Shooting Gallery

Freddie prinz is Jericho, hot shot pool player. And playa he is. He joins Cue Ball's group (Rhames) to take the money the tourists were so ready to give them. He's supposed to hand over a percentage to Cue Ball every time. But he starts playing on his own. And doesn't hand it over. And an undercover bails him out. And wants something. If Jericho will set it up to give up Cue Ball, detective Mortenson ( Callum Rennie) will have his back. But the cop has his own weaknesses... who is scamming who in this match of matches? Written and directed by Keoni Waxman; had been making films for ten years by this time. This one is pretty good.

Waxman's straight-to-video film about a smart street pool player who gets involved with the wrong hustlers. It has a good enough screenplay, interesting direction and overall a great atmosphere. The actors do well enough, especially Rhames and Daniel Newman, though Prinze Jr.'s tone and speaking was totally wack, his acting wasn't completely horrible as he managed to get some of the emotional scenes down without appearing completely lost in the film. Still, Prinze jr. was the weak part about this film, Roselyn Sanchez was decent in the female role, though films like this have been done, and done well, like 86's "The Color of Money" directed by martin Scorsese, but i actually didn't mind Waxman's film, it was entertaining, fresh and fun to watch.--- IMDb Rating: 5.4, my rating: 9/10

It's true that this is not some sort of award-winning movie it's also true that for entertainment value it's a great movie especially if you happen to be a pool player. Not as good as the Hustler but at least as good or better than The color of money accepting the fact that it doesn't have Paul Newman and unless you're a real Tom Cruise fan Paul Newman's the only star in the movie.MHO

I didn't watch this movie expecting to find Oscar-caliber performances. But it did have a story, and it kept me interested right to the very end. The premise started out simple. Pool hustlers. And then suddenly it meat of the story starts to unravel, and I got to give props for an awesome climax. The pool playing was eye catching. And it's nice to finally see FPJ play subtle. It's a flawed film, but certainly not a terrible one. There were several pieces of dialogue I could live without. I was also a bit surprised to find myself chuckling a few times - when you see it, you'll know what I mean. Ving though felt terribly miscast, but he didn't distract me, so I'll take the good over the bad.

Giving it a 2 only because a few scenes are actually quite interestingly photographed. But otherwise this is pure, odious, drivel. Insulting that this guy Keoni Waxman actually expects people to sit all the way through this mess -- I sure didn't. Why is it so apparent that the writers of pool movies have never set foot in actual pool rooms? Why are we allowing these hacks to make movies? I saw the bad reviews on this one, and decided to rent it anyway because I love pool and I'm still waiting for a decent pool movie. (Poolhall Junkies is bad, sure, but at least it offered some laughs. It's worth the rental just to hear Christopher Walken say "Benz," and to see Rod Stieger overacting to the point of hilarity.) I'm begging you: don't make the same mistake I made. Skip this one entirely. Anything to dissuade Waxman from making another movie. Please!