Poker Face

A disjointed film that one can assume was written by aspiring film graduate mates in a pub. The plot holes are as bad as the consistency. A soap opera drama attempt at a thriller (most of which should have been crossed out, rewritten, and edited out). If it was not for the main actor Russell Crowe and a selection of quality Australian actors, this movie would have been a complete disaster. Made worse by poor research into topics such as professional gambling, self-healing retreats, and fine art. To begin with, the Archibald is for a subject of Science, Arts, Letters and Politics. Why paint a gambler? And some of the things said about certain works was so off the mark , I did a wtf and burst out laughing. There was so many pub-written subplots in this movie that went completely nowhere. This movie would have been so much better if someone tutored the script and simplified to a basic panic room thriller without the mess. Russel Crowe and other actors save this movie with quailty acting otherwise it would have been rated as low as 2/10.

I found this film to be a mixed bag of good and bad.

The first 20 minutes it tries to be way too clever and some of it is just nonsense. Some of the flashbacks and plots just don't come out later in the film.

Once they get the cars from the garage, it starts to get a lot better. The story really starts to unfold and the game begins.

The ending was good, it wraps it up nicely and the added bonus is that it was only on for 90 minutes! So many films drag on for hours, that it was refreshing to watch one in 90 minutes!

The sets used are awesome, as are the cars. There's clearly been a good budget for the production.

All in all, it was definitely worth watching and nowhere near as bad as some of these reviews are making out.

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.

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.

This movie serves you with a triple dose of Russell Crowe. Acting, directing and screenplay. Let me tell you, there are very few people that talented on earth that can do all three successfully, and Crowe is not one of them. Other than beautiful scenery, cars, architecture and art you don't get much here. If you are satisfied with just that you might be ok with this movie, but if you are looking for a good thriller, look somewhere else.

Couple of things I disliked about this movie: 1. It's kinda boring and the overall action is silly. 2. The casting was done based on popularity and not based on fit for the role (RZA, Liam Hemsworth). Also, if you have a group of childhood friends, should they not be at the same age as grown-ups? The characters are all annoying. Morally deficient and thus failing to pull any emotions from the viewers. You are rich and made all the wrong decisions, who cares.

Third thing is the Poker. I think Poker fans will be really disappointed by this movie, having the name and the art suggest it is something to do with high-level card game, but other than a random event here and there, there is really nothing to do with poker, and really doesn't showcase the professionalism behind a Texas-Holdem game for example. In short, if you intend to watch this movie for some nice poker moves, you will be deeply disappointed.

Some good points: If you are an art lover, there are a few dialogues there discussing art in an interesting way and also I really liked the first 10 minutes intro of the movie, unfortunately it goes downhill from there, all the way to a predictable and pointless ending. Even the cars are boring and the car race is pointless and un-exciting, to the point where it feels production was careful not to risk scratching the cars before returning them to the rental car agency.

To sum up- don't spend your time and hard earned money on this one. Exact score: 44 / 100.