this was intentional or if it was due to the inadequate build-up of dramatic tension.