Gambling addiction bring the stories of three otherwise unconnected people together as it destroys each of their lives.
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Reviews
Overrated and overhyped
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Absolutely the worst movie.
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
You can sit in a University and listen to dry lectures from Psychology profs, or you can watch a great movie like this and understand human nature and desire more than you ever imagined.Yes, we all want more, but most are not willing to make the commitment necessary to get it, and some cannot live with the consequences of failure. Who was it that said, "If you put all you own on one roll of the dice, and lose, and start over, you will be a man." That's why so many people stay married when they shouldn't - they can't face starting over.This film had more life lessons that you can imagine and some damn fine actors to teach and entertain us.Kim Basinger was magnificent as a struggling writer who falls into a gambling addiction. She really gets pathetic as she falls deeper in debt. Danny DeVito was also great as someone who life passed by and was now picking up crumbs. When faced with total loss, he took the coward's way out. Forest Whitaker gave an excellent performance as someone living on his brother's (Nick Cannon) ability. Tim Roth as Victor, the criminal, was dead on. I also enjoyed Ray Liotta and Carla Gugino, and thought Carson Brown was amazing.Funniest Line: "Teenagers...they are God's way of punishing us for having sex."
I worked in Hollywood when this script made the rounds. (I've now come to my senses and make my living in another field.)I can tell you that it was a fantastic script. Highly ambitious.The reason it is not as good a movie as the screenplay is due to the producer and the director.It's a shame because it should have been a fantastic movie.Trust me when I say that all the stars got attached because of the script. None of them got paid near what they usually make. (The producer is notoriously cheap.)There are some wonderful moments which remain, but when I watched it, I just wanted to get back in the business and remake it as it should have been made the first time!Pity.A lot of things need to come together to make a great film.
EVEN MONEY (2007) ** Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Tim Roth, Jay Mohr, Kelsey Grammar, Nick Cannon, Carla Gugino, Grant Sullivan,Carson Brown, Cassandra Hepburn (Dir: Mark Rydell)Double or Nothing: Big Gamble on Fine Cast in Otherwise Craps FilmGambling is an addiction that, like drug abuse or alcoholism, affects not only the one perpetuating the disease but also those around them including their loved ones. In this melodramatic attempt at showing the ills of the so-called gambling lifestyle (an oxymoron come to think of it) then the odds are against the viewer in this hodgepodge of dramatic vignettes.Intertwined throughout this CRASH-like narrative are Carol Carver (Basinger, acting up a storm here), a novelist struggling to find her second novel but fritters her afternoons away in a local casino overwhelmed with guilt at having her family's life savings nearly completely lost at her bad luck; Walter (De Vito, one of the film's producers to boot), a down-and-out slight-of-hand magician who thinks he can get back in the lime-light and takes Carol under his wing in helping her get back her lost monies ; Clyde Snow (Whitaker, equally giving a run for his money acting up to a full-bodied sweat, a hard-working plumber who wagers too high on his younger brother Godfrey (Cannon), a skilled high school basketball player with dreams of the NBA in his brilliant future; Augie and Murph (Mohr and Sullivan, respectively), a pair of small-time bookies who take their anger out on the welchers with quick brutal beatings; and Victor (Roth hamming it up to the hilt) as an oily big-time bookie who may be guilty in a series of murders of his competition.Also on hand are Liotta as Basinger's English lit teaching husband whose patience is growing weary thinking his wife is having an affair and their tween daughter Claudia (Brown) rebelling with her budding sexuality; Veronica (Gugino), a doctor and girlfriend to Murph who isn't aware (at first) of her beloved's violent tendencies; and Detective Brunner (Grammer in some unwisely recommended facial make-up prostheses), investigating the string of murders and the lure of a mysterious gangster/red herring named Ivan. The scattershot screenplay by newcomer Robert Tannen is all over the place and while it gets the duh point of gambling is bad for you the flat direction by vet Rydell (ON GOLDEN POND) leaves his actors grasping for air like fish out of water. The odds for the viewer to be entertained are decidedly craps.
Beautiful realistic story of an ugly gambling addiction. From my point of view, the actors did the extra needed to make this movie an Oscar nominee and another one should be given for the castings. Just couldn't be better. The movie has obviously two different parts. On the first one we get presented to the three main figures and their gambling habits, that put them in deep deep troubles almost grabbing them to grave. On the second part, it's the fight to survive. Some do, while other have to face the unavoidable... Last but definitely not least. Kim Besinger. One of few that years of acting do so great for her. Such sensitivity, charm, and precise performance. Breathless. She must have the Oscar for this one, no question about it. with lots of help from the others: Forest Whitaker, Tim Roth, Danny DeVito, Ray Liotta. Great movie.