Jogos de Azar

I see a lot of indie films and this the best one I've seen in a long time. The movie draws you into the story quickly and never lets up. Julian Sands plays a professor who goes to Las Vegas for a conference and goes looking for a his friends daughter only to find her working in a brothel. The movie is well written and looks great but what really makes it is the performances. Julian Sands is excellent but the real stand out is the girl played by Katherine Town and the Elvis character played by Jim Belushi. I haven't seen Katherine Town in anything before but based on her amazing looks and her performance which is both sweet and edgy she has a big career ahead of her. This is the funniest I've ever seen Jim Belushi. He really gets into the role of the bitter and angry ex-Vietnam Vet Elvis impersonator. Don't miss the twist at the end of the film!

Where to start? I have a feeling that the filmmakers were trying too hard to stay true to the source material, and the film suffers for it. I could be wrong,though, since I have not read the novel that it is based on. It just seems that some parts move too slow, and then others make little sense, as if lots of stuff was edited out. Julian Sands is doing his best to come across as Jeremy Irons. He does this OK. Katherine Towne is absolute eye candy. She is so beautiful, and puts real feeling into her somewhat enigmatic character. I hope to see more of her in the future. Overall, however, she is really the only reason to sit through this one.

A smart, funny movie. There are many subtle plot elements and a dark sense of humor. I like the cast a lot, Belushi is a riot. There are some really funny smaller parts, too, like Fisher Stevens as an incredibly slimy vice-cop. The story has some dark twists but the film is lightened up by an offbeat sense of humor. Some of the jokes are directed at a sophisticated audience and comments on the state of education and the way that colleges in the US now function. The movie also leaves the viewer the room to think about the characters- both in how they were shaped in the time before we meet them and also how they have changed because of the incident. I wanted to know what will happen next! I also hope that someday we get to see a movie about Belushi's character- so bizarre!

It looks great for an indie film (I saw it projected at a festival).

I loved the actors in this film, but this is not their best performance. The movie moves very VERY slowly and is quite predictable. The acting is actually rather painful to watch. Aside from one or two scenes, the movie lacks any real substance.

The plot was not bad, but the execution was really terrible. All these actors have been involved in good, and some great roles – but in this film it seemed as they where just not trying very hard.

At no point are you really pulled into the story, simply watching the movie, realizing that you are watching a bad movie. Given the actors involved it was almost comical at some points to see them each interacting without any chemistry….

What really hurt the movie (more than the acting) was that it also tried too hard to be a dark drama, which because of the comical nature of the directing and all the clichés used, could simply not materialize.

In short, I would say that the only reason to watch this, would be as I did – when it's the only thing on at 3am and you just cant get to sleep… on the other hand, some of the infomercials might have more entertainment value.