Les maîtres du jeu

Sometimes I look at movies in terms of expectations and judge accordingly. Like 21 Grams, high expectations...and fell short. Shade, a straight to video/DVD with Stallone, mediocre at best expectations. This movie exceeded my expectations and in fact, I'd be more likely to recommend it as a rental then 21 grams. I was certainly entertained and thankfully Stallone, unlike some other straight to DVD releases, is NOT the star.

What was also unusual, was the fact that I didn't pick up on all the plot twists and they were plausible plot twists which made me feel like an actual story had been played out instead of left wondering, "where the hell did that come from"?

Better then average movie and way better then average straight to DVD. Certainly worth renting. Enjoy. If nothing else, the opening and closing credits show the viewer some very impressive slight of hand and how it's done by card sharks.

As movies about card games and/or con artists go, "Shade" is no "House Of Games" or "Nine Queens", but it's better than you might expect for a film that was barely released theatrically. The first two twists caught me completely off-guard (the final twist though....I saw it coming a few seconds before it happened). The poker scenes are highly entertaining (where can I get one of those "juiced" decks?). There are many good performances (Townsend, Foxx, Byrne), and nice turns by veterans (Hal Holbrook, Bo Hopkins). The weak links are Stallone and Melanie Griffith, who look awful in this film. Stallone's performance isn't bad, but they could easily have replaced him with an actor more appropriate for this role; Griffith IS bad, and it's hard to know what she's even doing in the picture. An actor who stands out (in a good way) is Roger G. Smith as Marlo, the mob enforcer with the extremely calm voice. (**1/2)

Shade is a great movie if you like the genre. I can imagine that if you are not acquainted with poker games(or playing cards) you'll not like this movie and think it's bad acting.

This movie is about a mechanic: Vernon.

Other movies like, The Sting, The Cincinnati Kid, Rounders, also have mechanics in it, but not playing the leading role.

The director of this movie is also a magician. So some elements of that will play a part in the movie. Think about The Magic Castle.

The story reads that a young mechanic (Vernon) starts working together(again) with 2 other con men. That goes well in the beginning but later on a little "obstacle" get's in their way.

For me, this is one of the best(maybe the best) movies about hustling. I like the characters, and I like the names.

I like Stallone also in this movie. First I though it would be a bit of a let down. But he acts great in this picture. Stallone plays the part of "Dad(dy) Stevens"(Old Stevens). A real legend, who was maybe the best hustler of all time. You could shuffle a deck, give it to Stevens, and he could shuffle you the three desired cards to the top of the deck in three riffle shuffle actions. I can guess what you're thinking: If he could shuffle three desired cards to the top of the deck, why not four ? "Are you nuts! They kill you by four" Stevens would reply.

To me , a great movie, get's better and better every time I watch it over and over again.

Also the intro is really cool. An old scene of people playing cards with the young Stevens, who get's busted by palming a card while some mugger tells him to put his hands in the air. A gun fight begins, ...and then the demonstration of bottom dealing, push-through shuffling, revelations begins. With a very nice shade sound at the back ground.

Also I read a bit of the other posts.

About the names: The names are just for fun. The characters do no represent the real named magicians. However, I don't think most people will recognize a magician named Andrews. Andrews was also a magician/gambler but he is better know as the author S.W. Erdnase of the book "Expert at the Card Table".

Funny easter eggs are in the movie. Like indeed the names, the room 808 (were the poker games is played with the Dean) 808 is the number of Bicycle playing cards. The poker scene with Dean and Vernon (form the Cincinnati kid)

About the juiced deck. A juiced deck is a marked deck. This is a real deck. But, not like in the movie. Most of the times when you play with a juiced deck, you will not mark the cards like you actually see their indices. (For example, the 8 in the movie). Also that the other 2 could read it that fast is not believable. It's takes hours of practice to accomplish this with your eyes. Juiced is by far, the best marked deck out there. The fluid (the juice ;-) is for purchase. But still, one needs to know how to mark his deck ;-)

Stallone also says at the end that he could buy Vernon out. That is also impossible, regarding the fact that one cannot raise himself.

Tom.

Don't expect to see to many believable, realistic or reliable poker moves.... but all and all this was an extremely entertaining movie. If you live in the Los Angeles area it is fun to pick out some local hot spots and catch that 90% of the movie was filmed within a few blocks of Sunset and Ivar. Gabrielle Brynne is amazing as always... and Sly Stone delivers the goods for the first time in a long time. I didn't care for the fact that there weren't more realistic poker terms and logistics used throughout the flick. Definately in a game that size you would see chem-decks, a spotter checking for cheats, a cut card, table stakes opposed to this "money in my back pocket routine", and atleast one Asian or Armenian guy from the LA area looking for a big game. A great time for two hours... but not going to teach beginners anything about a real high-stakes game.

Gabriel Byrne, Thandie Newton, and Stuart Townsend star in "Shade," a 2003 film with an appearance by Sylvester Stallone and Jamie Foxx.

Byrne plays Miller, a grifter who partners with Tiffany (Newton) in various cons. They arrange to work with a third person, a card shark, Vernon (Townsend) and draft a gambler, Jennings (Foxx) to get into a high-stakes poker game with a buy-in of $25,000. They explain that it's rigged, and he's only to make a big bet when Vernon is the dealer.

Jennings gets carried away and loses over $80,000 when he ignores what they tell him. One problem. It wasn't his money. It belonged to a mobster.

I won't tell you the rest - that basically sets up the story. According to people on this site, if you know anything about poker, you won't enjoy this as much as others.

"Shade" is an entertaining movie with good performances, particularly by Gabriel Byrne. The script is clever -- it's not unlike anything we've seen before, but it is very well done.

Others in the cast include Patrick Bachau, Bo Hopkins, Melanie Griffith, Dina Merrill, and her husband, Ted Hartley, who produced this for their studio, RKO. Stallone, as a famous poker player, is excellent. He was a little distracting to watch because to me he looks so different from the last time I saw him.

Recommended -- it's fun and has a good cast.