Uma Tacada de Mestre

I was expecting a lot more from this movie. I'm a Jeffrey Dean Morgan fan and I don't feel that he lived up to his potential. Overall it's a well written story although the acting wasn't up to the screenplay. Another story of a dysfunctional family in our country where a stranger can make a difference in a kids life. Don't get me wrong, it's a decent movie but it's not something that's outstanding or left me saying, that was a good movie, when I left the movie theater. It's worth watching, but I don't know if it should be in your top picks. 👀

I have enormous respect for both Jeffrey Dean Morgan and David Strathairn and this is a movie about the relationship between boys and their fathers. How could this go wrong in any way? Well, unexplainably, it did.

While the story in the film is charming, it is also completely predictable and barren of any subtlety. A big minus was the lead actor, Julian Feder, who had the emotional range of a two by four, while at the same time having no other positive attributes. I mean, his character was not a meathead muscleman who didn't need to show emotion, only punch people, he was a goofy fourteen year old who was trying to get his asshold father to come back to his family. The actor should have gone from crying his eyes out to smashing things and through cold hearted mean spirited and thoughtless words. He only managed the latter.

And this film had so much potential. Strathairn also went with a subdued, more cerebral take, while Jeff Morgan was awesome in how well he portrayed the worthless pool hustler. I mean, even his posture was completely different from his usual roles. Unfortunately he had only a few scenes and that was all. His mother should have had a bigger role, too. I actually like Julie Ann Emery a lot, too, but she had like four scenes in the whole thing. I mean, this could have been another Over the Top. I know that wasn't the greatest movie of all times, but it stayed with me. Unfortunately Walkaway Joe rises very little over day TV film quality and I will not remember it. Too bad.

Somebody mentioned that they didn't understand why all the good reviews and that they gave up halfway through. Well chances are the good reviews came from people who stuck it out till the end. Good pool movie. I always like it when you can tell the actors are really shooting pool and they don't cut away from the actor to the shot, making you think that somebody other than the actor actually made the shot. You can tell that the actors are either decent pool players or they took the time to practice for the film.

Had some potential but I feel like they didn't know which cliche path they wanted this film to take.. also with as much focus and screen time the "14 year-old boy" receives they could've found a muchore talented actor. I'm sorry the kid was terrible.

This is a nice, heartfelt and engaging drama. I enjoyed it.